On notice: the public doesn’t owe you a dime

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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We post this plain pic as a way to reiterate a couple of points that we seem to keep bumping up against over and over again here at Ashvegas:

1.) If you’re out in public, we can take your picture. End of story. We don’t have to ask your permission. We don’t have to pay you. Hell, if we’re standing on a public street, we can take a picture of your private home. It’s that simple.

2.) If you’re a musician, street performer, busker or beggar doing your thing on a public street, we can take your picture. If you’re an artist showing your wares, we can take pictures of your art. There’s no copyright infringement, there’s no ownership of your own visage. We can, and will, take your picture.

If you’re performing in public, we don’t owe you a damn dime if we feel like snapping your photo. Yet some of you act as if you’re entitled to a donation. Right after we took this particular photo, one of the fiddlers’ friends motioned to us to pay up. You know what, eff you. We don’t have to if we don’t want to.

Perhaps it’s more polite to ask first and snap later. Perhaps. But by then, the photo opportunity might have passed. So shut up and deal, or take your begging off the streets.

Got it? Good.