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

Is it just me...

[ChowRiit]

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...

Re:Really good

[njcoder]

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

Re:Data Protection?

[asnare]

A common theme for privacy/data protection legislation is that the person whom the data is about has the right to:

1. Access that data;
2. Correct any mistakes in the data.

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

• View the data an organisation holds on them, for a small fee, known as 'subject access'
• Request that incorrect information be corrected. If the company ignores the request, a court can order the data to be corrected or destroyed, and in some cases compensation can be awarded.
• Require that data is not used in a way which causes damage or distress.
• Require that their data is not used for direct marketing.

So they may have tried to use the 'subject access' thing. Wikipedia also mentions that costs cannot exceed £10.

Re:Wait, CCTV owners?

[glas_gow]

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.

Re:The story is about a month old

[TheRealJFM]

Exactly, I was about to suggest that it was fake.

I work as a part-time CCTV operator (while I'm at University), and the footage just doesn't look remotely real to me. Specifically the frame-rate is FAR too high, most CCTV systems have the frame-rate turned down quite low (say 3-5 FPS) to save space.

Second, not every CCTV camera is necessarily recording at the same time. While every camera probably CAN record, usually only key cameras will be set to record, maybe half or less, to save space on the system. The idea is that if anything happens the CCTV operator will record that camera, not that everything records all the time.

If a band asked me to look up their footage because of something like this, the footage they'd get back wouldn't look that good. This is a publicity stunt.

(and, as has already been pointed out, the Data Protection Act, not the Freedom of Information Act)

Re:Wait, CCTV owners?

[fork_daemon]

I live in the UK. The CCTVs on the Streets are definitely owned by the Council and some by the Met Police as well.

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.

Re:Correct version

[rockout]

I think I prefer the ironic tone in the original, as opposed to the ham-fisted approach in your "fix".