Who other than expressing an opinion, like most of us here have, can do nothing. First of all this site is neither owned, operated, nor financed in any way by Amtrak. Secondly, so far this is only a discussion. No pictures have actually been posted. Third, I’m sure that Amtrak Legal has far more important things to worry about than a BB discussion. However, if they were to express an opinion, I for one would be happy to read it. Fourth as Seajay pointed out, you’ve got thousands of sites out there all of which have pictures posted and so far I’ve heard of no cases being filed against them.Guest said:This discussion has been referred to Amtrak Legal.
Fifth, to my knowledge Amtrak has no policy on taking pictures. If they do, then they done a terrible job of educating their employee’s as I’ve seen many people ask an employee to take a picture. Even if Amtrak were to decide to change their policy, to include a no picture rule, it still wouldn’t matter in this case. The rule cannot be made retroactive. Sixth, we are not talking about a picture of a single person featured prominently in the photo. The subject of the photo is the train, not the crowd.
Seventh, buying a ticket does not entitle you to a right to privacy. If it did, then as I’ve suggested, Disney World would be forced to ban all pictures while you are a guest on their property. Eighth, not all stations are owned by Amtrak, many are owned by the freight RR’s or by the towns in which the station sits. Going beyond that, I could just be standing on a bridge over the station and take a picture. So in both of those cases, I have no Amtrak ticket and I’m not on Amtrak property, so Amtrak can do nothing.
Ninth and perhaps most important, this is all about a right to privacy, an individual’s right to privacy. It’s not about Amtrak’s right to privacy. Only an individual who finds his/her picture up on the net could bring about a suit if they feel that their right to privacy was violated. Amtrak cannot sue on behalf of a passenger and in fact if such a suit were brought, Amtrak would probably end up being one of the defendant’s along with the photographer and the website in question.