Disneyland bans pictures in its parking lots

No taking photos in the s33kr1t Disneyland parking lots! I mean, sure, they're full of CCTVs taking pictures of you, but just because you're paying $80 for the day, plus $10 to park, why should you feel free to steal the Mouse's precious, precious parking-lot photons? After all, those photos could be used by Al Quaeda to coordinate a strike on the Mouse House!

At the time I marveled that these were now ten years old--and I remember parking in the lot when it was brand new. Just as I took this photo, however, a Security Cast Member in a patrol unit approached me (well, he stopped a ways away and shouted through a rolled-down window) and told me photography was not permitted there. Since that statement didn't make any sense, my first reaction was to question why that was. As I evaluated the possible responses, I thought "security" or "because I said so" would be what I'd get, so I complied and continued walking. I brought this up to appropriate people, who agreed there is no blanket prohibition of photography there. I wonder what secrets are hidden in this Pinocchio sign that are waiting to be discovered?

Link (Thanks, John!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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napoleon of saskatchewan

How can you be sure that’s 2F? His nose is much too long for my liking.
miakeru

They’re watching you from the Downtown Disney parking lot, too:

http://flickr.com/photos/miakeru/2351064890/
CS Loser

I’m having trouble getting outraged about this. Presumably these parking lots are private property and it’s perfectly legitimate to make rules about photography on private property. If you don’t like that, don’t go to Disneyland. I’m saving my outrage for police who demand camera licenses on public streets.

What surprises me is that anyone cares about this particular case; I had been under the impression that the sort people who actually went to Disneyland were the most sheep-like demographic of Americans who would happily accept any arbitrary rule.
Jeff

Are they afraid people could use the pictures to find their car? I do that at the airport all the time.
Keneke

So you brought it up to the appropriate people who confirmed your right to take pictures, but titled the article “Disneyland bans pictures in its parking lots” anyway.
Rellimz

Hi I’m a long time lurker, first time poster. Now that that’s out of the way… I have a curiosity about Joe Canada’s experiences with similar situations. Is this just an American and British epidemic of stripping away freedoms? Have any Canadian Boingboingers run into this on home turf?

Just curious. For all you Brits and Americans, I’m not trying to give a backhanded “See, we’re more free than you”. Obviously both countries have seen attacks on home turf and your governments and corporations are using that as a way of scaring people into relinquishing liberties. I’m genuinely interested to know if this is trickling into the Canadian continence of law enforcement and security.
Rotwang

We are apparently now living in the era of “Laws Pulled from the Asses of the Power-Mad.”
Takuan

how come nobody stands around in parking lots snapping away, one ear on cell phone.

Whene the pencil neck in the Barney Fife cap show up with the “You can’t do that here”, you sudden whirl, start yelling into the cell that “They made us!”
Round that time,your dozen confederates fire the rock an roll pyro pots and blow smoke and confetti eveywhere and the cars with loudest stereos all hit Play on Ironman, meanwhile, the parked van back doors fly open and a dozen scantily clad show girls burst out and start a plush animal fight. Then dozens more ecamera people make a large ring and advance flashes blazing on the now quivering renta-nerd.
ekppp

The Disney Goons are everywhere.

I used to work in the Portland Saturday Market. They came under the Burnside bridge, stating that they were lawyers, and badgered one of the vendors about the Disney character goo-gaws she was selling. Of course, she was _selling_ Disney character goo-gaws, and she knew she sold more goo-gaws with Disney characters than without…

Also, in 1989, they ran a friend of mine out of the Disneyland parking lot for getting stoned. That, too, is probably reasonable behavior on their part.

Still, goons is goons, and goons in a golf cart saying “give us all the drugs” is funny.
nonford150

Reminds me of a recent trip to WDW. I’ve a backpack which always gets too heavy by the end of the day due to a back injury, so I got a luggage cart and tote the backpack around on it. This was fine in the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT and Blizzard Beach.

I got to Hollywood Studios and was told I would not be allowed to use the luggage cart. When I asked why, I got the standard “because we said so” answer. They referred me to Guest Services, who told me this was a front gate call. Typical Disney runaround. I left Guest Services, entered the park, and used the cart the whole day without one person saying a word to me. I even left the front gate with the cart and walked to the boat, saying goodbye to the gatekeeper @ the exit.

I chalked it up to someone who just wanted a taste of power.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

FlamingPhoneBook (8, 16), are you just arguing to hear yourself type?

