Photography is not a crime...this week

I recently discovered a blog entitled notes from the ubiquitous surveillance society. The blog, created by author David Murakami Wood, looks at how surveillance has affected urban societies throughout the world. I found the blog because of a biometrics post which indirectly referenced something I had written in Yahoo, but I suspect that my general readership would be more interested in an earlier post that Wood had written, Met Police finally admit photography is not a crime. Excerpt:

After protest and parliamentary questions, The Register reports this week that the London Metropolitan Police have finally got round to reminding their officers that it is not in fact a criminal offence for ordinary people to take photographs or video in public places, nor even to take pictures of police officers.

Read the rest here, including Wood's warning that this does not guarantee photographic freedom everywhere, or even in the United Kingdom:

[T]here are many other police forces in the rest of the country and also quasi-police (community support officers, town centre managers etc.) as well as private security, who need to recognise that the public have a right to take photographs in public....