Charles there is a new decision from the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v Spencer that states that Internet users have an expectation of privacy. While I am not answering directly because I am not a lawyer you may find this interesting to consider. Here is the case and it is not long to read. The court I think decides that the child porn distributor is committing a serious crime so his privacy can be invaded.. There are in the decision statements about an Internet user's privacy expectations that are quite clear and I welcome the courts statements. http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/14233/index.do?r=AAAAAQAjSW... On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Charles Ess <charles.ess@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear AoIRists,
I am editing a piece for a forthcoming journal issue; it includes two screenshots of tweets from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and a screenshot of the Facebook page of a politician running for office in 2014, including their pictures and names. These are public figures very intentionally engaged in a public activity in a medium that functions as a de facto public sphere (or at least an approximation thereof). There is nothing in the screenshots that could be construed as potentially embarrassing, much less libelous, much less potentially warranting protection as private.
I have gained the impression over the past few years that both in practice and in emerging guidelines codes, and law (specifically, based on what [little] I know of law surrounding freedom of speech and privacy issues in journalism in the U.S., the E.U., and Scandinavia), it is permissible to publish these without permission from the politicians in question.
At most, if these were tweets and FB pages posted by U.S. politicians aimed at U.S. voters, we would have to note that the tweets and pictures were de facto copyright by their authors; to my knowledge, however, there is no parallel requirement on this side of the pond.
Of course, it's usually when I think I know a good response to an ethical dilemma that I turn out to be missing something crucial - so: am I missing something crucial, or are we indeed on reasonably safe ground to publish the screenshots as is, no permissions required, no copyright notices included?
Many thanks in advance, - charles ess
Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern NO-0317 Oslo Norway email: charles.ess@media.uio.no
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