Picture America without pictures of America
A Coalition of Concerned Citizens, Filmmakers and Photographers

Your Audio Comments:

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Audio Recording
Just call in and record your audio comments over the telephone
call: 800 609-9006 then push extension 9413 - listen to instructions and then simply record your comment or ask a question. You can send a follow-up email and we'll know to check for your audio comment
-- email: PictureAmerica@mac.com |

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Your Written Comments:
Send your written Inquires and comments to PictureAmerica@mac.com |

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Picture America
... it's a great point to make... It is interesting how it looks like even taking photos of Yosemite might become a [challenge]. There's a guy in San Francisco who got confronted several times and beat up once by private security for taking photos of San Francisco buildings from the street, and the cops refused to prosecute... I saw an Asian guy with a video camera on a tripod get shooed away from a park in Manhattan by the Park Police for taking videos of a merry go round -- park police and merry go round, sounds like a nice Alice In Naziland tale. -- Bruce Bowman

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Hi John,

It’s pretty good.

Until I visited the film.ca.gov web site, I wasn’t sure what was happening with regards to film permits in California, and else where. Based on what I just read, I would never shoot another film in California again — even a short for one of the online web sites like You Tube, Crackle, or Atom. They are sure doing a great job of convincing filmmakers and photographers why California is NOT a good place to make films.

Moreover, as you have pointed out, they are violating the freedom of speech/expression rights of U.S. Citizens under the Bill of Rights as part of the Constitution of the United States, as well as our moral and economic rights under U.S. Copyright law.

Thanks for sharing this, John. Please keep me up to date with is fight. I will try to find out if Oregon or Washington have similarly idiotic ordinances on their books. Portland was voted the 3rd most friendly city in America for independent filmmakers — actually behind New York (1st) and Austin, TX (2nd).

Keep up the good work,

Mark Baker

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YouTube videos: YouTube.com/PictureAmerica |

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Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Picture_America/ |

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Picture New York |
Basically, this [proposed NY City film permit ordinance] opens the door to unlimited police interactions with photographers and filmmakers, because under these proposed rules, if they were passed, basically everyone with a camera, including everyone with a cell phone, would be someone who might have to have a permit to do photography... with all the people out there with cameras, most people are going to be left alone. This is going to give the police license to stop people they want to stop for whatever reason they want. And you can imagine who the likely targets are of that sort of enforcement... People with dark skin, people who look suspicious in the eyes of the police... It's going to be the people who tend to be harassed by the police in other contexts. -- Christopher Dunn

Send us your comments, photos, local stories and links to PictureAmerica@mac.com |

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JOHN LONGENECKER

Picture America
A Coalition of Concerned Citizens, Filmmakers and Photographers
site: PictureLA.org |
site: PictureNewYork.org |
Picture America: PictureAmerica.org |
email: PictureAmerica@mac.com |