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An Imaginative Use For CCTVs
An anonymous reader writes "Everyone knows we're being watched by CCTVs everywhere — particularly in the UK — and virtually everyone (at least on Slashdot) complains about that fact. But have you ever stopped to consider the ways you can use all those CCTVs to your advantage? The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from Manchester in the UK, did just that; they played in front of 80 different CCTVs around Manchester, and then asked for the video via Freedom of Information Act letters. (About 25% of the CCTV owners complied with the law and turned them over.) The result isn't too bad."
Actually, that looks better than the 300â video we've got ;)
$> cd
$> more beer
Hard-Fi already has a song called Stars of CCTV, and I saw a video from another band that used CCTV cameras inside a store.. which I actually don't think was the hard-fi song. Anyway, kudos to these guys, the video looks pretty cool :)
And every move that I make
Gets recorded to tape
So somebody up there
Can keep me safe
We're the stars of CCTV
Making movies out on the street
Flashing blue lights, camera, action
Watching my life, main attraction
We're the stars of CCTV
Can't you see the camera loves me?
which is totally what she said
I kind of just assumed that the government/law enforcement were the "owners". Who is the summary referring to as "the CCTV owners" ?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Go to YouTube. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Is it just me, or is the important part of this not "band makes music video" but than 75% of organisations will deny a legitimate request under the Freedom of Information Act? Surely someone should be investigating this...
Got AdBlock? Turn it off or the video won't show up.
I make websites and stuff. Buy one.
I've seen semi-professional (meaning college seniors that are working on a music video for a final with professional equipment) videos that have far worse looking video. My biggest problem with it (and this may just be the player) is that the audio doesn't quite sync up sometimes, which definitely is a problem when you are working with so many different video sources.
I think that was a genius move on their part, it gets them a cheap, decently good music video and gets them a bunch of "free" publicity. I say cheap and free in quotes because the amount of work they had to have put into this is ridiculous, enough that they could probably have worked a real job and paid a camera crew to work with em for a video. It wouldn't be as cool or as innovating, so theirs was definitely a better choice.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
This is actually a really good video clip. You'd think the filming was professionally shot.
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
OMG!!! Ponies!!!
I see flash mobs. Many, many flash mobs, all obsessed with CCTV cameras. All overcome by a powerful need to bend over and drop trou.
You just KNOW somebody would leak the video before long.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
How is being illegally refused in 75% of requests considered "[not] too bad"?
(About 25% of the CCTV owners complied with the law and turned them over.) The result isn't too bad."
Erm, 75% failure to commit to a act specified by a law is pretty damn bad if you ask me.
Also the BBC did something along these lines where they asked for the videos, I think they got like 50% back, some claimed there was no record (i.e. they weren't actually recording) and others stated various security clauses.
Oh, and no I haven't read any other replies, I maybe redundant -_-
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
put up a cardboard puppet of yourself in front of one CCTV camera and commit a crime somewhere else. Even if your crime will be recorded on another CCTV camera, they will never be able to prove which one of the two was really you..
-- LP-Research
I know nothing about this, but could the Data Protection Act be used to get to the footage?
In the US, it's mostly private, not sure the percentage in Britain but a non-trivial amount to be sure. In the US walk in to any large store. Notice the black domes on the ceiling? Those are cameras (well some are probably decoys). They are monitored by the store's loss prevention group. It's all internal to the store. The government has no access, if they want to see the tapes they have to ask or get a warrant.
There's lots of private CCTV out there. Heck you can even get some of your own. If you want to monitor your house, there's plenty of companies willing to sell you the equipment to do so.
Definitely the band playing while riding up a public escalator. Most of that part was obviously not footage from a CCTV, but still really funny to watch.
That is a misuse of "Freedom of Information Act" ...
... how else could they easily get their stuff? Is Humpy on vacation or something?
"We should always tell the press freely and frankly anything that they could easily find out some other way."
- Sir Humphrey Appleby
Under the data protection act you have the right to request a copy of any data stored on you so it's covered by that.
