Your car in the picture ... with plate

Hi all,
I don't know where else to put this.. but as this is the picture thread, I've put it here.
In the Euro section there's a thread about a small(25 cars), but nice, meeting of the 'Vlaamse Ferrari Vrienden' ( Flemisch Ferrari Friends), not important which club it is, but it was a clubevent, so not pun intended towards the club. Some Fchatters attended this meeting, that was on the beach promenade on a Sunday afternoon. Afterwards they posted some of their pictures on Fchat, but they got the question to post with blanked out numberplates. What is your opinion on this?
(to the owners) Do you mind having your car on the internet with the plates showing?
(to the photographer) Do you blank out the numberplates?
(to the innocent bystander) Your opinion is needed as well.
For the ones intrested, here's the thread(with already some opinions):
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119755
Jurgen

 

(pssssst, Jurg....turn on your MSN please....got a couple of Norwegian vin's 4 u)

 

Good idea Jurgen! Altough even more people will see now their license plate...

Anyway, I am just going to quote myself...

It just sounds SO stupid to me. If you don't like that people see your license plate, then you shouldn't go to meetings where you know that it will be crowded.

 

If you don't want people to see your license plate, don't take the car out of the garage.

-R

 

If I spot a car in the wild and it's not at a show, I will always edit plates unless the license plate is personalized, then I will leave some of it in, but not enough to see the entire plate. For example, if somebody has a 360 with plate "JOES 360" then I would blank out half of it so that it says " ___ 360". But if their plate is just normal like "PVEJ203" then I will blank the whole thing out.
here's an example of an actual car I have seen, the 360 was made up. http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9016/chevroletcorvettec6136cl.jpg

However at events, I don't even bother to blank out the plates because it's too much work and because tons of other people will have pictures anyway.

If I were an owner, then I really wouldn't care if people edited my plates out or not

 

Yes, black out my plates I don't want the wife to find out where I've been...LOL

 

whenever i take a shot and put it anywhere where it is public, i always blank out the plate #.

 

that would be the only valid reason, in fact.

ok, but why? Do you feel you're invading the owners' privacy?

ok, the main idea behind this can be that owners go to a public event, so they can expect some things becoming public. Right?

I can agree with your statement. By seeing your numberplate they don't know your name, where you live, etc, don't they?

Thanks so far for your comments, keep them coming please!
Jurgen

 

Right. Even if I blank out the plates, 95% of other people won't. Dozens or even hundreds of other people will see them in person anyway, depending on the size of the event.

 

I always blank out plates as a courtesy. There's a difference between driving around town and having a permanent display on the internet, where any lunatic/stalker/bad guy may run across it.

 

agreed.

 

Agreed too.

And I've heard that the shots on tracks may cause a problem with their insurance, so I'd rather not display any. I know some drivers don't mind at all, but I prefer to be safer.

 

I blank out normal plate numbers, but do not do so with personalized plates; after all, that is why people get personalized plates in the first place: so that they will be seen.

 

So what is the cause for the fear of one's number plate being seen?

I once heard that in the UK some people may want to copy the plate from a car that is the same model/year/color as theirs so they don't have to worry about the Gatso cameras, or perhaps to not get caught while committing a crime. But that is more of a concern for mass-produced cars, than for rare exotics.

So what's the issue for people in the States? BMVs these days are very careful about selling registration/driver license info for marketing purposes and those that do it keep a much tighter leash on the information than 15 years ago. So why are people so afraid? Sorry, I'm not going to assist someone with committing insurance fraud or with breaking any other law.

 

If I took a picture of a car and posted it on the net I wouldn't blank the plate. There is no invasion of privacy in that act. The plate and the car are visible to all in the real world anyway. If the owner was upset then so what, there are no grounds to take any action as he would not be the owner of the image.

Post 'em and be damn'd

 

Agree, I do the same just for the heck of it....Some folks I've asked, allowed me to leave the plates.

 

Not too many with your rims on them...when are you going to update that profile pic?

 

Although, I would appreciate if someone blanked out my plate if the caption with the thread was " spotted this car as it blew by me on the freeway, it must have been doing close to 200mph"

 

True, I'm not sure how driving around locally with your plate showing is less dangerous than letting some Internet surfer in the UK see it.

Not sure I really care. Even with the stupid red light cameras, they have to get a photo of the driver. If someone wants to clone my plates, stick them on a black 328 GTS and get my haircut and sunglasses, I realize I could have a red light ticket on my hands...

 

It takes 20 seconds to delete a plate, and nobody's going to fuss about you cutting it out. Why not just take the time to be polite?

 

As a photography, I always blank out the liscense plate out of respect to the owner.

 

I have yet to hear a valid reason why in the USA. Courtesy does not dictate that one need to stoop to the level of stupid people who are afraid of something but don't really know what they are afraid of. Nor does it dictate that one aid another in evading the law.

In the States, the days of taking down a license plate number, finding out where the person lives, and stealing the car from their home are long gone.

 

Not true, actually. There's still plenty of ways to get the information from license plates these days -- in fact, I'm personally aware of someone getting owner information and VIN numbers from a plate recently.

With the increasing incursion of red light and speed cameras, the plate cloning seen in Europe will soon be an issue here, I suspect.

 

I updated it just for you. But I saw one just like mine with same wheels and all, at Indy this year.

 

MAN those look so much better then they did when they were on my old black 308. Pictorial evidence attached

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