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As I was mentioning in the comments the other day a bloke from Starbucks in Toronto came up to me and asked me to stop photographing out of the window of his Starbucks......... he was the first Starbucks employee to enforce their no photography rules on me........... normally Starbucks employees are kinda relaxed student or artist types......... nice people ....... often young people who just arent really into enforcing the North Korean concept of 'NO PHOTOS'........ they just turn a blind eye.......... let you get on with it.........
This was shot a while back in a Starbucks in San Francisco......... they were cool over there as you can imagine........... I don't want to be calling for a boycott of Starbucks by photo types after all I am a bit of a coffee fiend......... hopefully the one Stazi Starbucks man actually enforcing Starbucks 'No Photography' rules is just a one off in that Toronto place...........
On further investigation I discover this is the policy of Starbucks having previously been an outright ban :
"Customers may now take Photographs for personal use while in our stores.
Members of the media may not take photographs or film in store without permission from Starbucks Media Relations."
Ah......... its the old chestnut of you can take a photo as long as its not a good one..........
So I was merrily taking photos out of the window in the Toronto Starbucks in a personal capacity......... this was not part of my assignment I was on a break ........... so I was wrongly chucked out.......... I should sue for harassment........... sure I had a big old camera but at that moment I was not on assignment at that moment , therefore, I think I am entitled to take photos in a personal capacity no?
Or maybe I need to ring the Media Relations people........ I'm thinking of stopping for a coffee on the i95 in North Carolina exit 244........ is it OK?....... I might have a skimmed milk lattee and a cookie........ and I might shoot a photo out the window......... is that OK?
Ah yes the joy of the rise of permission culture.
Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS .......... Here is a snap by Joe on his phone from Macey's in Santa Barbara dogs are OK but photographers are not ........ http://twitpic.com/2z6tpa
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