Cameras will more often than not be witnesses to all incidents and/or events.
It’s the digital age, and cameras are everywhere and in presumably everyone’s pockets and purses.
Meaning simply be careful what you do (at all times) because you never know who or what is watching.
But perhaps one doesn’t think and involves themself in a hard situation to explain with cameras pointed directly upon them.
Such incidents can include hitting a pedestrian with a car, or punching someone in the face or maybe someone had a little too much of a good time and unveils their naked body while running down a busy street’s sidewalk.
The story is made immortal when a person freely posts such a video online for mass worldwide “entertainment.”
Imagine now, if said person had a recognizable face and name.
This famous person commits an act that is well known and publicized for such actions, but no video is known to exist due to what would be seemingly proper restraint, especially if it’s deemed to cruel for the viewing public.
Then a media organization rolls around and offers to pay thousands to purchase the video to show the world
Of course there would be a correct price to acquire such video.
For instance, the incident with Beyonce’s sister Solange and Jay-Z.
TMZ reportedly paid $250,000 to acquire the surveillance video of Solange attacking Jay-Z in an elevator after an event.
It’s quite a hefty price tag, but begs the question, did people need to see it?
And where does TMZ stand after paying someone for property that may or not be theirs that includes the depiction of another person without his orher permission?
TMZ, in turn, received profits from the views the video receives on the organizations well-known website.
Most of the world already knows what TMZ does.
That’s what the media organization does and it remains overtly popular due to the stories reported daily about various celebrities doing this and that.
The question is: Is it needed?
National Football League player Ray Rice had a bad situation turn detrimental in an instant.
A first video appeared of him dragging his seemingly unconscious wife outside of an Atlantic City hotel elevator, which was followed immediately by a report of him knocking her unconscious with a uppercut.
All of it was well documented and expressed by police and media.
Then TMZ got hold of the actual video inside the elevator during the incident in which Rice struck his then girlfriend, now fiancée, knocking her unconscious.
This resulted in Rice’s immediate indefinite suspension from NFL play and being released from his contract with the Baltimore Ravens.
One video changed public opinion in an instant and caused his career to take a massive detour to a road still unclear.
How about “Deadspin” offering to buy a video of NFL player Dez Bryant committing an act so foul it would have the potential to bar him from competition due to public disgust?
Of course this video has never surfaced, and the legitimacy of its existence is still in question.
It would have had potential catastrophic results for Bryant, the entire Dallas Cowboys organization and the
NFL itself, for nothing more than the act of an individual.
Because that’s what we all are, individuals.
People make mistakes, and make our own mistakes unique and similar to others.
These mistakes are supposed to allow us to grow and learn like all those before us.
How could an individual be free to grow and move past a mistake if it never dies?
Especially if others are going to continue to view it for entertainment and remind the individual of a mistake recorded on video?
Should there be rules and regulations as to what can and cannot be placed online, depending on the potential consequences for those involved?
And to what end can a person record or capture something and sell to another for massive amounts without the persons being filmed acknowledgement?
