Public space, responsibility and the "Culture of Geocaching" / Öffentlicher Raum & Verantwortung

[prixx]

Refering to a Urban-Geocache (http://coord.info/GC2GTNT) I want to put "Urban-Geocaches" into discussion.

 

I overlooked a few articles about Urban-Geocaches and I'm still in favour for Caches which are not only in public parks, in a tree or behind a bush - they are at a bridge or a public object, where you have to climb, where stealth mode is necessary or you have to get in discussion or pretend you are a worker etc.

 

From the law side it's never totally clear if it's allowed to go/climb in public space or not (besides a existing sign "keep off" or climbing is not allowed). This refers to the Austrian (and as I know German) Law.

 

I know that the commune of traditional geocachers who stick at the usual is the biggest - that's normal. The goal of this topic/issue is to collect meanings, learn and see if Urban-Geocaches where you climb on bridges or public objects is just a annoying thing or a variant form of Geocaching.

 

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Nachdem ich einige Artikeln zu "Urban-Geocaches" durchgesehen habe, finde ich die Caches, bei denen öffentliche Brücke oder Objekt beklettert werden müssen nach wie vor eine spannende Spielart des Geocachen.

 

Vom Gesetz her ist es nach meinem derzeitigen Kenntnisstand meist ein Graubereich in Europa (anders als in den USA), wenn es nicht dezidiert verboten ist - d.h. kein Schild das Betreten des öffentlichen Parks oder Brücke verbietet, und du keine anderen Personen gefährdest, du nicht belangt werden kannst.

 

Klar sind die traditionellen Geocachern, die sich mit solchen Fragen nicht beschäftigen die Norm. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist der Austausch von Meinungen, dazulernen und um zu beurteilen, ob "Urban-Geocaches" wo du öffentliche Objekte bekletterst nur nervig, oder eine Spielvariante des Geocachen sind.

 

Weitere Links (in German):

http://www.geocaching-sh.de/2008/11/13/erl...urban-cachings/

http://kurier.at/nachrichten/niederoesterreich/2047682.php

http://www.extreme-caching.com/

http://www.urban-boulder.com/

 

cache save

prixx

Edited November 15, 2010 by prixx

[+Touchstone]

Judging from your avatar, I'm guessing that what your fishing for is how prevalent or acceptable it is to climb on public structures, such as buildings, bridges, etc., in order to Hide/Find a Geocache?

 

Your best bet would be to obtain permission for such an activity. By and large, I suspect that here in the U.S., such an activity (Geocaching or not), would be considered criminal trespass.

 

Or at least, that is what the Campus Security used to tell us, back in my college days, when the nearest rock climbing area was a three hour drive away, and the lovely stone masonry of the campus buildings offered a premade climbing wall that was irresistible

[+Charlie Fingers]

Correct on the criminal trespassing in the U.S. These are to protect liability and insurance issues and of course the safety of the individuals considering this type of activity.

 

Same issues are why urban base jumping is illegal.

[prixx]

thanx for your posts.

meanwhile is the related cache archived. of course i learned from this case and it's still going on.

if i hear about the related topic something worth mentioning, i'll post it for the next users.

 

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da der cache nicht provozieren sondern freude machen soll, ist der relevante cache mittlerweile archiviert.

sollte ich in nächster zeit noch relevante informationen zu den rechtlichen rahmenbedingungen finden, werde ich diese für andere geoacher hier posten.

 

heute habe ich gelernt: "geocaching ist ein spiel, keine demokratie." (user grampa65)

 

cache save / prixx

[+ime]

From the law side it's never totally clear if it's allowed to go/climb in public space or not (besides a existing sign "keep off" or climbing is not allowed). This refers to the Austrian (...) Law.

 

From what I learned at university, this is simply not true (at least not for Austria).

Unless you have explicit permission, there is no doubt about climbing third party's properties being forbidden.

But posting here IANAL, but just a cacher, of course. ^^