With terrorist related news being broadcast almost non-stop on TV it's easy to understand why there's an increased alertness towards suspicious activity of any kind.

But what is "suspicious activity", and who decides what should, and shouldn't be allowed.

There have always been locations where photography is prohibited, such as art museums, because electronic flashes can, over a long period of time, harm the paintings, or so I'm told.

Other reasons include copyright infringement, privacy and religious reasons, but now we have situations where threats to security are the reason given.

Since 9/11 I've been hassled twice, once while taking pictures of a particularly attractive courtyard outside a small bank building, and again while on the roof of the New York New York Casino parking garage here in Las Vegas.

The first incident brought out the bank manager, who was extremely nervous and not very eager to get close to me. He showed visible signs of relief when I explained why I was taking the pictures and gave him my business card.

After a few minutes he looked around and agreed that the courtyard was nice and that he had no eye for art. I assured him that when I hit the Lottery I would make a large deposit in his institution.

As for the Casino incident, which yielded the above photo, I was told, by a bicycle riding Security guard, that taking pictures of the "towers" was forbidden, due to security reasons. I was then figuratively thrown off the roof.

I'm not a lawyer but my rule of thumb is that if I'm on private property, such as the bank or casino, the owners make the rules. If they say go, I go, because they have the rights to allow or disallow any type of activity on their property, I don't.

Here's a rundown of what's going on in America, England, and a few other places with regards to photography and suspicious activity.

This link takes you to a website that has a listing of photographer's rights in America.

A simple search on Google will bring up photographer's rights in other countries.

Source:www.jimippolito.com