You are very kind - much too kind given the usually quite mediocre standards of my pics. Yes, the organisers are aware of my Flickr stream. I happily gave Nick Sayers my real name last year when he asked for it. They will have seen that the vast majority of my pictures aren't of naked people. And that there is nothing (I hope) deemed dubious about any of the stuff I take at the Brighton and other rides. And yes, they've used various of my pics in the past, as have assorted media agencies.
Makes no difference. If you're in the painting area naked, with an iPhone and an erection, going round taking surreptitious shots of people getting undressed/painted - fine. If you're two/more gay men getting up to various sexual shenanigans in full public view - fine. If you're an obvious exhibitionist going about The Level making every effort to draw attention to yourself and encourage snappers - fine. But if one of those snappers takes your picture without asking permission (frequently impossible), they are in the wrong. Unless, of course, that snapper happens to be a woman, then it's perfectly acceptable, even if she's doing things that would get a guy removed from the immediate area.
I personally didn't have too much hassle. But a lot of folks did. And the fun party atmosphere was seriously undermined by this constant brainwashing of the riders that they have some kind of legal right to cavort naked in public and not be photographed without their express consent. You have no such grief in London. The organisation of that ride is superb.
Speaking to lots of riders yesterday, it seems that many of them are annoyed by the heavy handed attitude in Brighton. Where do these people think all the photos in the media that publicize and promote their ride come from?
I also had various marshals as me if I was going to be taking 'close up' pictures. To one I said 'you mean shots of genitalia from 12 inches away like half the people doing the ride?', which didn't go down too well
To all of them I said I would only be asking permission if I considered it appropriate to the situation, given that it was a heavily publicized protest event taking place entirely on public land. That didn't go down too well either.