New York City, having already banned dancing (don’t ask), now wants to ban videography in the streets without a permit and $1 million in liability insurance. Some I talked to suspected anti-terrorism paranoia. I suspect the lucrative deals the city feasts on for big-budget, commercial projects — and an utter disregard for everyone else.

That is, if any rational explanation can explain these criteria:

• Two people + one camera + 30 minutes.
• Five people + one tripod + 10 minutes.

According to the proposed legislation, those would add up to one required permit and liability insurance.

Obviously, this is absurd. Fortunately, if you are in New York, it hasn’t happened yet — meaning it’s time to hit the phones, locals. For everyone else, you can just marvel at how annoying our city government can be. (Is yours worse? Let us know in comments. Do you live in a paradise for independent videographers? Tell us about that, too, and we’ll start checking airfares.)

For more:
City Proposes Limits on Public Photography, Filming

Dedicated site, with a call to action + petition (sign the petition, then take the time to make personal contact with city legislators for maximum effectiveness)
Picture New York Without Pictures of New York

Videographers should be very scared. But if the Flickr community gets mobilized, NYC government should be scareder. (Heck, outsider tourists, maybe you should write in, too!)

In 1983, Panasonic presented a bold future of videography, one in which cameras adjusted exposure and focus all by themselves, and we would sling portable VCRs over our arm to film ourselves doing interpretive jazz dance as the sun set over the Pacific. We would have terrific legs and short shorts, and dance with the sheer exuberance auto-focus inspired … until we realized we neglected to move the tripod as the tide came in, and our expensive Panasonic gear floated out to sea.

It’s nice to hear Panasonic’s old slogan “Just Slightly Ahead of Our Time” — an atypically pragmatic marketing slogan. (Like, “Futuristic Looking for At Least a Few Months, We Think.”) Maybe even they knew this whole clunky VCR - docking station wasn’t going to catch on. Yet, I still kinda want that camera.

Via stepheno.net, a Norwegian TV and Media Production student, and TechEBlog.