Dept. of Doing Things
Now You Too Can Defend Freedom
This is an example of the kind of picture that I couldn’t take under the new rules because I was with another photographer when I took it.
We’re generally the sort of people who pride ourselves on the idea that taking political action is best left to other, crustier people. If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you know the number of times we’ve asked our readers to actually do anything other than join us in deriding the pathetic state of nation and that number would be zero. Though we’re about to change that number by 100%, we pledge that calls to action will be few and far between if one is ever to come again.
But so look. New York City is a wonderful place, but the folks in the Office of Film and Television are about to do something really fucking stupid. Unless there’s substantial public outcry by August 3, they’re going to change the rules about filming and photographing on New York City streets so that any group of *2 or more people* would need *a permit from the city* and *$1 million in liability insurance*. The rationale for this is that since anyone can produce movies and tv shows and whatever and use the internet to reach an audience, groups of 2 or more people no longer count as the non-commercial whatever that protected us before.
I’m sure we don’t have to explain why this is a bad thing. Should this pass, other cities might get the same idea and that’s just bad news for everybody. Ronald Reagan beat Communism for a reason, and it’s so we can film and photograph whatever bullshit we want on the street whenever we feel like it and post it on the internet. That’s the idea that led Ronald Reagan to invent Freedom in the first place.
So sign this petition, even if you don’t live in New York. And if you do, there are going to be some public hearings and things and it would be rad if you found the time to go to them and say something intelligent for the cameras.
Thanks guys. Let’s beat this and then we’ll never have to ask you for anything ever again.
New York Times Article about this.
Featured Song: “I Turn My Camera On” by Spoon
