Scotrail Question Regarding YouTube

Hi there! A train newbie here.

I was just at Carntyne Train Station in Glasgow on my way home tonight and this guy was taking pictures of the trains passing by, about a minute later, an announcement comes over the speakers saying that the person taking the pictures on the platform hasn't asked for permission. It is a very quiet station, no tickets sellers, hardly anybody stands there, so somebody must have been watching the CCTV.

He then realises that the voice is talking to him, so he dismantles his tripod. I then get chatting to him...

He says to me that Scotrail regularly trawl YouTube trying to find if anybody has taken pictures, or videos, without asking permission. They try to find the real name of the person that posted the image\video. He gave me an example of himself taking a video of Bowling Train Station. He said they (2 angry looking Scotrail employees from his local Train Station. I believe he said Partick) came up to his door threatening legal action against him if he didn't get the video down.

So, is this guy pulling my chain? Do Scotrail check out Youtube so they can do people for a bit of footage? Thanks!

As I write this there are 3960 videos tagged "Scotrail" on YouTube, so I wouldnt worry too much.

The way the guy was talking is that they are more interested in getting people who photograph\video stations rather than trains, for some reason.

I had a bit of bother at Airdrie station once. I took one photo of a train I had got off from and a man from the ticket office came out to tell me that I had to stop. The way he went about it made it sound like a terrible crime. It's not been a problem at the 500-odd other small stations I've been to... :roll:

I find it hard to believe that Scotrail would be so petty as to employ people to spend time on Youtube who film/photograph at their stations and backtrace them. Such happenings would make a good tabloid story either way!

Never knew they could to that by announcing over the tannoy at an unstaffed station.

In Scotland I go for the stations that are staffed.

I'm glad I'm not a trainspotter any more as I would probably end up punching one of these jobsworths.

I think he's pulling your leg. There's no way Scotrail could do that without a serious amount of bad press.

alexdodds said:

Never knew they could to that by announcing over the tannoy at an unstaffed station.

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I was quite shocked too. It started off "Message to Carntyne" and then a guy talking came over. It wasn't a standard Scotrail message, it was a guy actually talking at that time.

alexdodds said:

Never knew they could to that by announcing over the tannoy at an unstaffed station.

In Scotland I go for the stations that are staffed.

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CCTV centres in Paisley and Dunfermline can announce at all ScotRail managed stations. Though it would be nice if they could be a little more proactive during times of disruption.

Scotrail have always requested that you go to help point and tell staff that you arre taking pictures at the site. they will tell you if it is ok.

Common advice:
- rush hour / crowded platform
- no use of tripods
- standing too close to edge of platform
- local 'NED' issues

It should be remembered that CCTV has no audio, so they cant trell a potential jumper from people filming etc. Also drama students wanting to make a film etc need permission from Scotrail control,m and oiwth 6 colleges/Unis and lots of schools doing media courses, there are more such students around than one may think.

djw1981 said:

- no use of tripods

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Is that a blanket ban on tripods? Just that every time I pass Partick Station there are always a few old boys there using tripods.

Surely tripods are only a problem where they will be tripping people up, places like the middle of platforms where the trains stop? Platform ends shouldn't be as much of an issue. All that's required is for the enthusiast to apply a bit of common sense.

NSEFAN said:

All that's required is for the enthusiast to apply a bit of common sense.

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I like that comment a lot, sums up the issue perfectly.

Dunfermline have done much worse in the past, once called the BTP on my mates for filming on Prestonpans Station. BTP turned up, spoke to them, then used the help point to ask control why they felt it was necessary to waste their time.

I cant believe that Scotrails attitude towards enthuisiasts has changed for the worse it would appear.

But then like the traction, some of the staff have changed I guess.

43167 said:

I cant believe that Scotrails attitude towards enthuisiasts has changed for the worse it would appear.

But then like the traction, some of the staff have changed I guess.

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You actually think that two station employees from someone's local station would happen to find out where a trainspotter lived and go round and tell him to take some YouTube videos down? :-x

ralphchadkirk said:

You actually think that two station employees from someone's local station would happen to find out where a trainspotter lived and go round and tell him to take some YouTube videos down? :-x

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Where in his post did he say anything about that? If you are going to attack anyone on that issue then attack the OP. To be honest though, you don't know what to believe these days, afterall plenty of things that sound unbelievable have been proven to be true, even admitted to.

