Although not recent, the following news article from a Canadian news source may be of interest. Particularly to those who spend any amount of time doing street photography.

Herein begs the question: do you ask for permission? If so, when do you ask - before taking the shot or afterwards? If you don't ask for permission - would you sell a copy or two of the photo?

Although I am new to the Pittsburgh area, I've learned quickly there are places where one cannot do any street, or family shots, photography. Prime example: the fountain area at PPG Place where security guards will come out of the woodwork if they see anything remotely looking like a camera (but I don't see them barring cellphone use and today many cellphones have built-in digital cameras). I can take photos around PPG place - just certain areas appear to be "photography restricted". I've also been asked not to take photos of a street (literally, I was taking photos of a brick street) in a residential area outside of Pittsburgh. The only reason for that request is, apparently, some of the residents along that street feel that people, in general, in that area do not practice, or do, photography.

So you got one of those newfangled digital cameras and you've gone snaphappy, shooting photos of friends, relatives, strangers, pedestrians, squirrels, buildings, trees and fellow party animals. Then you send them around or pop them up on a Web site.

You might consider slowing down.

Little known fact about life in Quebec: if you don't have official permission from the people who appear in your photos, they can sue you for making such images public. And that applies even if you were to e-mail the picture to a few friends, or put it on a little-frequented Web site.

Quebec is the only place in North America where photographers are required to get permission* from the subjects of photographs that will be presented to the public. The only situations where such a permission is not mandatory is when the photo is of a crowd, if it's considered legitimate news or considered to be in the public interest.

... "The whole story of street photography is based on images taken on the street without permission," he says. "The most beautiful photos are taken on the street just like that. When you ask permission, it's no longer natural. I feel that if the photo is degrading, then I can understand people objecting, but if it's somebody walking on the street eating an ice cream on a hot day or something, then it's not defamatory, there's nothing wrong with it."

Nowadays, [media lawyer, Mark Bantey] says, people whose image appears in a paper without their permission - even when it's an image of a crowd shot or news report - are calling up media outlets to complain, asking for a payoff. "It has become a cottage industry," says Bantey.