Comments on: Your Insurance, Please, or No Photos http://citmedia.org/blog/2007/06/29/your-insurance-please-or-no-photos/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:49:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jon Garfunkel http://citmedia.org/blog/2007/06/29/your-insurance-please-or-no-photos/comment-page-1/#comment-1606 Jon Garfunkel Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:45:46 +0000 http://citmedia.org/blog/2007/06/29/your-insurance-please-or-no-photos/#comment-1606 Sigh. A worrisome lede, sure. But the motivation as explained in the article is far less paranoid (David Ardia <a href="http://citmedialaw.org/new-york-city-may-require-permits-and-insurance-public-photography" rel="nofollow">noted this</a>). Basically, much of this stems from an Indian documentary fillmmaker getting harassed in 2005 for using a handheld camera; he asked to see the rules, and there were no written guidelines at all. Incidentally, the new indie Irish film <i>Once</i> was shot without permits in Dublin. It's made $3.4m domestically on a $150K production. I would recommend that the citmedia movement, if they want to challenge any subset of the rules, should come up with some detailed cases, actual or hypothetical, and test how they would fly against the rules. It's clear from the rules that the police are not going to ticket every tourist. Also, there's various municipal laws already on the books regarding taking photos in transit facilities, NYC and elsewhere: http://www.nycsubway.org/faq/photopermits.html Sigh. A worrisome lede, sure. But the motivation as explained in the article is far less paranoid (David Ardia noted this). Basically, much of this stems from an Indian documentary fillmmaker getting harassed in 2005 for using a handheld camera; he asked to see the rules, and there were no written guidelines at all.

Incidentally, the new indie Irish film Once was shot without permits in Dublin. It’s made $3.4m domestically on a $150K production.

I would recommend that the citmedia movement, if they want to challenge any subset of the rules, should come up with some detailed cases, actual or hypothetical, and test how they would fly against the rules. It’s clear from the rules that the police are not going to ticket every tourist.

Also, there’s various municipal laws already on the books regarding taking photos in transit facilities, NYC and elsewhere:
http://www.nycsubway.org/faq/photopermits.html

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