Over the years this picture has provided many, including me, with repeated minor amusement. If I featured in a similar mugshot and it afforded someone else with amusement, well turnabout is fair play.
There is no such mugshot of me, but I would not think it a big deal if there was. And I doubt that Bill Gates worries himself about the fact that that is out there.
By contrast if my right to free speech could be shut down just because Bill Gates does not like that particular picture, then what other speech could he shut down because he, or some other influential person, disliked it? I heartily agree that free speech is often abused. But when you open the door to shutting down speech, there is a short road from there to a loss of democracy. That would scare me.
Consider this well. The USA is messy, but has been a democracy for hundreds of years and few are concerned that it is about to become a dictatorship. By contrast Brazilian democracy is younger than me, and it is by no means certain that I won't survive long enough to see another military dictatorship there.
Now imagine the mugshot isn't for a minor traffic offence, but is for a rape or child abuse offence; and that the person photographed was released without charge and never prosecuted.
That mugshot now becomes a severe problem for you, risking your employment, and even your life.
By contrast if my right to free speech could be shut down just because Bill Gates does not like that particular picture
You have a right to free speech, but I'd argue that bill Gates ought to have a right to privacy that would prevent the police from releasing his mugshot in the first place.
To take a more serious example, I have Showdead enabled on HN so I see all the posts on the new page that are auto-flagged. The other day I saw one from a site I didn't recognize relating to photographs of the Boston bombing suspects (this was before the second one had been caught). It had been flagged but I was curious about the ongoing story so I went to the URL. well, it turned out to be the morgue photo of the older brother, on a blog that specializes in, well, morgue photos. I've worked in a hospital including a stint in a mortuary so I'm not mentally scarred by seeing a dead body, even a badly damaged one, but I do question to what extent freedom of speech should allow commercial exploitation of this sort.
There is no such mugshot of me, but I would not think it a big deal if there was.
Sure, because in Bill Gates' mugshot, you can tell he's not terribly worried about how this is going to affect his life, and I wouldn't be either for some kinds of offenses. But suppose you were unfortunate enough to be an alcoholic or got caught up in some sticky situation. If you were falsely accused of a sex crime or something your professional life might suddenly come to a crashing halt.
And now imagine also that there is a perfectly guilty rapist but, have exactly the same name as you (ups)
And when an possible employer enter your name in google the name rapist and the mugshot appears, and when you are in an airport you wait for an hour and probably lose the next flight typically until a bored airport policeman finds that, mmh, not, probably not the same people... maybe we could keep him/her another 20 minutes?
If you're Bill Gates you're not going to care much. But if you're an unemployed software developer you'd have to wonder if the places you send your resume to are doing a goggle search and getting that mug shot. Don't pretend like this isn't an issue. It is unless you're so rich that basically nothing could be an issue.
And don't pretend this is about free speech. You have no right to be in possession of these photos or at least you shouldn't have.
Over the years this picture has provided many, including me, with repeated minor amusement. If I featured in a similar mugshot and it afforded someone else with amusement, well turnabout is fair play.
There is no such mugshot of me, but I would not think it a big deal if there was. And I doubt that Bill Gates worries himself about the fact that that is out there.
By contrast if my right to free speech could be shut down just because Bill Gates does not like that particular picture, then what other speech could he shut down because he, or some other influential person, disliked it? I heartily agree that free speech is often abused. But when you open the door to shutting down speech, there is a short road from there to a loss of democracy. That would scare me.
Consider this well. The USA is messy, but has been a democracy for hundreds of years and few are concerned that it is about to become a dictatorship. By contrast Brazilian democracy is younger than me, and it is by no means certain that I won't survive long enough to see another military dictatorship there.