Filed under: Retail, Cult of Mac, Bad Apple, Apple
Apple Fan "thrown out" of Glasgow Apple Store
The anonymous Tartan Podcaster of his eponymous blog writes that he was asked to leave the Glasgow Apple Store after taking pictures of iPods and MacBook Pros. An Apple Store employee informed him that it was illegal to take pictures of Apple products and post them online and indicated that he should leave the store.
I doubt the employee had any authority to suggest that take-down notices would soon target Flickr accounts. Regardless, the photos are beautiful. This image of the curving staircase is my absolute favorite.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Billy K said 1:16PM on 9-28-2007
This shit is really getting ridiculous.
Was this week the tipping point?
Reply
tim said 1:28PM on 9-28-2007
i used to work at banana republic, and we had the same policy. NO pictures. it was so strict, we couldnt event tell anyone details about the pictures we had on the walls, or the name of the color pain on our walls (BR has a copyright on that exact shade).
why dont you people realize this is business? with companies like creative coming out with things that look EXACTLY like a shuffle, they HAVE to have rules like this. we just cant go all willy nilly doing whatever we want in these stores with their products and IP
go ahead and say im a corporate robot as you will, but i just see reality. its not personal, its just business, right?
Reply
David Schloss said 1:31PM on 9-28-2007
Yeah, this is pretty common. I've covered a lot of store openings and each time we have to get permission from the property owner, which is either the mall or the store in the mall, depending on where you're standing.
Most of the time they don't have an issue in the Apple stores, so this guy must have been doing something pretty egregious, but I've been banned from photographing all sorts of things at malls while on assignment.
I once got a security guard trying to kick me off the property of the NY Waterways ferry terminal for photographing NYC from their property, he told me I had no right to be there on their property shooting the city. (So I showed him my ferry ticket, which grated me rights to be on their property. Jedi mind trick is fun.)
Reply
James Donevan said 1:31PM on 9-28-2007
A tempest in a teacup.
Tartan Podcaster might want to try walking around a car dealership snapping pictures and taking notes, or a Sony store, or a grocery chain, or a Walmart... most companies frown on this type of research for a variety of reasons. On his blog, Tartan Podcaster acknowledges the attention he was generally drawing in the store so he could hardly have been surprised by the reaction of the staff. Dare I suggest he might have even been pleased to attract such attention? The story isn't going to hurt his hit count or online personna.
Heavy handed employee... yes. Poor judgement by Tartan Podcaster... yes.
Reply
Electroboy said 1:32PM on 9-28-2007
Yep....this week was the tipping point.
Reply
Mike said 1:36PM on 9-28-2007
@tim ... so many places do have this dumb rule that it was likely the new apple store employee mistakenly recalled policy from a former job. In my experience Apple has encouraged people to take photos and videos as often as they want.
Reply
Mikek said 1:36PM on 9-28-2007
Tim, time to wake up and realize corporations owe us their existence not the other way around.
Reply
Billy K said 1:40PM on 9-28-2007
@2 and 3,
I'm no hippie. I recognize and even encourage Apple's need to make money to stay in business and keep me awash in shiny new stuff.
But...as a wise man once said, everyone has a big but...this is the same kind of stuff Apple used to at least ignore, sometimes even tacitly encourage. That was when the chips were down.
Apple grew this rabidly loyal, fervent base and used them to stage a comeback. But now they don't need them (us) any more. Sometimes it even seems like Apple is embarassed (why does this remind me of the supportive girlfriend who gets dumped when the band "makes it?"). Sometimes they even throw us out and sue us.
You can't have it both ways. You want that insanely loyal base? you gotta thow em' a bone now and then, but mostly you gotta stop actively attacking them. They WILL go elsewhere. Apple is "cool," or as the kids say, "hip" right now. Nothing stays "hip" forever. Apple's gonna need the crazies again. Will they be there, or will they get sick of being treated like crap?
Reply
Joseph said 2:10PM on 9-28-2007
Almost every national and international retailer has these policies. You do not have the right to be in an Apple Store. They grant you a license to enter, and they have the right to ask you to leave..they don't even have to have a reason.
