An AAP story from Yahoo7.
Sydney's two most iconic landmarks have formed backdrops to hundreds of photographers protesting against laws that require them to have permits to do their work.
As many as 1000 commercial photographers from all over Australia positioned themselves at Campbells Cove, behind Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal, on Sunday morning, to take part in the protest.
With the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the background, they carried banners emblazoned with words including "Artists have rights to sell their work," and "Capture the moment, not the photographer".
Landscape photographer Ken Duncan said the permits were destroying passion.
"It's not just the cost of photographic permits, it's the logistics of getting a permit ... " he said.
He expressed concerns up-and-coming photographers would be put off by the red tape attached to getting permits, and would consequently give up pursuing their creative dreams.
He also said the tourism industry was missing out on the special skills of professional photographers.
"It's a free advert for our country," he said in relation to photographs of iconic Australian landmarks posted on the internet.
Permit costs vary, depending on the time of day, location, and number of crew involved, Arts Federation Australia spokeswoman Renee Dandy told AAP.
The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, for example, requires commercial photographers to pay a minimum $150 per session if more than 10 crew are involved.
No fee is charged if there is less than 10 crew.
The $150 fee does not include $65 an hour for a site coordinator, along with another $65 an hour for security, and an additional $65 an hour for cleaning, with each service being provided for a minimum four hours.
Wedding and portrait photographer Graham Monro said the permit fees were unfair, given many photographers pursued their craft for love, rather than money.
"Many (photographers) are no where near as affluent or well paid as many people believe," he said.
"Many lose money ... there are so many expenses, including travel expenses, accommodation and the cost of permits.
"When you take all that into account, it's questionable whether they make any money at all."
And what type of government brought about this totalitarian law? The same type that prevents farmers from farming their own land...
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100021577/the-greatest-threat-of-the-21st-century-not-agw-but-eco-fascism/
Well, some of the land clearing results in the raising of the water table and subsequent salt levels, which ruin the land. I don't necessarily disagree with some of the laws for that reason. Land clearing has ruined much of Australia. However, like the American and British governments, we are as fascist as it gets. We have blood on our hands for Iraq, and our government chose to believe the feeble rubbish that was touted as "evidence" for weapons of mass destruction. We slavishly follow the USA in everything, even though it has been sold down the creek and lost its ideals. We will leap into a one world government, and heaven help us all. All the regulations, whether they are on photographers or farmers or home-owners, are methods of control and one day we will realise what we have lost and that it's too late to get it back.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/photographers-in-hoodies/
not good news for photographers in hoods!
Go down to Blackpool Airport any weekend, holiday and light summer evening and you'll find a bunch of aircraft loving blokes and their sons, most with binoculars, or a camera or a radio tuned into the control tower frequency. A few of them will be wearing hoodies if it's cool. How do I know this? Because I used to take my own aircraft enthusiast son when his Dad was working away. Blackpool airport kept, and still does as far as I know, a compound where enthusiasts could go and be safe while doing their plane spotting thing.
Officer! OFFICER! They're all bloody terrorists. Arrest them at once!
And where are all these terrorists, pray tell?
Dez, most of your witty/ caustic/ puns/ etc etc.... remarks come of wickedly more so, because of that avatar :P
LOL
Here's a doozy. Is Obama God or something that he can't take an insult. Or must we cover our faces in his presence and not think out loud?
"A British teenager has been banned from America for life for sending Barack Obama an abusive email.
Luke Angel was reprimanded by police on both sides of the Atlantic after firing off a drunken message to the White House calling the president a "pr**k".
The FBI intercepted the message and contacted police in the UK who went to see the 17-year-old at his home in Silsoe, Bedfordshire.
Luke, a student, is now on a list of people who are banned from visiting the US.
The teenager told the Bedfordshire On Sunday newspaper that he had sent the email after watching a TV programme about September 11.
When asked about the ban, Luke said he did not care.
"My parents aren't very happy about it," he said.
"The police who came round took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever."
Joanne Ferreira from the US Department of Homeland Security said there are about 60 reasons a person can be barred.
"We are prohibited from discussing specific cases," she said."
Believe me, I don't want to go to any country where the leaders are so sensitive that they mustn't be insulted. I'm not surprised. I remember when an American was locked up and interrogated for making a joke about a burning bush, when that illustrious creature was in power.
I'm not having a go at Americans, by the way. I have some excellent American friends. I'm really talking about the Fascism that's creeping in everywhere, and hardly anyone is protesting.
Laffing. I think Obama is a Pr**k too. In fact that describes 99.9% of all politicians everywhere.
I'll await the midnight knock at my door...
I think this quote from John F. Kennedy's speech in 1961 should give us all pause for thought. Even back then, he was aware of the vast global push towards Facism. It hasn't gone away. It has made huge inroads into every area of power and resources on the planet, and few have been aware until the internet and its freedom of access to information. No wonder my government is trying to prohibit access to sites it doesn't like. We are probably the guinea pig for the western nations, to see if and how the populace will tolerate censorship on such a vast scale, under the guise of avoiding child pornography. Only a third of the sites banned involve such things. We are all going to end up back in the dark ages very soon.
"The very word secrecy is repugnant, in a free and open society. For we are, as a people, inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret proceedings and to secret oaths." ... "For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed." - John F. Kennedy's secret society speech on April 27, 1961
He might have been describing the UN directive. All that Kennedy said is happening right now with the help of the international media and left leaning political whores. A classic example is the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - IPCC. The climate conference in Copehagen last December was a roll-out for world government under the guise of saving the planet from us ghastly humans and beggaring the ones who worked hard to provide for their families. Unfortunately for all those busy little fascists, Climategate happened.
Climategate opened a huge can of worms, lifting the lid on just how the data purporting to prove how the "evidence" supporting catastrophic AGW consensus is peer reviewed (by their friends), final and undebateable. The data is fraudulent and has been so thoroughly falsified it should never see the light of day again - but keeps getting resurrected more often than a Romero zombie. Neither the UN nor its shills can stop these worms wriggling into awkward places and it has been amusing watching them attempting to apply damage limitation only to have more of the scam revealed. As a result belief in catastrophic AGW is waning. This would not have happened but for the internet.
Long live the free web!