Apple Store Artist Raided By Secret Service 376
An anonymous reader writes "Artist Kyle McDonald wanted to create something that captured people's expressions as they stared at computers. So the 25-year-old artist installed a program on computers in two New York Apple Store locations that would automatically take a photo every minute of whoever was standing in front of the computer. McDonald then uploaded the photos to his Tumblr blog, 'People Staring at Computers,' made a video with the photographs, and set up 'an exhibition' at the Apple stores to show what he had found. Within days, the Secret Service, which investigates computer crimes, had raided McDonald's house, seizing his two laptops, two flash drives and iPod."
Re:Double standards (Score:5, Informative)
You can, but according to one article (possibly this one, I didn't read it) they wipe every computer in the store nightly.
Complete BS. They'll wipe and reinstall whenever someone borks a display model (rare, but it happens), and they keep software updated for the most part, but they don't do full wipes every night. [source: many friends working in the Apple Store]
Re:Double standards (Score:4, Informative)
Absolutely untrue. The computers at Apple Stores have Deep Freeze on them, and they do indeed wipe themselves and re-image nightly. Source: I worked at an Apple Store and installed the images.
Re:They shouldn't have gone after him... (Score:5, Informative)
The Supreme Court disagrees with your AC opinion
The California Supreme Court disagrees.
The US Supreme Court decision was more constrained:
In American constitutional law, the Pruneyard decision is famous for its role in establishing two important rules:
under the California Constitution, individuals may peacefully exercise their right to free speech in parts of private shopping centers regularly held open to the public, subject to reasonable regulations adopted by the shopping centers
under the U.S. Constitution, states can provide their citizens with broader rights in their constitutions than under the federal Constitution, so long as those rights do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights.
In refusing to follow Pruneyard, the state supreme courts of New York and Wisconsin both attacked it as an unprincipled and whimsical decision. In 2003, the European Court of Human Rights also considered and refused to follow Pruneyard in a United Kingdom case.
Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins [wikipedia.org]
I think a distinction can be made between the interior of the stores that border the commons and the commons itself.
I do not like deception. Using bait used to draw subjects to the hidden camera. Public performance without the knowledge or consent of the participants. This does have the look or smell of "free speech."