YouTube joker's victims hit back

A YOUTUBE prankster has been criticised by his victims for not getting their permission to film them.

Dave Mateer's videos, which show him faking a fit and contorting his face while discussing purchases with staff in Colchester stores such as Asda, Sainsbury's and B&Q, were uploaded on Friday.

In just three days, Mr Mateer, 24, of Stanway, had attracted more than 12,000 views.

But now his victims have complained, saying they had not given permission to be filmed. 

One victim said: "I was not approached by him in any way and to have my face on YouTube is an invasion of my privacy.

"I am furious."

SEE WEDNESDAY'S GAZETTE FOR THE FULL STORY

Comments(34)

Feisty CBC says...
12:49pm Tue 12 Feb 13

You have to get permission when filming on private premises.
Seems as though this "joker" has upset quite a few people in a sorry attempt at being funny.

thecapedcrusader69 says...
12:56pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Feisty CBC wrote:
You have to get permission when filming on private premises.
Seems as though this "joker" has upset quite a few people in a sorry attempt at being funny.
Well put that's exactly what I thought

wormshero says...
12:57pm Tue 12 Feb 13

To be fair, the guy has embarrassed himself more, based on the responses on the deleted article.

Must admit, I'm slightly amused that the gazette has made a deal of this, 12k views isn't a huge number to begin with.

DelA says...
1:03pm Tue 12 Feb 13

"A YOUTUBE prankster has been criticised by his victims for not getting their permission to film them". LOL

Surely, it should have been getting their permission to "Show the film, after he filmed them" if he had asked them before..............
..well you work it out.

BraveDave says...
1:45pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Love all this publicity. Keep talking about me :) You're all helping the cause.

Mr Honest says...
2:37pm Tue 12 Feb 13

4 comments on a website and a picture of your really ugly face in a overpriced local rag that doesnt cover real news is hardly great publicity. Look forward to someone lumping you when you cross the wrong person.

Feisty CBC says...
2:56pm Tue 12 Feb 13

lol @ Mr. Honest :)

BraveDave says...
2:57pm Tue 12 Feb 13

There's a name for people like you. Keyboard Warrior. Speaking their mind, doing whats write for the world, making a difference, demanding change... All behind a computer screen haha you loser.

Jue_uk says...
3:17pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Feisty CBC wrote:
You have to get permission when filming on private premises.
Seems as though this "joker" has upset quite a few people in a sorry attempt at being funny.
Well written :-)

terryg says...
4:35pm Tue 12 Feb 13

"faking a fit and contorting his face"

Comedy genius. So a dozy chav mocking people and harassing people at work counts as humour now ?

Sounds more like bullying to me.

jaystepney says...
5:28pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Please get a sense of humor you idiots! Its a bit of fun!!!!!!!!!!!

Chatty_me! says...
5:53pm Tue 12 Feb 13

But it wasn't funny and neither is he. It wasn't original, was just a pathetic attempt to be YouTube famous at the cost of others, with the same 'joke' repeated multiple times over several minutes. Yawn.

Cleggeron says...
5:56pm Tue 12 Feb 13

What a male chicken! And the Gazette's reporters have once again demonstrated their maturity...

Feisty CBC says...
6:44pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Jue_uk wrote:
Feisty CBC wrote:
You have to get permission when filming on private premises.
Seems as though this "joker" has upset quite a few people in a sorry attempt at being funny.
Well written :-)
Very kind of you to say so. Thankyou.

Cookiemonster15 says...
9:18pm Tue 12 Feb 13

are all you lot mad a guy goes into a super market and b and q and films himself doing a random thing to make people laugh and spread a weird form of joy to other people yes its a bit stupid but i for one found it rather funny just to see the peoples reactions it isn't bullying at all he wasn't directly taking the mic out of these people in question it was a reaction thing. and to be fair the lady in Sainsbury's was the only 1 that asked him if he was all right no one else did they didn't know he didn't actually have a problem so who is making themselves not look very good now????

Jue_uk says...
8:23am Wed 13 Feb 13

If '24' year old Mr Mateer wishes to spend his time going round stores pulling faces then everyone to their own, HOWEVER to put the videos on YouTube without permission from each individual who has been victim to this prank then quite frankly I wouldn't be happy either! It is an invasion of their privacy and YouTube have a very strict policy about this and it can be reported via their site.

irememberwhen says...
10:48am Wed 13 Feb 13

What a sad little life he is leading

Red Tape 2 says...
11:07am Wed 13 Feb 13

Isn't it just a modern version of Candid Camera?

Bad Bill says...
12:23pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Red Tape 2 wrote:
Isn't it just a modern version of Candid Camera?
Not really. You can film in public places, but the supermarkets are private property and you need the owner permission to film. I'm Sure the people on candid camera had to give their permission before being shown on tv.

ColchesterBelgian says...
1:17pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Personaly I didn't think the fitting video was very funny however the McDonalds Ice Cream one was quite funny.
Good luck in your quest to find Youtube fame.
But a word of warning, you are probably already too late.

jag99 says...
1:19pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Filming/photography on private property to which the public have access is allowed unless forbidden by the landowner, either by signage or in terms and conditions... (this is probably the case in most supermarkets, I would have thought...)

