Unblurred Google Satellite Images Is The Equivalent Of Yelling Fire?
from the say-what-now? dept
Earlier this month, we wrote about how a politician in California, Assemblyman Joel Anderson, was looking to force Google and other providers of online mapping/satellite offerings to blur images of schools, churches and government buildings. News.com ran an interview with Anderson, where he attempts to defend his proposed legislation as a matter of public safety. He claims that there is no good reason why anyone would need to clearly see these buildings online, and that it can only be used for bad purposes:Who wants to know that level of detail? Bad people do.Apparently, Anderson is the final determiner of what good people do and what bad people do with online maps. Then, when pushed on the fact that forcing companies to blur images of public locations might not pass constitutional muster, Anderson claimed that it was the equivalent of yelling fire:
But since when do you have a First Amendment right to yell fire? This falls under the same category.I'm curious how that's anywhere near the same category. One is deceiving a bunch of people with an alarming false statement, where the resulting response can put people in danger -- and the other is an accurate representation of a building. Am I missing something?
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Filed Under: blur, images, joel anderson, maps, terrorism
Companies: google
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Re: Fire in a Crowded Theatre
If you were aware of a fire, but shouted “Fire!” in a sarcastic way to not only avoid being believed, but also to pre-emptively reduce the credibility of any subsequent discoverers of the fire, then you would still be culpable for endangerment despite being literally truthful.
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Re: Re: Fire in a Crowded Theatre
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wtf will blurring help?
why not make a neon sign that says "come blow this place up!"??
militaries often leave secret facilities off of maps, so the easiest way to locate the interesting places on a military installation is to walk around and see what's not on the map.
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Re: wtf will blurring help?
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Re: wtf will blurring help?
Grow up and stop paying attention to nitwits.
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Chicken Little Syndrome
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Information, by itself, is not good or evil. And the pictures of these buildings are just information.
You want to stop the information from being used for evil? Don't stop the flow of information, stop people from being evil.
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Re: Re:
Or, they have a deeper meaning in their statement such as what Ron Paul mentioned back in the republican primaries. Basically, we should stop trying to fight against terrorism by taking away our freedoms and information, but instead, understand what caused the terrorism. Why were we attacked on 9/11, why would any country be so upset that they would kill themselves (and thousands of our innocent civilians) to make a point? We should go back to the root of the problem and solve it there. And in America's case, it is proven that we are the root of our own problems.
So, that statement isn't so crazy after all.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
Let's look at the middle east as a whole. We have US Military bases on their home/holy land. Why? because we want to stop them from attacking us here, well, that's pretty dumb, because we are pissing them off so much that they want to attack us here.
So, to stop "evil" is to stop ourselves from pissing them off. Not necessarily doing everything they ask, but hey, when they say they are pissed off about us building our own base on their "holy land" then we sure as hell better back off because nothing pisses off people more than taking a dump on the things they consider sacred.
How's that suggestion for stopping evil?
Maybe if politicians started being more honest about why people are getting so pissed off that they would blow themselves up to destroy our landmarks then we can stop some evil by spreading a little honesty and love. But no, politicians generally don't see past their brown noses and black souls.
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I have yet to see *any* evidence that any terrorist has ever actually used a picture taken in public during an attack. But it sure does add some flair to the security theater.
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You kind of have a point
Military sites are completely different. They are military domain, not public domain. In addressing your point, yes a terrorist could look at the blurred military installation and say, "I want to go there," for all the good it would do them. Civilians have attempted to do the same thing w/the blurred "area 51" and Vandenburg locations, and they don't get very far.
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thems "fight'en words" . . . LOL
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No, you're not missing something. Mr. Anderson is missing something, like common sense. That is surgically removed right after you say something like "I wish to run for elected office." It's replaced with a blind greed gland.
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Unless the building itself is blurry, there's no reason for the pictures to be blurry.
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Jeebus
Unless the satellite picture is of a fictional building, I fail to see the connection.
Heck, if we're worried about real dangers, how about GPS systems that direct people to take washed-out bridges? That's at least in the ballpark of the analogy.
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Re: Jeebus
No,
People that drive over washed out bridges because a GPS told them to need to be culled out of society any way. They are diluting the gene pool.
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blurred images
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Politicians need more stuff to do...
And, somebody, please, please, PLEASE think of the children!
