NYC to Restrict Photos and Videos in Public Places

A group called Picture New York is organizing resistance. You can view and add protest videos and comments on YouTube starting here, and you can sign a petition here. As one interviewee comments, "I already have a permit for my camera; it's called the First Amendment." It seems likely the new rules would have required Picture NY to get a permit to shoot its protest videos -- a process that might easily have delayed the effort beyond the closing of the comment period on the rules, which ends August 3.

"The NY Times reports that the city’s tentative rules include requiring any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour (including setup and breakdown time) to get a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance. The regulation would also apply to any group of five or more people who would be using a tripod for more than ten minutes, including setup and breakdown time. (Excerpted from the Gothamist)."

In the small world category, the organizers quote an e-mail from Jem Cohen (here) on their website to help explain why the new rules would be so burdensome. Cohen is the maker of one of my favorite videos in the Dallas Video Festival this year, Smells Like Teen Spirit, described in my previous post, here, as well as several other short pieces in the Festival. But I learned about this story not from Cohen but here.