New Rules governing photography and filmmaking in New York go into effect August 13th.
The city calls it this way.
The actual regulations are here.

It appears that public opposition and input have resulted in a substantial turnaround by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting. Changes from earlier proposals can be considered a major victory for civil liberties, artistic expression, and democratic action in our city. We hope the new rules will clarify to police and security personnel the people’s right to take pictures in New York without harassment and free from burdensome demands for permits or insurance. While it’s unfortunate that the rules are still written in difficult legalese, a crucial added paragraph addresses many of our primary concerns:

Page 2 of the regulations states that:
’standing on a street, walkway of a bridge, sidewalk, or other pedestrian passageway while using a handheld device and not otherwise asserting exclusive use by any means, including physical or verbal, is not activity that requires a permit. ‘
See Chapter 9, Section 9-01 (b) Required and Optional Permits (1) a. (ii)

‘Handheld devices’ are elsewhere defined as INCLUDING tripods, hand-carried microphones, and hand-held lights. See section 9-02 (a) paragraph (3)

The key change over the previous proposal rests in the word ‘otherwise’ which confirms that one’s mere presence with a camera and tripod does not constitute the ‘assertion of exclusive control’ over the sidewalk, street, etc.

The city’s initial proposal of absurdly restrictive regulations sparked an extraordinary outpouring of dissent including a Picture New York petition that reached 35,000 signatures in just a few weeks. It was signed not only by New York luminaries including filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker and musician/photographer Patti Smith but by some of the world’s most renowned photo-journalists, including members of the Magnum Photos agency which linked to Picture New York’s petition on its Paris-based website.

MOFTB can be commended for recognizing the importance of these freedoms to the public and reversing what many considered to be an untenable, unenforceable position. The new rules put the MOFTB back in the business of regulating larger, mostly commercial shoots that have long been their realm of legitimate governance.

The campaign against these regulations was an astonishingly effective demonstration of democracy in action. Picture New York would like to thank all of those who participated. In part because the regulations themselves are still not easy to understand, and in part because of a general climate in which people’s basic rights are often under fire, we expect that conflicts on the street may well continue. The key will be to assure that these rules are understood and obeyed by police and security personnel.

For now, we celebrate a crucial victory and encourage all photographers to know and insist upon their hard-fought rights.

photo courtesy: Tracy Collins