Canadian company to photograph every house in America to build database for sale

Arizona Daily Star: "Photographers from a Canadian company are going house to house, shooting pictures of the roughly 300,000 houses in metropolitan Tucson. It's part of an effort to photograph and appraise every house in the country, creating a database that can be sold to banks and insurance companies. While the city attorney says the activity is perfectly legal, it has officials and some residents concerned about privacy rights."



Their FAQ says they don't go on private property. Their 'leaflets' for concerned residents say it's for law enforcement and first responders (not true, according to law enforcement and first responders). Unsavory that a foreign company is using photos of other people's stuff for profit without permission. Not illegal. Just distasteful. Like real-estate paparazzi.

So we have two solutions:

1. Compose an original poem large enough to be seen from the street, and affix it to the front of your house. If your house ends up in the database, sue for copyright infringement and illegal distribution (using arguments made popular by the RIAA and MPAA), issue a DMCA take-down notice to their hosting providers, and Bob's your uncle.


2. Someone please track down the home addresses of executives and investors so we can start collecting and publishing photos of their houses on these Internets. Please observe all local laws in photographing the executive's houses, do not trespass, and do not attempt to photograph people or attempt to collect additional personal information. Follow the same criteria they have published for their own photographers.




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