CSLoser @24:

Presumably these parking lots are private property and it’s perfectly legitimate to make rules about photography on private property.

If you’re saying it’s a simple rule, I’ll disagree and say it’s nowhere near that simple. If you weren’t saying that, never mind.
Inverse Square

Well now, I’ve never seen that image of pinocchio before. That image of pinocchio is a part of what you are paying to see, and what others may be less likely to pay to see if you show it to them.

Not that it isn’t ludicrous. But it’s not as ludicrous moon logic-driven as what some copyright claims have to be to merit a boing boinging.
Susan Oliver

I had been under the impression that the sort people who actually went to Disneyland were the most sheep-like demographic of Americans

I think you’re labouring under a misimpression, then. Disneyland and WDW attract all sorts of different demographics – remember the Goth day? It’s a fun thing to do, and a fun place to go.

I think it’s completely appropriate to title this post “Disneyland bans pictures in its parking lots”. Sure, once contacted, the “appropriate people” (Guest Services?) said that there is no ban, but that didn’t help this guy when he was actually in the parking lot. Goon authority won out over real authority.
Stacyj

Banning photography in a parking lot isn’t ludicrous enough to merit a boing boinging? What? Surely there’s some sarcasm going on here that my sad American mind just isn’t capable of detecting, yes? Please tell me that there’s some sarcasm going on here that my sad American mind just isn’t capable of detecting …
Sleestak

I figure this is inevitable: http://thatsmyskull.blogspot.com/2008/01/future-of-drm-and-copyright.html
Wynda

Jeff, I do the same thing at the airport or any “tourist” place. I have the digital camera, and a terrible memory.
JJR1971

No, I think he’s saying it IS enough to merit a boing boinging, just that there’s plenty worse that also merits it even more.

Or something like that.

What an ugly mashup of copyright gone mad now mingled with absolutist property rights. Perfect storm of silly resulting from the devaluation and degradation of a truly public sphere.
flamingphonebook

It may be newsworthy, but is it really worth condemnation? After all, when AT&T data-mines its Internet traffic, it’s customary to claim privacy and call AT&T the bad guys, with which I’m inclined to agree. Isn’t this the same issue? One shouldn’t have to give a reason for a decision over one’s personal property, whether the one is a private citizen or a corporation that owns a theme park. If “because I said so” is a good enough reason to say, “Stop snooping my browsing!”, it’s a good enough reason to say, “Don’t take pictures of our parking lot.”
aturley

I remember being at a Survival Research Labs show a few years back and being asked to stop taking pictures because my camera looked “professional”. I wonder if anybody on BB knows anybody at SRL who could explain the differences between this and that.
Wingo

Ha!! I actually did still have that DL parking lot photo on my phone:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2825/disneylandyb1.jpg

And #24 (CS LOSER) – that’s quite an unfair assessment. Having grown up primarily in SoCal, DL happens to evoke many fond memories of childhood for me, and many others I know. It’s fun to go back now and then and rekindle those.

Perhaps in the 70′s my parents belonged to the so-called “sheep-like demographic of Americans”, but then so was anyone in SoCal with kids. And I’m sure I begged them mercilessly to take me there.
steamed punk

@ #8,

This is absolutely worth condemnation. When people get mad with power, it best to call them out early and often.

This is a great illustration of the slippery slope phenomenon. First no pictures in the Dizney parking lot, then no pictures in the park but those taken buy Dizney approved photographers (probably will have to pay extra for that privilege), then maybe they will allow only the pictures of whose content they approve (maybe only happy times will be deemed consistent with their brand positioning as the happiest place on Earth).

I use my phone camera all the time to remember where I parked. If that is banned can I write on paper my parking location? How many details will I be allowed before the depiction becomes too life-like? Will the terrorists respond by recruiting sketch artists? Is a ban on colored pencils and inevitable?
Maddy

Could it be that people have been so into their picture taking, they pose a risk with cars whizzing by? I could see that point brought up in a theme park meeting where anyone who shouts out a warning about any risk is rewarded …
Jeff

So what happens when we just wear our cameras like sun glasses? The technology is almost there, using blinks and other triggers to interface with the camera’s computer. So are we going to have to give up looking at things? Pictures are just ancillary devices that our brains use to remember. Is it memory that London or Disney is fighting? And we all get to vote with our money.
Anonymous

I just Google mapped WDW and I could see the entire parking lot and the rest of the park. Can’t wait for the Google vs Disney court battle!!
Brian Damage

My favourite unexpected benefit of having a cell phone camera is taking a picture of the guy who parks in an inconsiderate fashion in the spot next to me.
Jackasimov

I still don’t see how it’s legal to stop someone from photographing anything. It’s not the act of taking the picture that’s objectionable, it’s the sale or display of.

