Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Go careful with your camera!

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/two-fined-for-taking-yas-marina-racetrack-photos


So two guys have been fined for taking pictures of Yas Marina Circuit, lately possibly one of the most photographed landmarks in Abu Dhabi. This is actually quite worrying; the fact that no common sense can be applied and that a ridiculous judgment has been upheld. Apparently, according to the prosecution, there are signs prohibiting photographs. So I guess on Nov. 14th last year about 50000 people broke the law! Even more stupid is the courts statement that the onus is on the photographer to establish whether it is legal to take photographs or not. So, by default you cannot take photos of anything, unless you have established that it is legal. Seriously, who would you ask?

No doubt this will be all over The Sun and The Daily Mail in the UK tomorrow, doing their usual "Muslim bashing" , but really the authorities here bring it on themselves when they do stuff like this. For a country that is heavily reliant on tourism, and will be more so in then future, they have to stop making these ridiculous decisions that just put people off coming in case they get locked up for something innocuous.

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