Historic Alabama town’s photo permit draws fire

Don’t show up in historic Mooresville, Ala., southwest of Huntsville, with a camera, advises Grumpy Editor.

Taking a picture, whether it involves the 168-year-old Post Office or the 187-year-old Stagecoach Tavern, that might be considered “commercial” will get town officials excited and demanding $500 for a commercial photography permit plus a $30 business privilege license.

Gulp!

Entire Mooresville, the first town incorporated by the Alabama Territorial Legislature on Nov. 16, 1818, is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Its homes, buildings, gardens and tree-shaded streets “make a visit to Mooresville seem like a step back in time,” boasts the town’s Web site.

That inspires lens clickers. 

But poke a camera from a car window to capture an image of the historical village (population 60) might take some explaining.  Although camera-toting tourists are not affected, sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between a traveler and a commercial photographer.

Mayor Jerri McLain told the Huntsville Times that the policy needs to have a description of who the town considers to be a commercial photographer.

Alabama Press Association attorney Dennis Bailey said this was the first such policy he’d ever heard about and the photography permit has “constitutional issues.”  He added, “It’s part of freedom of expression and assembly and to be allowed to photograph what you want and publish it.”

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes:

Reports this week of MD-80 aircraft being grounded to inspect bundled wires, failed to mention some of the aircraft have been in service for almost 28 years.  American Airlines operates the largest number of that model, produced until December, 1999…Get ready to hear about bank failures.  With 76 banks on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. “problem institutions” list, the FDIC plans to increase staff 60 percent to 500 workers from the current 360 in its resolutions and receiverships division…Suggestion box opens:  Chicago-based Tribune Co. chairman and CEO Sam Zell is welcoming ideas from staffers at the company’s newspapers around the country.  Not just any old suggestions, but “revenue-generating ideas”… The pitch in radio commercials for Campbell, Calif.-based Barracuda Networks, Inc., touting its Web security products, is difficult to understand with what is best described as pots and pans banging by five-year-olds on the kitchen floor in the background…Collaring editors at the Associated Press annual meeting in Washington on April 14:  Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.  The AP meeting is being held as part of the Capital Conference, a multi-organization gathering that includes Newspaper Association of America and American Society of Newspaper Editors…TV programmers at two networks, checking the calendar to pencil in shows, noted it was Good Friday on March 21.  So ABC-TV devoted two prime-time hours to “Prostitution in America:  Working Girls Speak.”  Not to be outdone, MSNBC aired a shorter version focusing on prostitution, overlapping one of ABC's hours.