It could get expensive though as they're allowed to charge a processing fee which by the way I think absolutely stinks. Why should you have to pay to see if they've fucked up your data? The burden should be entirely on the data holders and if they get lots of malicious requests designed to cost them money in man hours then maybe they should reconsider the need to store data on you in the first place. At very worst the costs should be capped at something trivial like £0.50.
The are post complaining about the return rate. However FOI only applies to the Government and some public sector bodies, not to the private sector. Most of these cameras would have been run by non government companies. I would guess any of these companies receiving an FOI would have been advised by their solicitors that they don't need to act on them.
Making a request under the Data Protection Act would have been the correct thing to do. Since the 'data' on the tape is about you, so they have to respond under the law. However they can charge up to a massive £10 handling fee.
About 25% of the CCTV owners complied with the law and turned them over.) The result isn't too bad.
If they did, they were being nice. I am under no obligation to give you the CCTV footage that I took of you.
and it's since transpired that most of it was fake. Taxis generally don't have CCTV in them. Yet.
The Indie Alt-Rock group "Kiosk" did something similar with the music video for "Stratospheric". It includes CCTV video of the band on the street, edited together with video surveillance of criminals in the act.
On MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/londonkiosk
On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BBCMYO2PHQ
Free MP3 download: http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/kioskx25x09x03
No connection to the band. In fact I think the music sucks... Still, they simply don't have as good of a PR guy working for them.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
This video was discussed over at Metafilter a few weeks ago, where Ericb discovered that the video was just a PR stunt.
Regardless, it was a pretty good one all the same!
With their (imaginatively titled) track CCTV: You're starring in a film every weekend On video and stills With all your friends You're there in Black and White Hundreds watch you every night You're great in every scene You're very natural It's as if you cannot see the spotlight on you But when you fluff a line the director says You're doing time When you're walking home In the evening after dark Remember don't hide And show your best side Cos you're the star in a film They also did a fantastic track about Tony Blair, before he became PM: He thought he was as drunk as can be New white skinny rebel was he Because he knew what mattered It's all in a clatter of the bands he's seen His words of wisdom would shock Whether he meant them or not He'd save the world All the boys and the girls But another single's all he'd be That's sad That's right Another night Of someone else's fantasy He thought he was cool with his tunes He practised the knack in his room And in the evening he'd DJ With the slider at eight plus Believing that at his feet we swoom Now he's always there in the queue While down on the dance floor it's you And when he starts playing He's up there playing You don't notice that they're not his tunes He thought he could measure the world Because he loved the flag when unfurled First he's a lawyer, excellent debator You should have heard the mud he hurled Now you've seen his face on TV Leading parliamentary When he makes decisions That meet your derision He reminds us all that we're free Although irritatingly I can't find any reference to the intended meaning of this song, and now I can't remember why I think it's about Tony Blair.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Freedom of information Act applies to public bodies. Use it more! There is a good interface for it at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/ The act is a good thing, but lacking, you can only ask questions and get spun replies, not access to documents.
Just think what this could do for the porn industry.
I can't find the link. This methodology was proposed for a student film. A group of university students proposed that they re-enact the same scenes at over 50 CC cameras then blend the films in a surreal effort to get ~ real time out of 3-5 FPS samples. The background would shift between frames, but careful staging would maintain the basic scene. I've no idea if it was ever carried out, but it does sound interesting.
Invenio via vel creo
so they've taken an idea 1st used about 5 years about by Mark Thomas (political comedian in the UK) and kind of mirrored what the video sniffing community have been doing for quite a while (where they use recievers to pick up signals from wireless cameras and make films that way, not annoying the arse out of people by getting copies)
So is the point that if Big Brother is watching, give him a show? The life/lemons/lemonade story is nice, but hardly does anything about the fact you are being recorded by so many entities.
If this were not a fake which it is there would be a barrier to the band using the footage from CCTV - the owner of the copyright in the footage would be the company or person who owned or operated the cameras.
The band would not be allowed under copyright law to copy or distribute the footage without a license permitting such usage from each and every copyright owner.
Do you think they should raise their prices instead? So that any wannabe rock band can get a free recording paid by the other customers?
History teaches us that anything that's not charged directly to the interested parties will escalate into a "Tragedy of Commons" situation.
