If you pick up photo magazines regularly you’ll know that they  will devote pages to tips and techniques, interesting places to go take photos and so on.  But I’ve never read anything addressing the issue of the law beyond the usual model waiver (giving you copyright to your photos that they appear in).  So it has been good to read an article at photojojo  (here) which describes in simple language the basic legal position of taking photos in public places.  Although photojojo is American based the principles of their ’10 commandments’ should be valid in most western nations, but they have made the attempt to also provide links to sites that outline the legal situation other English speaking countries (to have a list of sites covering non English speaking countries would make the ultimate reference for this sort of thing – particularly for when you’re on holiday in a country that maybe a little more sensitive).