Ignorance is Bliss

This certainly raises an issue that i've personally had to deal with before.

BBC

I've been asked to leave a "mall" because i was trying to take some exposure shots of people going up the escalator. It was ridiculous, but at the same time i understand why.

Well, there are workarounds. The easiest way to gain access to events, "breaking news" sporting events, etc as a photographer is to have a press pass. I've heard that freelancers will have a really tough time obtaining one, but I've read suggestions of checking with a newspaper or magazine publisher to see if you can work out a "freelance" type of position with them. Then you could usually get the credentials you need from them.

For freelancers there are organizations such as IFPO which for example offers a "Gold" press pass for $100. http://www.fzippererphoto.com/gldpress.html (that site actually looks a bit questionable to me - but you get the point)

Unfortunately I have no experience with such organizations and can't speak for reputation/reliability.

But as alternatives, take the mall for example. Instead of going out on your own and randomly snapping photos, check with the mall management/authorities in advance, explain what you're doing and attempt to gain permission from them in advance. There may be other options but those are a few that come to mind off the top of my head.

A mall is private property and as such they can do what they please.

I'm not sure how the laws are over their in Scotland (or the rest of Europe, for that matter), but here in North American if you're on public property there's nothing they can do to stop you, legally.

Found this interesting link
http://www.photolawnews.com/index.html#lawethics

In particular this short quiz
http://www.photoattorney.com/2006/08/10 ... w-for.html

(the answers to all are "false").

Yay I got 100%!
I frequent the dpreview forums quite a bit and roughly twice a month somebody will ask a new question about photography laws and what they can do. You can learn quite a lot by reading