I wish the ACLU or someone would get involved. It’s not the most heinous act ever perpetrated in the name of totalitarianism but it is another step up the ladder.
mikelotus

well if they actually had good cameras in the parking lot at Disney World’s Downtown Disney when it first opened, my cousin’s wife’s son might have seen more justice. He was shot and killed in the parking lot by another Disney employee who was evidently a psychotic wacko. When she tried to sue Disney for not doing any real vetting of their employees, lawyers in Orlando told her the sheriff’s department would not cooperate and no lawyer was going to ruin their career in Orlando by going after Disney. Perhaps if their had been film to make the local news, things might have turned out different and Disney would have been willing to make proper amends. But Disney sure did not want anyone to know that they sometimes hire psychotics as employees.
Jim K

You do realize, of course, that the next ban will be on taking pictures in their park!

Please tell me this is all just a bad joke!

Sorry, I just can’t take it seriously.

Gee…I wonder if someone got a bonus for this idea!

TALK ABOUT BEING GOOFY!!!!!!!!!
Rick.

This calls for a Flickr group of that entire parking lot.
donopolis

I find this especially amusing as I thought that being a vacation destination Disney would know that pictures might be taken on the property. It seems as if someone may have known this at tone time or another…see they actually created interesting things to see all over the park including the parking lot.

I doubt very seriously if there is actually a rule against photographing the parking lot. I find it more likely, by far, that this is yet another over zealous security creep.

Don
flamingphonebook

@#10

Well, then flip it around. Individuals are going “mad with power” over their private data. Next thing they’ll start requiring their ISP to encrypt all traffic in the modem/router, and they’ll make those ISPs pay for the privilege. They’ll demand billing with no identifying data like name, address, or account number. Then they’ll say that you can data mine our browsing of boingboing, but not our porn.

Why is an individual’s power over himself and his property less insidious and less likely to be a slippery slope than a company’s power over itself?
Bobdotcom

Al Czervik: “Hey, Wang! What’s with the pictures?
It’s a parking lot! Come on.”
thericketandoo

I have taken countless photos in Disney parking lots and I’ve never had an issue.
Wareq

Ahh, sweet photons. I don’t know whether you’re particles or waves, but you sure do go down easy.
steamed punk

@16,

Yes, I can see how all the trends pointing to the ever increasing concentration of power in the hands of consumers can be frightening.

How in the world are all of the companies ever going to make money? Poor poor Disney, however will they make it in a world like this?

You example being particularly pertinent given the weakness of those poor ISPs, like Comcast and AT&T. What did they ever do that would warrant skepticism on the part of their customer…?
themindfantastic

I think the fact that a lot of Disney goers would like to remember their time at a Disney attraction by helping capture the memory of such an event using cameras and the like starts to impede on what could be understood as everyday living. Are we now going to have Weddings which when someone else wants to take a picture the authorized wedding photogapher claims sole rights to their job and bans everyone from taking pictures of the bride and groom, and they have to buy the pictures from the photographer to have that special day remembered. You find yourself on vacation and meet some cool people and see really cool things but aren’t allowed to take a photograph because its illegal to do so everywhere and of everyone? Photography has been around over a hundred years and it seems that misunderstood legalese is slowly annexing it into oblivion.
nic

I habitually take photos of parking lot signs.

That way I can actually find my car again at the end of the day.
The Big Fez

#23, it has been my experience that more often than not, those things are raised and no one is in them. The windows are tinted, but not so much that you can’t see in them during the day. But the biggest clue to me is if the air conditioner is running. Even at night, that thing would be a hot box without AC.
They can be spotted in the theme park parking lots too.
I like to think that it can crawl around like a big robo-security spider.
Wingo

The ONLY way I can ever find my way back to the car at Disneyland is by taking a photo with my camera phone. That parking lot is gargantuan.

I probably still have the photo on my phone from the last time – it’s about the only thing I use my camera phone for.
Bitgod

I’ve heard of the “professional” rule before, there’s been chatter in past years on a San Jose Sharks mailing list. Some people like to take pictures at the game, and sometimes they may get walked up to, usually I think the determining factor was how big the lens was. Bigger isn’t always better. :)