Photos of my property

[quincy]

Thank you Quincy for taking the time to look that up and posting the link.
I appreciate all of your input.

You're welcome, country girl. Thank you for the thanks.

I hope you are able to work out with the photographer/tour guide a satisfactory solution to the tour traffic on your road. Good luck.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

Having read through the discourse, several things caught my eye.

Apparently, the only way to have gotten those pictures is by trespassing on the property. Have you considered filing a police report about the trespass? Show how the barn appears from the public road and then show the positioning when you reproduce the picture from on the property.

Even if a court would say that it was permissible to trespass because there wasn't a sign saying that you couldn't trespass, letting the photographer know that you are considering filing police report because you can show that the only way to take that picture was by trespassing they might consider taking it down.

Make sure that the No Trespass signs get put up to prevent folks from coming on your property.

How about putting up some sort of privacy fence/ plantings/ etc to make your place more private?

 

[quincy]

Having read through the discourse, several things caught my eye.

Apparently, the only way to have gotten those pictures is by trespassing on the property. Have you considered filing a police report about the trespass? Show how the barn appears from the public road and then show the positioning when you reproduce the picture from on the property.

Even if a court would say that it was permissible to trespass because there wasn't a sign saying that you couldn't trespass, letting the photographer know that you are considering filing police report because you can show that the only way to take that picture was by trespassing they might consider taking it down.

Make sure that the No Trespass signs get put up to prevent folks from coming on your property.

How about putting up some sort of privacy fence/ plantings/ etc to make your place more private?

The photographer did not trespass to take the photographs, though, so there would be no reason to file a police report over what is a non-crime. The police could do nothing with it. There would be no court hearing because a prosecutor would not have anything to prosecute (unless, perhaps, there has been some damage done to country girl's property by those crossing the property).

And a lawsuit needs to have some law on which to base the suit. The privacy laws in Minnesota do not seem to apply and I cannot see on what other grounds a suit could be filed. Maybe a lawyer in her area can review the facts and see if there is anything besides privacy to support a legal action. Otherwise, filing a lawsuit could be costly and could backfire.

It appears that posting "No Trespassing" signs could prevent people from crossing over the property NOW, but it cannot prevent traffic on the public road. Here plantings or a fence could help, but signs would have to be posted, too, so people intent on viewing the barn do not make their way up the driveway and through the plantings or around the fence to see the barn. I can't imagine anyone would do that but then I have not been on a barn-viewing tour before and I have no idea how people who are on one might act.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

I based my answer on this:

She took the photos from the road but we can clearly tell that she had to enter the property to get the photos from the angles she did.

Entering my property in my book says trespassing. I'm referring to calling a bluff on the photographer. From what I can tell, they want their name and address off her website.

 

[justalayman]

I based my answer on this:


Entering my property in my book says trespassing. I'm referring to calling a bluff on the photographer. From what I can tell, they want their name and address off her website.

From your book? How about state law books because that is what matters. In op's state it is not trespassing to go into another's property unless there is notice that entering is trespassing. That means if there was no sign of some sort of notice present when the pictures were taken, photog did not trespass. That is why Quincy said a sign would apply to actions from the point of posting the sign going forward but what has already happened is not covered.

 

[quincy]

I based my answer on this:


Entering my property in my book says trespassing. I'm referring to calling a bluff on the photographer. From what I can tell, they want their name and address off her website.

You are basing your comments on the dictionary definition of trespassing, though, and not on the legal definition. Under the law in Minnesota, entering onto or crossing over another's property without permission or right is not trespassing unless "No Trespassing" signs have been posted. The photographer appears to have done nothing illegal by taking photographs of the barn, even if he crossed country girl's property to do so.

Because the police cannot do anything about legal acts, there is no reason to file a police report. Nothing can come from it. The photographer would know this because the police would tell the photographer this. And this is assuming the photographer was not aware of the law already. If the photographer is a professional photographer, s/he could already know the law.

I personally would not want to have my name and property address listed on a website so tour groups could visit and gawk but there is nothing illegal about listing the location, or the names of the property owners, or about organizing a tour to visit the property and view it from a public road. As I mentioned earlier, celebrities have to put up with this if their homes are listed on a celebrity tour. Many have gone the route you suggested (the high fences and plantings) which works to preserve privacy to some extent.

But there is nothing illegal in Minnesota, apparently, about crossing UN-posted property to view a barn (peeking through or taking pictures through the windows of an occupied building, on the other hand, could cause some legal grief for the peeker-photographer).

Posting the property would at least eliminate those wanting to take a closer look at the barn (or, if someone were to enter onto or cross over the posted property despite the signs, country girl would have good reason to call the police over the trespass).