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."

Comments

Mark Thomas

[Allicorn]

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

Re:Really good

[njcoder]

Try this one.
http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080516-hoax-cctv-video-get-out-clause-clip

Re:Wait, CCTV owners?

[stupid_is]

He was encouraging the public to make films by staging scenes in front of CCTVs and then do a DPA request to get the footage. Stitch it all together and you have a (silent) feature film.