You don't need permission from people to take their picture. Although the 1998 Human Rights Act made it easier to protect your privacy in certain ways, there's no actual free standing right to privacy in this country. Obviously though it's worth seeking a person's permission out of common courtesy.

However aggressive use of photography/video cameras can be dealt with under harassment laws, but this requires you to have been targeted on at least two occassions.

Surb says...
1:24pm Wed 13 Feb 13

What is up with the grammer and Punctuation these days...

BraveDave says...
2:57pm Tue 12 Feb 13

There's a name for people like you. Keyboard Warrior. Speaking their mind, doing whats write for the world, making a difference, demanding change... All behind a computer screen haha you loser. ... doing what's write? LMAO its "Right" not "Write"

and...

Cookiemonster15 says...
9:18pm Tue 12 Feb 13

are all you lot mad a guy goes into a super market and b and q and films himself doing a random thing to make people laugh and spread a weird form of joy to other people yes its a bit stupid but i for one found it rather funny just to see the peoples reactions it isn't bullying at all he wasn't directly taking the mic out of these people in question it was a reaction thing. and to be fair the lady in Sainsbury's was the only 1 that asked him if he was all right no one else did they didn't know he didn't actually have a problem so who is making themselves not look very good now????

A few comma's and fullstops wouldn't hurt.

Surb says...
1:27pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Grammar * oops

O rly? says...
1:29pm Wed 13 Feb 13

He doesn't need permission from the individuals at all.

Nor do you need express permission to film on a camera phone etc in a shop or public place.

Walk around a shop filming things with your phone, see what happens...

This really shouldn't be news, this sort of stuff happens on a daily basis, all over the world. No-one really cares, and it's certainly not going to act as a stepping stone.

jammin says...
1:35pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Surb

Pot and kettle me thinks. It's "grammar & punctuation".

wormshero says...
1:54pm Wed 13 Feb 13

O rly? wrote:
He doesn't need permission from the individuals at all.

Nor do you need express permission to film on a camera phone etc in a shop or public place.

Walk around a shop filming things with your phone, see what happens...

This really shouldn't be news, this sort of stuff happens on a daily basis, all over the world. No-one really cares, and it's certainly not going to act as a stepping stone.
"Nor do you need express permission to film on a camera phone etc in a shop or public place. Walk around a shop filming things with your phone, see what happens..."

While not often enforced a place of work isn't treated as a public place where you can film whoever you want, and is somewhere where people can expect privacy, so landowners permission would be expected. In recent court cases judges have actually argued further saying even with the owners permission the people recorded could expect privacy (this was in the case of customers rather than staff, mind you). Arguably I guess the people shot could claim that the videos are defaming them, in which case a release should be obtained otherwise there's potential legal avenues to sue. There's also potential that without permission it's breaking data protection law prohibiting recording of data which identifies an individual. CCTV falls under this category, for example, and isn't usually available for public release.

It's kind of a grey area in general, but as the intention is (according to the last article) to profit from defaming other people it's hardly like the people filmed couldn't take legal action.

It's amusing that this is even news, but heh, whatever, I find it interesting to see peoples interpretations of the law on this matter anyway.

romantic says...
2:24pm Wed 13 Feb 13

While it may be legally a grey area, I do think that the "victims" need to laugh it off and forget about it. Life´s too short to get that upset about it, it´s just a prank video. They could probably try to initiate legal action etc but is it really worth it for a clip which will be forgotten about in a few days?

Blonde bel says...
4:20pm Wed 13 Feb 13

This guy says that he informs his victims that he asked them after he has finished filming well that is a complete LIE, and yes I know it was for a laugh but you should ask the person if its ok to put it on YouTube some people do not want to be plastered all over the web.

Jue_uk says...
9:23am Thu 14 Feb 13

Blonde bel wrote:
This guy says that he informs his victims that he asked them after he has finished filming well that is a complete LIE, and yes I know it was for a laugh but you should ask the person if its ok to put it on YouTube some people do not want to be plastered all over the web.
The link below may be of help to you if you are one of the unfortunate innocent members of staff in any of Mr Mateers video clips on YouTube.

http://support.googl
e.com/youtube/bin/an
swer.py?hl=en&answer
=126263

the mighty wah says...
12:16pm Sun 17 Feb 13

anyone got a link to the said clips please?

jut1972 says...
3:07pm Sun 17 Feb 13

google dave mateer youtube and you'll find it.

Then go "oh". If it was offensive and funny its still funny, but it's just lazy and uninventive crap.

icecoolmark says...
3:51pm Sun 17 Feb 13

the only reason these employees probably didn't want to be shown on youtube is because they were working & signing on at the same time.... polish or albanians.Otherwise, lighten up.

Boris says...
8:07pm Sun 17 Feb 13

icecoolmark wrote:
the only reason these employees probably didn't want to be shown on youtube is because they were working & signing on at the same time.... polish or albanians.Otherwise, lighten up.
No racism please.

bill60 says...
10:51am Thu 21 Feb 13

Well gotta hand it to Dave, Youtube Sensation NOT! Drug dealer YES.

click2find

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