;P
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i got to go blur some more of my stuff now
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Think about it.. Censorship of any form should not be tolerated! Will ill-quipped politicians in the future moan about hi res images of banks, airports, or other governmental buildings from being blocked too? Then the only thing you'll be able to see is your neighbor's backyard..
Come on goober, get with the 21st century... If you can't protect your schools or your public's trust, don't blame Google...
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Wouldn't it be ironic
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Bad news
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Yelling fire is up to the establishement
Also, look at Disneyworld/land. You can get kicked out just for sitting around looking sad all day. But that's up to them to set those rules. You might not be doing anything "wrong" but if that establishment does not want unhappy people, then by all means they are free to kick out who they please. (with exceptions of racism/sexism/sexual preference of course)
Also, this politician is an idiot.
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California Sucks
Pennsylvania has it's share of sucky politicians but it pales in comparison to California!
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Re: California Sucks
Go to any big metropolitan area in CA and just observe people, you'll quickly get an idea as to why we elect such messed up people to our public offices.
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Oh here's a NOVEL IDEA...
Stop trying to secure every last damn thing and place and just eliminate the problem at the source.
People who DO NOT recognize the rights of others to lead peaceful lives have not earned that right for themselves.
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Following the Assemblyman's reasoning shouldn't we also blur out any public building's address from the phone book? After all terrorists could use that information to actually find their way to the location!
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Take the bomb
Joking aside. I work for a municipal owned electric utility. The other day I was talking on the phone with a property owner about some work that the utility needed to do. With the help of Google's satellite and Streetview I was able to discuss certain landscaping issues we would have without having to actually meet her at the site, eliminating the need to drive the company car out to talk and saving time. I have done this numerous times with the public school system as well. Sure we have a GIS system with a flyover overlay image but the Google tools are so much better (and cheaper). Assemblyman Anderson, am I a bad person?
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Re: Take the bomb
By definition. That was really the only thing he was clear on. The rest was all fuzzy.
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No because the Australian Government owns the copyright to those images.
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Ignorance is more dangerous
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You know who is really to blame?
If a terrorist were to walk down my street he would be able to see every single building in full colour at a scale of 1:1. Scary, no?
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Re: You know who is really to blame?
:-)
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er, no we didn't. We invaded iraq because Bush made up the existence of WMD's. I guess had hadn't reached his 'needlessly killed' quota.
KevinC
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next.
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It's EXACTLY like yelling fire...
I'm getting more than a little tired of the politics of panic. It's time to put the shoe on the other foot. If you continue to propose laws inhibiting our freedoms, not to mention ourpocketboks, you WILL lose your job.
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Re:
Have to agree here. This guy obviously doesn't have kids and does not use technology.
All the time for soccer games and things I look up the location of where a game is and where the field is in relation to where we'll be parking.
Finding directions though is a 'bad thing' though I guess. I should go turn my self in I suppose.
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Security through Obscurity...
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blurry pictures
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Or...
And we think blurring buidings makes them safer? Rofl... politicians make me laugh.
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Legitimate uses
I'm guilty of conspiracy, too. I often mark the spot on the map where I'm going to be and send it to other officials so they can meet me there.
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I won't live there any longer
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..
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Blurring satellite images
We could go a step further and argue that blurring images would impede emergency workers who need the information; while a terrorist can be depended on to visit a target site before attacking, and therefore wouldn't care one way or the other.
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Is this man Clinically paranoid?
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This article
- Googlemaps (of-USA) w/ server hosted in Mumbai ?
- Googlemaps server (of-USA) w/ hosted in Islamabad?
- Googlemaps server hosted in Tehran?
- Googlemaps server with imagery provided by satellites from foreign countries?
If you have read this far, you get my point :-)
See http://official-new.com/earth/ for more information.
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"Fire!"
Who's yelling Fire here? What's the consequent damage? I don't agree with the politician at all. I love using Google Earth to wander the globe as a virtual tourist, and I don't want to see its capabilities diminished, except as necessary for reasons of public security. Much as I disagree, however, he apparently believes honestly that there is a public danger here. That's different from the theater scenario.
(Note to self: If I'm ever in a theater that actually is on fire, be sure to say, "Fire! No, really. Actual FIRE! This is not a discussion on the limits of free speech. FIRE!!!!!!!"
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that said, laws that require the editing of photos of things you can see walking down the street are censorship [and non effective anyway], and a guy who yells fire in a theater is a giant dickhead.
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