Photographing private or special property from public places In the US, does a person photographing private property (houses, farms etc.) while standing on public ground (road, park etc.) commit any offence? If they do not, will they commit any offence by publishing the photos (think Streisand effect)? There are a couple of similar questions here (one, two) but those are for Australia. Please also consider these variations: The owner of the property (or security staff etc.) comes out and asks to stop (or even demands to delete the photos) — can the photographer legally ignore them? Telephoto lens and tripod is used — potentially capable of zooming into details of what is inside the property. To avoid digging too deep into this let's assume that if something really private is caught on the camera (e.g. couple having sex), the photographer only keeps the pictures but never publishes them; People are in the frame, e.g. a man mowing his lawn; Special property (e.g. military base, power plant, railways etc.) is in the frame. If the answer varies greatly from state to state, please focus on Tennessee, North/South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
In the US, does a person photographing private property (houses, farms etc.) while standing on public ground (road, park etc.) commit any offence? No. In general, while standing on public land, it is legal for your eyes to glance onto everything around you. You cannot be arrested and imprisoned for allowing your gaze to pass over your neighbours lawn. It is legal for you to take out a tripod, canvas and paintbrushes and paint the general scene, even if it includes, for example, a tree standing on private land. Instead of a paintbrush, you may use a camera to create a picture of the scene. There are a few exceptions Some military installations Some installations operated by the department of energy (e.g. some nuclear power stations) You cannot photograph people where they have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" - Note that this is not dependant on how the people feel about it. You can photograph a couple kissing at a bus stop, you probably can't legally point a telephoto lens at their bedroom window through a broken privacy-fence. will they commit any offence by publishing the photos They may need copyright permission from the owners of any identifiable works of art included and may need model releases from identifiable people included. There are specific exceptions allowing the publishing of photographs of sculptures and buildings that are visible from public spaces. See The Photographer's Right
Can the council cut down a tree I plant on common land? Yes. When you plant a tree on common land, you are making a donation to the commons and the tree is no longer yours. The fact that it is common land resolves the question. This is really obvious in the fact pattern where you plant a tree in middle of Hyde Park, and is less obvious, but still true, in the fact pattern in the question. But, be aware that lots of land that is commonly believed to be common land (particularly in the fact pattern in the question), is in fact, private land subject to an easement in favor of the public. There is a fair amount of micro-variation in the common ownership v. private land with easement norm between different neighborhoods in the same municipality, that flows largely from customary practice at the time that particular neighborhoods were developed and deeded (which can span more than a thousand years in some U.K. cities), which has gone back and forth over time. Where there is private land subject to a public easement, a property owner would retain ownership of the land and the tree, subject only to limitations associated with the easement. But, those limitations might very well authorize the Council to remove or cut down the tree to further the purpose of the easement (e.g. if it was blocking a sidewalk with its growth, or threatened utilities for which the easement was created). Of course, in some circumstance, the Council can enforce general regulatory laws that authorize cutting down trees on private land (e.g. tree infected with something that could spread to all trees of that type in the area). Also, it is possible that some public land by be under the control of an entity other than a Council, like a neighborhood association, or another governmental entity (e.g. in the case of a verge along family housing on a military base, or in the case of rental properties on land derived from by a university's land, or in housing associated with a royal palace). In those cases, somebody with responsibility for the land could cut down the tree, but not the local Council.
The California Constitution gives you the right to privacy, but your neighbor also has the right to have cameras on his house. https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/privacy-laws That means that it is up to the courts to balance those rights. If you did go to court, the judge would have to look at the cameras and decide if they significantly violated your right to privacy in regard to audio and video. Just because the camera can see part or all of your yard doesn't make them illegal, because the neighbor has the right to record his property and may not be able to avoid recording your yard. If the cameras can be re-positioned to only see your neighbor's yard the judge might order that. You would have to show it would not violate his right to record while it substantially violates your right to privacy though. Audio is different because it can pick up conversations. California requires you to notify people when you record their conversations in a place where they would be expected to be private. If the camera is recording your conversations, that would be illegal.
In my opinion, you are totally free to publish the information. There are two areas of law that can be cosidered - private and public law. In the private law area, you can be liable for revealing trade secrets, but only if you agreed to keep them by a contract. Trade secrets do not exist by themselves (there are minor exceptions, eg. in competition law, but those do not concern us), they must be protected by contracts. Another private limitations, like libel laws, won't apply here. This is not uncommon, but not in cars - you can find clauses like these in software license agreements. Then there is the public area. Is there any regulation, any policy of the state, that prevents you from publishing it? I am not aware you whole legal code of your state, but I doubt there is. It would be a harsh limitation of freedom of speech. Even if the modification could lead to illegal effect (like, modifying toy weapon to kill by rising its power...) it would be only illegal under very rare circumstances. To conclude it - freedom of speech can be limited only if there is sufficient public interest to do so, and I don't see any.
This depends on the law of the specific jurisdiction, but there is non-trivial similarity in those rules across the US. The general rule is that the person who owns the property must maintain the property. There are often local ordinances that explicitly say that, for example this which is the legal mechanism behind this guidance on tree-trimming. A municipality can do the trimming, or they can send official letters to property owners telling them to trim the bushes. It does not matter whether the sign is on your property via an easement, what matters is where the tree is. You are not responsible for trimming your neighbor's tree if the stop sign is on your property.
This very much depends on where you are. Different jurisdictions have wildly different laws about this. Some places are very permissive. You can record a conversation that you aren't even a party to so long as nobody has any reasonable expectation of privacy. In others, affirmative consent is required from every party to a conversation before it's legal to record it. The laws run the entire spectrum. Some places allow you to record anything you're a party to without permission, but you can't record others' conversations. Some places require you to disclose, but not obtain explicit permission. Some allow you to record but restrict who you can disclose it to. Some allow you to record or ban recording only under certain circumstances. It's a really wide gamut of laws. Since you don't say where you are, who you're recording, or why, there's no way to really answer the question. Here's a good rundown on the United States. This Wikipedia article covers lots of different countries, but only with regard to phone calls.
It probably is infringement, assuming that this is being done by copying parts of a broadcast of the game. It is up to the holder of the copyright on the original broadcast that is being condensed to decide whether to sue or take other action, such as a takedown notice. Perhaps the holder thinks this is good advertising for its business. They have the right to make that decision. Now if a person went to the game, and used a personal camera to film it, and posted excepts of that recording, the legal issues would be very different. The ticket probably includes a provision prohibiting filming and photography, so this would be a breech of contract. But it would not be copyright infringement. (In practice if this were spotted, the person would be required to stop recording or leave, at least.)
Copyright in a photo belongs to the photographer, not to the subject. A picture of S (the subject) is not S's property in any sense, unless the photographer has given or sold it to S. If the photo was linked to information about S, it might be personal Data under the GDPR (or UK-GDPR) if so, S could request erasure, but various exceptions might apply. But even then S would not aquire the right to distribute or copy the image, or any of the other parts of copyright.