Privacy scare after photo of princess posted on the INTERNET
A tiny photograph that may or may not show a member of the Japanese royal family was posted on Mixi (part of the scary internet). Somehow, this very dull photograph showing a girl in a school uniform smiling has created an uproar over what is supposedly a horrible violation of her privacy:
“It has not been confirmed whether the photo actually is of Princess Kako,” said a Gakushuin public relations official commenting on the leak. “We cannot provide any information on how the boy obtained the photograph.”
Noriyuki Kazaoka, Vice-Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency, said he hoped there would be no recurrences.
“We cannot confirm that it is (Princess Kako), but from the perspective of protecting private information, we think that generally, going ahead and posting photographs on the Internet without consent cannot be called appropriate behavior. We hope that this sort of thing does not happen again in the future.”
To view some photos of the princess that aren’t considered private, check out this Sankei article.
Related story: A bilingual tourism PR magazine published by the Japanese government has comic strips telling foreigners not to violate the rights of geisha by putting photos of them up on the internet.
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Princess who? Never heard of her before!
About the maiko – isn’t “image rights” a completely made-up concept that’s used as an excuse by Johnny’s Jimusho to keep his boys under wraps?
This kind of stuff really gives me a gigantic headache. Just get over yourselves with this image rights insanity.
Seriously. I wish they’d embrace the modern age concept of a digital public society. If people can see your face on the street, why can’t they see your face on the internet?
I have chosen not to post images of my children on the internet so I can understand a parent wanting to maintain their privacy. On the other hand since this is the royal family are they not considered famous public figures? Not really much different than a film star or politician in my opinion. I’d even say that the only purpose a royal family serves in this day and age is to attend public events and be photographed.
As for “image rights” as far as I know if a photo is taken in a public place the person photographed has no legal rights to their image unless it is to be used for profit (as in advertising for example).
I completely agree with your comments and you are basically correct regarding the law on public photography in most jurisdictions. It would also be a violation of someone’s rights to associate their image with a product, service, political party etc regardless of profit motive.
France has a privacy law against taking photos of people in public.
Interestingly, the concept of Image Rights was created by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. It allowed him to derive a substantial copyright income from the depiction of his head on Third Reich postage stamps.
Of course, the truth is that big corporations with deep pockets abuse the vague concept of image rights to try and keep total control of their assets.
On image rights… The argument I have gotten from public street performers (and presumably this is what the geisha are saying) is that professionals have a right not to have their work photographed and put on the internet because it would dilute the value of their services. It’s an iffy argument since the law actually does seem to support a broader allowance for public photography, but it’s apparently commonly invoked by big-league entertainment companies and thus has become a customary claim by performers in general.
I would be pretty suprised if geisha object to having their pictures taken (generally speaking), since they are, among other things, living tourist attractions.
Princess or not, she’s a photogenic girl.
There’s a bigger picture about halfway down on this page: http://www.yuko2ch.net/mako/mako/mako1.htm
OMG – a photo of one of the members of the useless imperial family in on the web – quick, everyone PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!
Has the Imperial Household Agency ever said or done anything that isn’t completely stupid?
More importantly, the comic shown clearly shows that all Maiko and Gaisha are ruled by the Yakuza (see the obvious Yakuza dude behind her.
Face-blurring is Japan’s solution for virtually everything.
Erm. It’s not just “face” blurring…
Because they know internet is for pr0n.
Let me see, exactly what are they trying to keep secret? I mean seriously if someone wanted to invade their privacy, a few browse through reuter’s archive would yield better photos.
That’s so sweet, you guys trying to reason your way through this kind of logic – the rules apply to this situation at this time to this person. Unless, of course, it is to their advantage to have pictures taken and posted in the future, in which case no such incident ever occurred.