Slashdot Mirror
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."
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
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...
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 kind of just assumed that the government/law enforcement were the "owners". Who is the summary referring to as "the CCTV owners" ?
Almost all of the CCTV cameras that are frequently cited as being part of a "surveillance state" in the UK are owned and operated by private individuals, not the government. Specifically, most are run by shops. The article refers to the band using one on a bus.
Which raises the question -- why did the band expect the freedom of information act to apply to these? It only applies to government-run organisations, so the owners of the cameras in question had no obligation to comply with the request.
As already posted above, the FOIA only applies to government organisations. Majority of the CCTV cameras that people talk about are owned by small shops and private businesses. Which is why I get so bored of the scaremongering that goes on on slashdot. It can take police weeks to get access to the tapes from these CCTV cameras, it's nothing like 1984...
Dom Joly did a similar thing in his last series, IIRC.
One swallow does not a fellatrix make
Try this one.
http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080516-hoax-cctv-video-get-out-clause-clip
Open Source Java DAO Generator
It is a provision of the DPA that an individual can request that a company discloses all of the information that it holds on that individual. This can include information stored on video tape, such as that gathered by a company's CCTV cameras.
yes, footage of you on camera is data, and you can request that a company hands over any data on you that it holds.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
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.
If you read the guitarists response, he says that they did NOT use professional shots, and that most of the footage was indeed from CCTV cameras. He says they used (and quite obviously, I might add) handheld camera shots in between some CCTV shots in order to make the video look better overall.
This just looks like the spreading of a rumor that it was professional footage as fact.
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.
-- Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
I get the feeling that the latter is normally the main goal here, but the former is required for that to be tenable.
Specifically in the UK, according to Wikipedia's entry on the Data Protection Act:
The Data Protection Act creates rights for those who have their data stored, and responsibilities for those who store or collect personal data.The person who has their data processed has the right to
So they may have tried to use the 'subject access' thing. Wikipedia also mentions that costs cannot exceed £10.
and it's since transpired that most of it was fake. Taxis generally don't have CCTV in them. Yet.
Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to view data an organisation holds on you for a reasonable fee (~£10 I think) including CCTV footage: Wiki Link. Comedian Mark Thomas did a whole programme on it a few years back.
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!
Where I live (Scotland), they can charge you with "breach of the peace", which is a remarkably elastic law that allows the Police to charge you for doing just about anything. Basically they approach you and tell you to stop doing whatever you are doing, and if you disagree, then you are breaching the peace, and they arrest you.
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"
The ones outside the stores are their own. The one's inside places like stadiums, Malls are owned by the people who run these places.
Maybe the band had a choice of what shots to use, which is a luxury the police rarely get?
There is nothing interesting going on at my blog
Breach of the peace also applies in England and is equally 'elastic'. The current favourite by police at the moment (especially the PSCO wannabe cops) is the Terrorism Act 2006 which can be very easily stretched to include pretty much anything. I'm surprised that this stunt didn't get flagged up as suspicious (aka terrorist) behaviour.
Kudos to these guys for pulling this off though. How they managed to set up a drum kit on one of the Metrolink trams and on the travelator in Sainsbury's supermarket in Fallowfield (which is at a 45 degree angle!) is crazy.
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...
The fact that they can't secure a conviction doesn't stop them from arresting you, getting your DNA on file forever, causing you some grief and angst, then letting you go and marking the case No Further Action.
Just because you're not convicted, doesn't mean the law isn't abused.
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.