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For months, we've known that Google has been busy photographing the streets of southern California. You know, so we can spy on people outside of Silicon Valley. But it's taken until now for a team of LA Times reporters to issue a warning to readers that their privacy may be endangered. Hopefully Google's camera trucks caught slow-moving celebrities before they fled the streets. The article, sadly, just rehashes the same privacy concerns aired in June shortly after Street View's launch. And it misses the most obvious impact this could have on the Hollywood economy.

Granted, we can see how the LA Times might have missed coverage of Google Maps' Street View feature. Story-wise, there was only the cat, the burglar, the peeping tom, Larry Page, and the co-eds.

But never mind that. Where the LA Times really slipped up was pointing out how Google could, yet again, disintermediate an entire business. Who's going to need paparazzi shots when Google Street View will provide automated celebrity photo captures? Even by charging People and Us Weekly modest photo fees, Google could drastically undercut paparazzi's rates while funding an army of camera-equipped vehicles to patrol the streets of Los Angeles. Your privacy is an illusion — and one heck of a business opportunity, too.