Toe Tag,
Let me start by saying that I’m not a lawyer, so it is possible that I may be incorrect. Perhaps one of our other members, TP49 who is better versed in the law may jump in here later today.
That said however, Amtrak is a public conveyance and not a private one. In fact public money helps to keep Amtrak running. Public implies, open to the public and therefore a lesser degree of privacy. Based upon your interpretation of the law, the mere act of an undercover police officer taking a photo of a person committing a crime while on board the train or in the station would now require him to first obtain a search warrant. Since there is the very real expectation that any photo taken of the criminal would end up in the local newspaper and/or on their website. That officer would also then have to track down and obtain the permission of every other passenger in that photo before it could be used in court as evidence.
As another example, one pays good money to enter any of the theme parks at Walt Disney World. If that entitled you to privacy, then no one would ever be able to take a picture while at Disney. It’s simply not possible to take a picture without someone that you don’t know ending up in your picture. Yet these days many people post their vacations pictures on the web for friends and family to see. There are even several websites that make doing this easy. Yes you may have intended for the picture to only be viewed by your friends and family, but once they are up anyone can take a peek if they like. If one plans to venture out into public areas, then having your photo taken is a risk that you must assume.
Yes I do think that you should ask the permission of anyone that you plan to feature prominently in a photo, such as your waiter in the dining car. It’s also common courtesy to ask first. However to obtain the permission of every person in the periphery of your photo, while they are in a public place is unreasonable.
Now if the person taking a picture stands to profit from said picture, then it’s a whole new ball game. A current example involving the Internet and photos for profit is Alyssa Milano the actress. Alyssa and her mother have created an organization whose sole function is to keep people from profiting from nude pictures of Alyssa and many other actresses. There have been many photos of Alyssa nude floating around the net over the past few years. These include screen captures from movies that she has done, a few by the tabloids, and some that an enterprising computer person cut and pasted together.
To my knowledge, they have only succeeded in forcing the removal of her pictures from websites under two circumstances. One is where the photo was doctored. The other is when someone is profiting from Alyssa’s image. However in the case of pictures that were screen captures of her nude scenes in a movie, unless the site was charging admission, Alyssa’s mom has been unsuccessful at forcing the removal of the pictures from the website.
Finally the reason that many public transportation systems are currently banning picture taking is due more to heightened security since 9/11, than the publics right to privacy. They don’t want terrorists taking pictures of possible targets. This is also an area that many civil rights groups are either currently challenging or planning to challenge.
Ps. Where on Greyhound site did you find that policy? I went through many of the pages on their site and couldn’t find it. Could you please provide a link to the page.