User:Hiàn/streetphotography/canada
Over the course of a few years of taking photos, I've taken several photographs within the field of street photography. This is a page outlining what you may choose to do if you happen to be affected by one such photograph, specifically one that was taken in Canada.
As a disclaimer, I'll note: I am not a legal expert and this is an interpretation of the applicable laws and policies.
Interpretation
editRelevant policies are Commons:Photographs of identifiable people and Commons:Country specific consent requirements#Canada. Something worth noting is: none of the photographs available on Wikimedia Commons taken by myself were taken for commercial purposes (i.e. I was not paid).
Copyright
editThe copyright of such photographs are typically within one of three licenses: the Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution 3.0 license, the Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution 4.0 license, or the Creative Commons Zero Public Domain licenses. What this means is that the photos are freely usable by all, subject to restrictions. Certain rights related to the use of the photo have been waived by myself.
Per the Canadian Copyright Act (with its 2012 amendment), copyright is owned by the creator of the photograph, not by the subject unless in particular cases, such through a paid contract. Subjects typically do not own the copyright to images. Ontario, in particular, does not have a law giving each subject a right to their image, meaning that the copyright is owned by the photographer/creator of the image.
Personality rights
editPer Commons:Country specific consent requirements#Canada, taking a photograph of an identifiable person in a public space is permitted, as is the publication of such a photograph with restrictions.
This page applies to photographs taken in public places. Generally the publication of photos with subjects taken in a public space does not need consent. Per CIPPIC.ca consent is generally needed - the exceptions are for journalistic, artistic or literary purposes. The argument is that the street photographs in question fall under the artistic or literary exceptions. Each photograph on Wikimedia Commons can be used to illustrate particular Wikidata items or Wikipedia articles, hence falling under the literary criterion.
British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have legislation allowing individuals the right to pursue legal action. Furthermore in Quebec street photographs cannot be published without the subject's consent. Special care has been taken to ensure any street photographs from the former have not been uploaded here. Any photographs from the latter will have had express permission from the subjects.
Identifiability
editIf the file in question has a "Personality rights warning" tag, then it can be reasonably assumed the subject is identifiable.
If it doesn't then it can be considered that there is nothing identifiable (i.e. back of person's head, out of focus person).
Existing photographs
editToronto Transit Commission
editThe relevant Toronto Transit Commission by-law, 3.17 states that: "No person shall operate for commercial purposes any camera, video recording device, movie camera, or any similar device upon any vehicle or premises of the Commission without authorization."[1] Photographs available here were not taken for a commercial purpose - furthermore the TTC website states, "Tourists, families and individuals filming and photographing within the public areas of the transit system for non-commercial purposes, are not expected to contact the TTC to obtain permission or a permit so long as such filming/photographing does not interfere with the safe and orderly operation of the transit system and/or our customers."[2]
An AmbientLight page states that the Security of Information Act applies. While the argument can be made that these photographs can "endanger the lives, health or safety of Canadians"[3] there is no intent to cause harm or interfere with the country. In the course of my taking photos there has never been a case where a photo was uploaded of a private/sensitive area - all photographs taken were of areas publicly accessible.
Issues and where to raise them
editIf you still have issues, you are more than welcome to raise them with me at my user talk page. Alternatively if a private venue is preferred, my email is zhangj10792@gmail.com. I believe in courtesy removals if necessary and if you would rather not have an image of this sort then please feel free to contact me.