On Sat, 2007-01-13 at 05:30 -0700, Bob Axtell wrote:
> > Oh well, still, only thing I use my phone for, despite it having a
> > camera, video, games, etc. is phone calls, and texts. I guess I'm still
> > in the stone age.
> >   
> 
> I'm in the stone age, too Herbert. And I consider the video phone a 
> legal liability, because people
> are being photographed without their knowledge or permission.

Hmm, I always found this position on video phones interesting.

Why did the creation of a video phone change anything? There have been
VERY small video cameras available for a long time, the only thing the
video phone has done is made them mainstream.

Does this mean more people will be tempted to do illegal things? That's
perhaps true, but I'll say that people with these sorts of urges find
the urges build up until they search out a way to perform the criminal
act.

OTOH, I believe video phones are VERY good for society. Thanks to video
phones everyone in public interested in doing something naughty has to
deal with the fact that someone may be recording. A good example was a
recent incident in a library in a university where a student was being
asked to leave by the university cops and was completely mistreated.
Thanks to a video phone the university cops had no room to lie. I like
that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lARW9r5V29s

I do agree it's a slippery slop though, do the benefits outweigh the
risks? I personally think so.

That said, probably 99.99999% of video phones are used by teenagers
filming each other singing REALLY badly....

TTYL

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