Regarding the original issue, I don't think it would be true though, but instead of just attacking the poster I'll give some real explanation of why I think it's not true. The main problem I have is with tracing the name and address of the uploader. These can be traced, and have been in various criminal investigations, but the key point is criminal. The police can demand youtube provide the details they have of the uploader of a video, the most useful probably being the IP address it was uploaded from (as you don't have to give your real details when signing up for an account, you can give any details). The police could then use that to contact your ISP and demand they gave your address. In this case though it's the police who believe a criminal offense has been commited. Courts can also do the same on behalf of private companies or individuals, again if a crime has been commited (used by recording companies for copyright, or individuals for liable/breach of injunction etc). Since no law is being broken though, Scotrail would not have a leg to stand on if demanding details from youtube. I can't think of what they could take the person to court for either (it's not copyright as copyright law is careful to prevent that sort of thing, it's not breach of contract as the photographer/videoer has no contract with Scotrail, even if they have a ticket the contract/conditions of carriage says nothing about photography or videoing). At best they could ask youtube to remove the video.

ChrisCooper said:

Where in his post did he say anything about that? If you are going to attack anyone on that issue then attack the OP. To be honest though, you don't know what to believe these days, afterall plenty of things that sound unbelievable have been proven to be true, even admitted to.

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Iit's perfectly obvious to someone with little intelligence that two members of station staff from someone's local station are not going to come round knocking on behalf of their TOC to threaten someone with legal action if you don't take down a YT video.

ralphchadkirk said:

You actually think that two station employees from someone's local station would happen to find out where a trainspotter lived and go round and tell him to take some YouTube videos down? :-x

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And where do I refer to that?. Read properly before you reply please.

For the record no I dont think 2 station employees are going to go round someones house to and tell them to take down videos.

Quite, it's perfectly obvious to someone with little intelligence that 43167s comment at no point suggested he believed the story from the OP.

ChrisCooper said:

Quite, it's perfectly obvious to someone with little intelligence that 43167s comment at no point suggested he believed the story from the OP.

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Perhaps, but the point still stands. Anyone who does believe that shouldn't be allowed out unaccompanied.

alexdodds said:

Never knew they could to that by announcing over the tannoy at an unstaffed station.

In Scotland I go for the stations that are staffed.

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As far as I recall the unstaffed stations especially these in the Central Belt can have announcements made by the staff in the Service Centre where they take calls from help points, monitor CCTV and can make announcements.

It's kind of like the Ditra system on the GN for example as staff at Huntingdon could make announcements to sound at St Neots, Biggleswade, Sandy etc...this is of course before everyone's worse nightmare came!

Now for example, the Service Delivery Centre which is responsible for the service can and do make announcements to any station on the route so if there is a need to contact the platform host at Huntingdon and they cannot reach him/her though the phone then they can made a announcement asking for the staff member to contact them.

ajax103 said:

As far as I recall the unstaffed stations especially these in the Central Belt can have announcements made by the staff in the Service Centre where they take calls from help points, monitor CCTV and can make announcements.

It's kind of like the Ditra system on the GN for example as staff at Huntingdon could make announcements to sound at St Neots, Biggleswade, Sandy etc...this is of course before everyone's worse nightmare came!

Now for example, the Service Delivery Centre which is responsible for the service can and do make announcements to any station on the route so if there is a need to contact the platform host at Huntingdon and they cannot reach him/her though the phone then they can made a announcement asking for the staff member to contact them.

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It's like that on the T & W Metro. Announcements regarding engineering works or service distruptions are done by someone in the control room at South Gosforth station.

I think the engineering ones are recorded by someone at the start of the day and are played out to all the stations except Sunderland at the same time.

bAzTNM said:

He says to me that Scotrail regularly trawl YouTube trying to find if anybody has taken pictures, or videos, without asking permission. They try to find the real name of the person that posted the image\video. He gave me an example of himself taking a video of Bowling Train Station. He said they (2 angry looking Scotrail employees from his local Train Station. I believe he said Partick) came up to his door threatening legal action against him if he didn't get the video down.

Do Scotrail check out Youtube so they can do people for a bit of footage?

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Yes, that is correct representatives from ScotRail regularly check YouTube for copyrighted material
What they are looking for is footage which is mainly commercially or security sensitive
Equally, some members of staff report that video footage is being taken and that they want their identity removed
They can then check the date and time against their records for permission

In extreme cases they will then follow the person that persistently refuses to seek permission and confront them at a later date
If that fails then they will be served with legal papers from the local Sherrif Court