Taking Pictures At Starbucks: Part 1 of ?

Lawrence Lessig was a bit upset yesterday at the prospect of Starbucks not allowing pictures to be taken inside of their stores.

I wonder what would happen if hundreds of people from around the country experimented this holiday weekend by taking pictures at their local Starbucks …

Sounded like a plan to me. I went to my nearest Starbucks right away to take some pictures -- moving pictures that is -- to help out with the experiment.

I had no problems whatsoever from the Starbucks staff while having my picture taken. They were their usually cheery selves behind the counter while everyone else in the store watched as I danced around holding up my venti iced soy latte.

Another customer took the shots of me, so they're a little shaky (even shakier than normal :-)

Tomorrow I'll have more time to visit a few more locations.

Perhaps you can do the same at a Starbucks in your town :-)

(When you do, be sure to post them to Larry's comment page.)

Taking Pictures Inside Starbucks - 24th St (Small - 2 MB)
Taking Pictures Inside Starbucks - 24th St (Hi-Res - 11 MB)

"We still live in a free society! Yay!"

Here is the full text in case the link goes bad:

http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/2003_05.shtml#001223

dear Starbucks, say it ain’t true?

So I have this from an extremely reliable source, who vouches totally for the facts that follow.

Story one: Last month while visiting Charleston, three women went into a Starbucks. They were spending the weekend together and one of them had a disposable camera with her. To commemorate their time with one and other they decided to take round robin pictures while sitting around communing. The manager evidently careened out of control, screaming at them, “Didn’t they know it was illegal to take photographs in a Starbucks. She insisted that she had to have the disposable camera because this was an absolute violation of Starbuck’s copyright of their entire ‘environment’--that everything in the place is protected and cannot be used with Starbuck’s express permission.

Story two: At our local [North Carolina] Starbucks, a friend’s daughter, who often has her camera with her, was notified that she was not allowed to take pictures in any Starbucks. No explanation was given, but pressed I would think that the manager there would give a similar rationale.

I wonder what would happen if hundreds of people from around the country experimented this holiday weekend by taking pictures at their local Starbucks …

posted on [ May 23 03 at 2:10 PM ] to [ bad code ] [ 43 comments ]

Posted by Lisa at May 24, 2003 06:32 PM | TrackBack