We have not seen revised regulations from the city. But in the meantime, the First Amendment is still in place and Photojojo has written up The Ten Legal Commandments of Photography.
Their disclosure:
We have to point out that even though we’re smart and awesome and devastatingly attractive, we’re not lawyers. None of this should be construed as legal advice. If you have a legal issue, get in touch with a lawyer.
Very sensible.
UPDATE: Attorney Bert Krages has posted a downloadable guide, The Photographer’s Right. It’s loosely based on the Bust Card and the Know Your Rights pamphlet put out by the ACLU, meant to be carried in your wallet.
photo courtesy of photojojo
Tis The Season: N.Y.P.D. Style: a Greenpoint blogger gives us a photo essay of the decorations in her neighborhood, and the tale of her detention and questioning by the police while taking Santa’s picture.
Meanwhile back in the city . . . the public hearing about proposed regulations on street photography. Despite the slushy weather, indie filmmakers, press photographers, activists, a schoolteacher, and other New Yorkers turned out for about an hour of testimony. Speaker Quinn’s office and the National Press Photographer’s Association sent representatives, and the rest of us just spoke for ourselves. We’ve linked to the testimony we have copies of, and hope to bring you video of some of the others in the near future.
The Village Voice covered it.
We won’t know until sometime in the new year what the MOFTB will decide to do in terms of amending their camera permits proposal one more time. Stay tuned . . .
Photo credit: dietrich
Thursday December 13 is the deadline for public comment on the most recent version of camera regulations proposed by the Mayor’s Office of Film. Thursday at 10am is also the public hearing, where you can testify into the public record. We hear the time limit is 3-5 minutes. You can contact MOFTB to reserve a spot, or just show up before 10am and sign up.
Picture New York is concerned about the needlessly opaque language in the new regulations, and even more concerned about what will happen when this all shakes out on the street. MOFTB bases need for a permit on the concept of obstruction but
does not make clear in the actual rules that the mere presence of a filmmaker or photographer, even with a tripod, does not constitute an ‘obstruction.’
Perhaps you noted the recent ruling about someone standing on the sidewalk who was arrested. New York State’s highest court threw out the conviction but it took a few years to get through the courts. We’d like to avoid this kind of situation.
Picture New York is calling for an affirmative statement in the final rules that mere occupancy of the sidewalk is not “asserting exclusive control” and does not constitute obstruction — especially when it comes to a person exercising their 1st Amendment right to photograph on public streets.
The NYCLU filed another lawsuit last week on behalf of a person with a camera, unlawfully handcuffed and detained in July for taking pictures. Check it out here.
A recent town meeting with the MOFTB gave little indication that they respect the tradition of street photography in New York or see the right to take pictures as a basic, protected freedom.
It’s clear that our collective effort this summer resulted in the rollback of the first misguided attempt at regulation, but we don’t want to rest on our laurels when there’s a chance to make the situation better, more clear, and not a threat to civil liberties. We’d like everyone to keep in mind that this is about far more than the film industry in NYC — it’s about the 1st Amendment.
photo credit: Donna Tine
What we’re seeing in the amended regulations is some extremely confusing and problematic legalese. We agree with basing need for a permit on whether a filmmaker/photographer actually causes an obstruction, but the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting’s definition of ‘obstruction’ is so difficult to grasp that it will cause problems on the street.
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New York State’s highest court recently threw out the conviction of a man who was arrested for standing and not moving on a Times Square corner in June 2004. (Picture shown is not that man - this is some other guy with a camera on a narrow city sidewalk.)
The judge said, “Something more than a mere inconvenience of pedestrians is required (snip) Otherwise, any person who happens to stop on a sidewalk - whether to greet another, to seek directions or simply to regain one’s bearings - would be subject to prosecution under this statute.”
Read the NYT City Room blog on the ruling here.
PNY agrees with basing need for a shooting permit on whether a photographer actually causes an obstruction, but we’d like a clear statement that occupancy of the sidewalk by a person with a camera is not defacto obstruction - anything less is just asking for trouble, on the street and in the courts.
+ The MOFTB’s amended proposal for camera rules and a press release are up for review at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film. The time for public comment is NOW. You have until Thursday, December 13, 2007 to submit your comment to the city.
The public hearing on the regs is 10am, December 13, 2007.
photo credit: danielkrieger.com
All the action at the Mayor’s Office of Film is still behind the scenes, but we hear things are moving in a positive direction - one that addresses our concerns.
Still, we won’t know for certain until they publish a new proposal. When it’s official, there will be (per city policy) a 30 day comment period. Keep checking in, and using your 1st Amendment rights to make beautiful pictures of NYC . . . and thanks again to everybody who came together as Picture New York.
Here’s the backstory:
Petitions Delivered; City Agrees To Withdraw Regs
photo by smoothdude
Great news!
The Mayor’s Office of Film announced Friday afternoon that they are headed back to the drawing board with their regulations.
You spoke – they listened.
And did the right thing. Wonderful, right? We’ll be watching for the revised regulations, so we’ll have to get back to you on that. Tony Overman, president of the National Press Photographers Association really got it right: “We are offended at the notion that a city agency or police officer would have the power to keep a photographer from taking a picture or video on a public street. City property belongs to the citizens and the city has no right to limit safe, constitutionally protected behavior in a public venue.”
Stay tuned for the next stage — new proposals that we hope truly reflect the massive outcry of this community of 1st Amendment-loving amateurs and professionals alike.
Read the complete statement from the MOFTB here.
Read about it from Diane Cardwell in the Saturday New York Times:
After Protests, City Agrees to Soften New Rules on Photography Permits
Photo Credit: I.M.Bitter
The NYTimes City Room blog popped in to videotape at today’s joint press conference of Picture New York, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The NYCLU is the only one you’ll see mentioned in the Times coverage that we’re linking to, but we were all there. The Free NYC Rap guys from Olde English were there too! We’re the “huge and dynamic group of New Yorkers … who won’t take it lying down when the city tries to squelch free expression” that the NYCLU’s Donna Lieberman talks about with obvious pleasure in the videoclip. That’s us — that’s 31,600 of us — that have something to celebrate with today’s reversal by the city.
The NYT City Room blog gets the petition numbers wrong by a third, but at least ‘the paper of record’ followed us uptown to the Mayor’s Office on Film, where we delivered into the public record those nearly three reams of paper holding 31,600 of your names.
The Times has covered the camera permits issue from the start, when it was just them and NY1 paying attention.
We’re up and over an astonishing 31,000 signatures on the petition - in just ten sweltering summer days! John Sayles and Moby just joined the list. Please sign, and get all your friends and colleagues to sign. The deadline for comment is this Friday, Aug 3.
Reach out to your listservs today!
The buzz hit major media and the international press Wednesday through an Associated Press story, indieWIRE did a feature piece Tuesday, amNewYork did a full color cover, we have hundreds of blog reactions, and our local WCBS radio had the story in heavy rotation using snippets from your Video Comments and Julianne Cho of the Mayor’s Film Office defending required permits for amateurs. Keith Olbermann at MSNBC named Ms. Cho and the people at MOFTB “Worst persons.” We don’t even know what that means exactly - we just want to preserve our right to take pictures of New York without having to ask permission from an office set up to deal with Law & Order shoots and Hollywood blockbusters.
Photo Credit: I.M.Bitter
We’ve had an incredible first week - major pieces in The New York Times and on WNBC-TV News. Our ePetition is close to 10,000 signatures after only a few days online. More than 450 people thronged (more…)
