Well, not everyone lives in the US.
The UK passed Human Rights Act 1998 in response to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Anyway, Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, which covers freedom of expression, is much weaker than the US First Amendment, having many exceptions written in.
Article 10 Freedom of expression 1 Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises. 2 The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/ukpga_19980042_en_3
On 27/09/2007, Matthew Brown morven@gmail.com wrote:
It's important to note that when we're talking about commercial use in the context of publicity & privacy rights, there are big exemptions under US law: art and journalism, roughly. Editorial use (which Wikipedia's use of such images certainly is) is in most cases exempt, because of the First Amendment implications (doing otherwise would be an unconstitutional restraint on free speech).
-Matt