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Mark Thomas (who does do publicity stunts) is not Mark Thompson, the DG@BBC.

The Beeb is being told to cut back on a lot of commercial activities (e.g. merchandising), which means a loss of revenue, which means cut-backs are inevitable. It would be nice if a start point was to stop paying rich folks quite so much in salaries, but that's only going to be a drop in the ocean for this, and there's a risk that they'll do a BA.

The Data Protection Act covers any information held about you. You can ask to see footage of yourself as it constitutes information about you. They can charge a fee, but nothing excessive.

This guy covered this in one of his TV shows here:

http://www.markthomasinfo.com/section_info/series5.asp

but he annoys too many people to be effective.

http://www.markthomasinfo.com/
I have to admit I find him amusing, even if I don't agree with all his politics...

British comic and political activist Mark Thomas ( http://www.markthomasinfo.com/ ) has been doing this kind of thing for years.

In 2000 (I think) he orchestrated a national "talent show" kind of competition where all entries had to be submitted as CCTV footage recovered from CCTV operators through measures under the Data Protection Act. Hilarious stuff :-)

Alli

There's no problem in doing that, you just have to fill in a form. Indeed, this is the biggest weakness in the system as we can just clog up the system by submitting lots of forms (do ten 10minute protests on the same day, and that's 10 forms the police have to process; get 10 people to do the same thing...) more here

As a consequence of this the comedian Mark Thomas organised mass lone demonstrations, setting the world record for the number of political demonstrations in 24 hours. Unfortunately his original broadcast on the BBC is no longer available on their listen again facility (keep on the lookout for a rebroadcast - it was really very funny.

Details can be found on his web page about the demonstration zone and applying for a permit.

Following is a brief synopsis of his broadcast, for those with a mischievous sense of humour. I may have some of the details wrong, but you'll get the main thrust of it!

1. A law is passed (SOCPA) to restrict protest outside Parliament, with the presumed intention of removing the thorn in their side Brian Haw
2. After taking this to court it's ruled that the law doesn't apply to Brian Haw since he was protesting continuously since before its inception. In effect the wording of the law meant he is the only person on earth to whom this law does not apply!
3. Mark Thomas picks up on this and decides to have some fun with the new law...
4. ...comedy ensues
5. He ends up in the Guinness Book of Records for the most political protests held in 24 hours.
6. Since it's now a record, someone is going to try and beat it!

As far as I am aware you can still request any footage of yourself captured via CCTV in the UK. You used to be able to siply right a letter to the camera owner / operator stating you name, what you look like and when you were filmed. They *had* to find the footage of you and return it within 30 days, and were only allowed to charge you a maximum of £30. The legendary Mark Thomas covered it a while ago. I hope it still holds true... Oh the fun you could have.