I just encountered (yet again) an officious photography policy in a free public-sector museum and gallery. What is the point of filling in a slip of paper, when they never ask for proof of ID? If I was really a pro photographer looking to rip them off for commercial stock photography, then I would give a Mickey Mouse name and a squiggle signature — and they’d be none the wiser. Such meaningless time-wasting rituals simply amount to harassment of photographers in public places. Photography is legally permitted in any ‘place to which the public have free access’, and I can do what I like with the images.