No, no, no! The NT are being very clear on this - if you breach their bye-laws you are committing a
criminal offence. They have the same powers to create bye-laws on their land as local councils do on theirs and breach of said bye-laws is a criminal offence, not a civil one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kiltoncomp  lets hope thats all it is,
in the unlikely event that it does become reality, would photographs taken before this came into effect be included or would they be exempt, with something similar grandfather rights etc?, |
Unfortunately, the bye-law they are quoting in order to back up this outrageous policy dates from 1965 so, yes, they can apply it retrospectively for at least the last 34 years.
There is also some suggestion that they are trying to make it apply to photographs
of NT land not just taken from NT land. It just keeps getting more and more outrageous.
The bye-law in question comes under the heading of "Hawking" and was intended to prevent visitors to National Trust properties from being pestered by people offering to take their picture for a fee. It was never intended to protect the NT's income from its own picture library and there is considerable doubt about whether the NT can legally do this. See
National Trust byelaws in a twist | Copyright Action
My own view is that, unless they get their knuckles rapped and back down very quickly then we need a mass protest similar to the one staged by press photographers recently when the new law about photographing policemen came in. They all congregated outside New Scotland Yard and photographed everything in a uniform that went in or out.
Final point - they don't own any of this land, they hold it in trust for the nation. That's you, me and every other British citizen. Perhaps they need reminding of this fact.
Dave P.