Taking Mainstream pictures in public....

Pictures in public are different than private locations. You have to address someone's expectation of privacy in the location where the picture was captured.

A public beach, no problem... taking paparazzi shots of vaginas under swimwear with a 600mm lens on the beach... a little more problematic, but you also don't include a face in the picture, so not that big of a deal.

I have read on copyright cases where a company like Coca-Cola fought for copyright infringement because someone snapped a shot of a building and the Coke logo was there.... it came down to how much of the picture was about the Coke logo (which wasn't much, it was just a small percentage). Even in those instances you can include trademarked or copyrighted works if they are not the majority/focus of the picture.

What it all really comes down to though, in the end.... how good are your lawyers if there is ever a problem? You may be right and within your rights, but do you have enough money to get to the point where someone else has to pay your attorney's fees to prove that point (as you have to finance that up til a judgement occurs)?

best rule of thumb on so many issues

I always assumed as long as you arent FOCUSED or zoomed in on one person and its just a shot of say a street you are okay.

But if you follow a stranger down a road taking pics of her you stand a chance of problems.

right, thats what I was trying to say above in my post.

it is the focus of the image that makes the difference.

I shoot pictures all the time at events here in San Diego for a mainstream site of mine, plus I sell the photos to a news site here. If I'm shooting kids -which is most of the time - I always get the approval of the parent before I shoot. If I can't get it before I usually ask them afterwards. Most of the time I need to get their info anyway for caption if published.