When you sit in bulkhead seats, you cannot have any luggage at your feet, for both take-off and landing, but once airborne you are (supposed) to be able to retrieve your luggage (which might have a laptop) for use during the flight--if bulkhead pax can retrieve items from the overhead compartments, why shouldn't other pax be allowed do it too?
[From a comment in one of the "news" feeds, you are supposed to ask "permission" from a FA when retrieving items from the overhead bin.:confused:]

Quoted from abcnews: "If there is something you need then by all means you have to talk to the flight attendant, don't touch them," said Schiavo.

I hope Schiavo (and her editor/boss) of that piece of cr*p article are assigned seats with IFE equipment under the seat in front for their next many flights. When she has a space so small she's lucky to get a paperback in it and can't put electronics or anything else of size in the seatback pocket, I hope she enjoys the prompt responses she gets every time she summons an FA to retrieve, wait, and re-stow her overhead belongings....

What a fool. Has she really ever set foot on a plane?

I'd like to see a rational FA weigh in on the matter; unfortunately, we have a few out there who might partially agree with this author about pax accessing the overhead bins during flight.

Guys, it's really not worth it to even comment on that article beyond it's stupidity. Of course you can get up and get things out of the overhead during a flight. Any suggestion by anyone that you can't, or that you need to ask permission, or have an FA get it for you, is 100% ridiculous.

PTravel, do you live in or near the Wee Britain section of Orange Co?

I've been looking for it, but have never been able to find it. I also used to keep an eye out for the banana stand before it burned down.

The suggestion seems to be that by doing so, you may be engaging in what some might regard as suspicious behavior, and we all know the potential consequences for that.