A company doesn't hold data on you for no reason at all. If they collect data on you it's because they get some profit from it. Again, the alternative would mean higher prices. I'd rather have cameras taping me than pay more for shopping in stores where one security guard per aisle is needed to keep petty theft under control.
http://www.look-themovie.com/
The use I would like of CCTV is to put all the cameras on one massive pyre.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
... but seriously, how much does a handheld video camera cost? a few hundred bucks? Even the cheapest thing on the shelf will far exceed the quality of a CCTV surveillance camera.
This wasn't done out of economic necessity, but in the interest of publicity and having a "cool story" to tell.
During the video, an amateur theater company did also get imaginative about the use for CCTVs.
Related story: London 2006, Meet London 1984.
Love salty crackers? catchy electronica? Try !
And the result of having all this CCTV? Reduced Crime? No. The average person on the street is definitely no safer.
The only change is that the feral brats who congregate in town centres now wear a sporting baseball cap and hooded top combination to escape identification on camera. Teenagers nowadays have never known life without CCTV anyway so it's not really any sort of deterrent to them commiting crimes. The camera on the street corner is pretty much a totemic reminder of their impunity and the impotency of the police.
I know friends and relatives over the years who where assaulted and have asked police to survey CCTV in order to catch the offenders. Usually there's some lame excuse about the camera not being on, pointing the wrong way, a technical fault or some equally daft reason. I suspect the police don't have the man power to go back over it or most likely they just plain can't be bothered. Just last year, this happened to my brother when he was attacked by a gang of thugs in Edinburgh.
Try not to worry too much about your rights being slowly eroded way by CCTV. It's security theatre on a massive scale and no-one's watching anyway...
Hands down, it's...
Bad Side of the Moon
There aint no need for watchdogs here
To justify our ways
We live our life in manacles
The main cause of our stay
Why did the vast majority of those asked fail to comply with this law?
How dare you be so modest!! You conceited bastard!!
This reminded me of the part in National Treasure: Book of Secrets where our favorite treasure hunter needs a photograph of an artifact but no one has a camera, so he speeds through a red light while holding an artifact up to the windshield in order to get a photo of it. Of course he then has his geek sidekick crack into the police computers and retrieve the picture.
I wonder how hard it real it really would be to intercept red light camera images? Where I live, the cameras at an intersection all seem to be connected to a single box with an antenna that I assume transmits the images to a central server for storage. I wonder how secure the wireless network is...
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
I think I prefer the ironic tone in the original, as opposed to the ham-fisted approach in your "fix".
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
. . . an indie band, Los Pirata, made a music video, some years ago, video with a single CCTV from the building one of the members lived. :) YouTube link.
Here is a little taste of what you can expect in NYC. This was just one day. I'm sure you can find many more if you like... http://www.flickr.com/photos/neoliminal/sets/72157600350750369/
Enjoy.
Especially when more people get the idea to use CCTV as a cheap source for footage: Soon it will become illegal to release the tapes you get. After all, they are the property of the person or organisation that took the pictures, so you're in for copyright violation if you use them for anything but private use.
I take any bet, if this gets popular (and thus expensive for the CCTV operators), something like this will kick in. After all, it can't be that someone has to shut down CCTV just because it becomes too costy to operate it!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
so if it was a fake why didn't they plug the microphone in! I hate it when they miss the obvious details, you could use a radio microphone...
"You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people." by notnAP (846325)
ah, wasted due 2 getting wasted...i think that's what edison meant;-)
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasaed109928.html
...in real time, but when are they gonna be able to take a vhs cctv tape (which has probably been bicycled dozens of times) freeze the money shot, zoom in on a parking sticker & read the 6pt id number, huh?
they do it on csi alla time, & solve any crime in 40mins or less, every week;-)
Is obviously to run a red light during a high-speed car chase through London while holding up an ancient native-american carving then hack into the cctv system to retrieve the images so you can send them to your mom. ;)
I wonder if any of those 13 million cameras caught them in the act when they were ripping off Coldplay?
I noticed that Wikipedia did have an article for the Get Out Clause awhile back but it was deleted -- probably for not being notable. Doesn't major news coverage like this count as notable?
98% of America's teens drink alcohol, smoke, and have sex. Put this in your sig if you like bagels.