Reply
basscadet said 1:42PM on 9-28-2007
maybe some overzealous employee overreacted. it does make one wonder where they get the authority to treat shop visitors like that though.
Reply
Marky said 1:50PM on 9-28-2007
It may have been against shop policy but the employee was wrong to suggest it was illegal.
Under UK law it is possible to take any photographs of any one or any thing in a public place without requiring permission from anyone - regardless of what the local constable, community police assistant or over zealous security guard will tell you, however on private premises - such as the Apple store - it is up to the owner to decide if cameras can be used. It has nothing to do with illegality.
The shop assistant needs a quick education in what is and isn't illegal.
Had the photographer asked permission first he could have spared his embarassement.
Reply
Cory said 1:51PM on 9-28-2007
If someone was going to copy something - like the Shuffle as commented above, would not they just buy one and take it wherever to analyze it. It's not like he was taking pictures of products not yet released.
Reply
Mike Cosentino said 1:58PM on 9-28-2007
I've taken photos inside the Apple Store in 5th Ave, NY, without any sales people saying anything.
There are often people in there taking photos. Once I was in there and a guy had his Nikon setup on a tripod and he was setting himself up all around the shop taking photos.
http://mikecosentino.com/vertical/glass_stairs/
^ There's on my Apple Store photos.
Reply
punkassjim said 2:02PM on 9-28-2007
@7 Mike
I don't know where you got that idea, it's actually in the Apple Retail training that photos inside the store aren't allowed. I don't care about Banana Republic's super-secret paint, and I really don't think Apple cares if photos of their products are posted to the web. The truth is, someone with a camera in a retail store can easily be trying to document where all the motion sensors and security cameras are, so they can plan a break-in.
Sounds like the employee in the Glasgow store was a bit heavy-handed, but who's to say the tartan podcaster is being 100% forthright.
Reply
tim said 2:05PM on 9-28-2007
@cory -
its beyond just copying, but thats part of it. think about the fact that all of those computers have serial numbers on them, which someone could possibly do something with. or the fact that some software like QT Pro has the product key widely available in the sys prefs. one quick snapshot of that and everyone in the area has free QT Pro.
they arent saying its being done for one reason or another, its just being done to be a blanket protection.
think about this... they have music from major labels playing, movies from major studios playing, employees they want to protect, IP they want to protect as well as an expensive product they want to protect. how many bases do they have to be responsible for with people doing whatever they want?
Reply
Frank Cantu said 4:06PM on 9-28-2007
I actually had a similar experience when the iPod nano came out:
http://macrecon.com/apparently-you-cant-photograph-the-nano/
Reply
john russell said 2:24PM on 9-28-2007
About a year ago, I took a few pictures in Portland, Oregon's Pioneer Place Apple store. After taking only a small handful of pictures, an employee came over and /politely/ asked me to refrain from taking photographs inside of the Apple store.
Reply
Mike said 2:53PM on 9-28-2007
@13 ... that kind of paranoia can only go so far before you have to close down the store entirely and turn it into a prison. I'm going to return to someone else's observation that this looks like a power play where employees have decided there are enough customers coming in and sales happening that they can afford to take shots at the odd "expendable" fool. Trouble is these people add up, and if you hit the right one (like this fellow) it can make international internet headlines. Apple ought to figure a way school their massive sales force to just "be cool." I've definitely noticed a slacking off of cool at my location over the years. Employees are way more defensive and standoffish in 2007 than they were in 2002.
Reply
Billy K said 2:59PM on 9-28-2007
@ 17 Mike,
Hell, you have to drag me to an Apple Store these days (I have three withiin my metropolitan sphere) and I get in and get out. Used to be I took any excuse to go and waste the hours away...
I know - iPod, teenagers, suburbanites, blah blah blah... still.... (heaves great mournful sigh). Boo Hoo. My Cult is popular.
Reply
Evan said 3:09PM on 9-28-2007
@ Mike (12)
Apple Fifth Avenue official policy is that photos are allowed of the store's architecture but not of products. I would assume that this is Apple-wide. Take all the pictures of the store that you want, but you can't take pictures of specific products.
Reply