Comments on: Whay do they blur license plates on TV shows?

Question: Whay do they blur license plates on TV shows?

fixedgear — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:53:24 -0800

Why blur license plates on TV shows?

What can one do with a plate number? I mean, you can't search it unless you are a cop, right?

By: rancidchickn

rancidchickn — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:01:28 -0800

There are services online that will let you search a liscense plate number for a fee. Also private investigators can look up plates.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:10:24 -0800

Unscrupulous or misinformed DMV people have been known to give up people's personal information when given a license plate number.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:15:34 -0800

OK, that makes perfect sense, but for point of clarification let's just say one is watching Ice Road Truckers (guilty pleasure) and there is a shot of a tractor trailer. The license plate of the trailer is blurred. What could someone do with that? "The truck in question is registered to Joe Blow's Trucking, Yellowknife NW Territories."

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:19:43 -0800

Suppose you absolutely LOVED the guy in the car. He's your one and only, you were meant to be together. Get the license plate, find out who he is, and let the stalking commence!

It's a blanket safety mechanism, no reason not to.

By: milkrate

milkrate — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:22:09 -0800

An old query

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:34:05 -0800

It's a blanket safety mechanism~~, no reason not to.~~ that didn't always exist, i.e. it's sort of a recent phenomenon.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:04:33 -0800

Everyone who appears on TV needs to sign a release and if a random car is in the scene they may not have a release from the driver, hence they need to blur faces and/or nameplates. I honestly think the only people in danger are the TV producers who might get sued by the owners of said plates. For what I'm not really sure.

By: hal_c_on

hal_c_on — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:34:33 -0800

Wait...this is an EXCELLENT question, and I still don't feel that a legitimate answer has been given. A lot of these so called "answers" are things that I have thought up...but I'm still not sure.

I see this on reality shows all the time. Why do they cover up license plates when they are just cars in the background, and the scene is somewhere totally public (times square, rodeo drive, gateway arch)?

License plates are to be used for identification purposes, and you CAN get info from them if you know someone who works at the DMV...but you can also get thousands of plates on the street by just driving around. No need to watch tv for 12 hours to get 3 plate numbers.

Whats up with that?

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:39:11 -0800

Yes, and hal_c_on sorta reminds me that despite number one's old question and answers, it's just not universally applied. News stories on high gas prices, for example, never have blurred plates, while reality TV almost always does.

By: Rykey

Rykey — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:38:46 -0800

What Guyzero said. It's more about protecting the producers of the show than anyone in the cars.

By: range

range — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:00:57 -0800

I've always assumed that this practice began (or at least became common practice) in reaction to the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer, who was killed by a stalker who got her home address from the DMV.

I unfortunately have no sources to back this up other than it was a fairly major entertainment-industry story at the time and would have no doubt been an eye-opener to TV producers. It definitely did lead to the revision of a number of California's information-privacy laws. If anyone has documentation of license-blurring being widespread before 1989, then my theory would be bunk.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:10:04 -0800

I was thinking about this on the way home and I have a secondary theory. There may not be a law requiring the blurring per se, but there may have been a lawsuit that set a strong precedent in the matter. If there's a TV lawyer in the house, pipe up Matlock.

By: Rykey

Rykey — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:42:30 -0800

There are no laws AFAIK, IANAL, only liabilities that production companies' lawyers are paid to avoid, circumvent, deflect, or prevent.

By: jalexei

jalexei — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:48:56 -0800

Late to party, but one security reason is as follows:

Let's say (purely as an example, of course) I'm looking to steal a car to rob a bank. Let's say I see a white Corolla on TV with a legible license plate. Then I steal a white Corolla, and doctor some plates to reflect the number I saw on TV - It won't survive close scrutiny, but if someone reports a stolen white Corolla and a cop sees my car and runs the plate, it will come up as the non-stolen white Corolla.

By: hal_c_on

hal_c_on — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:49:48 -0800

jalexei...but why do you need the tv to find that white corolla? You can find about tons more corollas in real life than you can from tv. It would be easier for you to go outside, or even to a walmart parking lot, shopping for a license plate and then carrying out your hypothetical task.

Question STILL not answered. Does anybody really KNOW?

By: Rykey

Rykey — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:29:10 -0800

Question STILL not answered. Does anybody really KNOW?

Yes. Liability.