DV Info Net - There are not seperate laws that just pertain to news crews!

I have read numerous posts where people state that there are a different set of laws that apply to news crews vs. your regular everyday guy with a camera. This is absolutely not true, at least not here in the U.S.

SHOOTING PEOPLE:
If you are on public property, you can photography anyone who is visible to you as long as that person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. You can not go into a public bathroom and videotape people. Just because they are in public, in the bathroom they clearly have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Also, public property is different than public spaces. For example a shopping mall has public spaces, but it is private property. TV News crews are frequently by the property owners from shooting in this public space. It should also be noted that just because you can legally videotape someone, that does not mean you can use that image however you want. For example, you can not show a close up of a specific person and imply he/she is actually someone else, commited a crime, or has some disease- this could be considered slander and that is illegal.

SHOOTING LOGOS:
Once again, if you are on public property and the logo is visible, you do not have to worry about that logo being in your video. What you can't do is zoom in on the logo, crop it, and try to use that logo as your own. Also, the company that owns the logo can sue you for libel/slander just like an individual can if you are saying stuff that is untrue about their business.

About the only thing U.S. law specifically says about news is under copyright law, while discussing "fair use" where a news organization may use copyrighted material to review it, or if it is important to a news story. However, this fair use applies to everyone. If you have a blog that you report news on, you too can claim fair use.

Another note to keep in mind, people do sue. News organizations get sued all the time for shooting a logo, or shooting people on public property, and for using copyrighted material even if they are in accordance with fair use laws. News organizations tend to have lots of lawyers who specialize in protecting their rights and defending them in such cases. Even though you have the same rights they do, it is worth keeping in mind that you if someone does decide to sue you that a lawsuit can cost alot of money to defend, even if you win.