it's a free country, isn't it?

Well, maybe it isn't so free. The latest sign is mentioned in this from Marc Fisher's blog. Seems that a guy trying to take photos on the street in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland was stopped by the police. Why? The company (the Peterson Cos.) that developed the downtown strip retail stores said it was verboten.

Another example of the power of corporations to tell us what we can or can't do, similar to companies that ban their employees from smoking (tobacco, I mean, which is legal) while NOT on the job or in the place of work, or companies that question how their employees vote.