N.Y. civil rights group sues over federal photo ban

easyrider

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By LARRY NEUMEISTER (AP) – NEW YORK — A civil rights group accused the U.S. government of harassing law-abiding photographers outside a courthouse, saying in a lawsuit Thursday that a vague federal regulation restricting photography has been used inconsistently and is unconstitutional.
The New York Civil Liberties Union used the case of a photographer who was arrested in November outside federal court in Manhattan to illustrate its claim....
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h2k9cheuKp1Efea7vaU1djmQEREgD9F8CQAO0
 
We can expect more of this as time goes on. Be sure to vote in November and be careful who you vote for. Freedom is more important than benefits!
 
Over ambitious officers to make a name for them selves ?
Taking a 1957 law up now !!!!.... what was that reasoning?
Do you need to work for a media station to photograph this stuff now?? (because it can be "stopped" for publication by the police a lot easier than stopping a private citizen, you know).
Hope he wins the suit and and the law gets amended or dumped.
 
This post is directed to the 50% of readers of this web-site who do not despise lawyers just because.

Anyway, reading these postings compels me to write about something only tangentially on-point. It is about DHS, however.

Right now I represent someone on whose behalf I am suing the almighty Department of Homeland Security. The claim is a modest one. It is a run-of-the-mill lawsuit that would never be in federal court but for the fact that the offending individual just happened to be a DHS employee.

No matter the claim, and no matter the amount, any claim involving a U.S. employee requires a full-blown federal lawsuit.

Though I am certainly not objective in this matter (being his advocate), I will also say that it is a straightforward, legitimate claim that has nothing to do with state secrets, national security, civil rights, airlines, airports, or the Greek debt crisis.

In spite of the pedestrian nature of the claim, and despite the government admitting fault, my client is being subjected as we speak to the FULL WEIGHT of the U.S. Government and the FULL ONSLAUGHT OF POWER at the disposal of the U.S. Attorney's Office. This means endless, mindless, intrusive, overreaching, mind-numbing and burdensome investigation seeking to harass every public or private entity or person he has ever had anything to do with. It means that both my client and I are accused, for the hell of it, of being liars, thieves and unpatriotic. No amount of money is spared to delay and frustrate a claim where, again, fault has already been admitted!!!

I am not very forgiving of DHS. I would be if they appeared to spend their budget on worthy pursuits. The perception is that they waste honest folks' time on unworthy pursuits.

On a previous occasion, I was personally sued by the federal government -- with a full-blown federal lawsuit -- to recover the whopping sum of $27.00 that I sought to preserve for the benefit of a disabled Veteran client.

The Canadian government sometimes seems oppressive because there's not enough real work to do (i.e. the country is just too damn peaceful and safe) and the bureaucrats need something to do. This is especially true of Canadian Customs! On the other hand, the U.S. government IS oppressive in spite of having more than enough real work to do.

They do it because they can.

So there, I've vented.
 
The link also verifies the article and it's contents. I don't believe there is an attempt to breach any copyright, simply a desire of the OP to discuss the issue reported by Mr. Neumeister.
 
I think this use of copyrighted material might be covered under the Fair Use provision, as it was for educational purposes.
 
For purposes of facilitating a conversation about the story cited by the OP I have made an edit and ask all to click the link to see the rest of the story.
 
Fair use has become very complicated, particularly when it comes to digital content available on the internet. The truth is the original poster's use of the article would probably fall under fair use, but there is no way to know for sure without a lawsuit. For better or for worse, that's the way fair use is ultimately determined. As photographers I think we have a heightened awareness of potential copyright infringement and a desire to protect the creator of original work. That's understandable, but fair use is an important concept that also deserves protection.

I think that jan normandale's comment about asking the AP for their opinion is interesting. It's very reasonable, but also very original creator centric. If someone wanted to use one of my photographs I'd want them to ask me if it was ok, but at the same time I realize that some great art and satire never would have seen the light of day if not for someone's willingness to claim and defend fair use against an objectionable creator of original work.

All in all, I think that fair use is a facinating topic worthy of great discussion among photographers and that I've had much too much wine tonight.

Cheers!
 
I've worked for AP. I know what I'm talking about. Their copyright restrictions are very similar to the ones posted on the bottom of this page. No permission, no rights.
 
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How to post AP news items for FREE

How to post AP news items for FREE

I've worked for AP. I know what I'm talking about. Their copyright restrictions are very similar to the ones posted on the bottom of this page. No permission, no rights.
............

Here's (a pdf to jpg) of the process to post the OP news item (see third line from the top - Article: NY Civil rights Group Sues... ) or any AP article on the net.

There are varying levels of use and are based on valuable consideration. There is a 'FREE' posting option for AP articles as well as several other user formats available online.

Hopefully this will be useful to those wishing to post AP articles for FREE in forums like this one. Now I'll take another break from RFF.
 

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