Feds forced to admit that it's legal to take pictures of federal buildings

via BoingBoing

The New York Civil Liberties Union and Libertarian activist Antonio Musumeci just won a court case that affirms the right of photographers to take pictures and record video out front of federal courthouses. The US federal government settled the case by apologizing to Musumeci for his arrest, acknowledging that it is legal to record at courthouses, and promising to issue guidelines to federal officers explaining this fact to them.

"Not only will this settlement end harassment of photographers outside federal courthouses, it will free people to photograph and film outside of all federal buildings," said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, lead counsel in the case. "The regulation at issue in this case applies to all federal buildings, not only courthouses, so this settlement should extend to photography near all federal buildings nationwide.

NYCLU Settlement Ends Restriction on Photography Outside Federal Courthouses

You Tube deletes my channel - WTF?

Dear Glen,
We are required by law to terminate accounts when they are found to repeatedly infringe copyright. Because you have had other videos rejected in the past, we are unable to reinstate your account.

Sincerely,
Jacob
The YouTube Team

Well the other videos i had rejected were short TV clips, that never even made it on YouTube. This current clip in question was a news report from Time Warner's NY1 news channel. But the irony is the news story was about the 1st phase of my "Liberty Street protest" - So I called the licencing dept. at NY1 spoke to some one there and they sincerely apologized and said they would write YouTube explaining the situation and if i left the video off they'd support me getting my account back.

Well no such luck. Not so bad for the clips I posted (other than Evan Bernards "Pound which got almost two million views since i posted it) because the best ones people have copied and posted or i have posted other places on the Internet, the really bad news is that I lost all the videos i marked as favorites and they won't even send me those URL's... Am i supposed to remember those? That's why i "favored" them! I think YouTube is amazing, but don't ever expect a fair shake from their legal department.

So even after NY1 wrote them, to tell them I was not such a bad offender;

We understand that the account... was closed down due to a copyright infringement complaint made by us. We’ve been in contact with the owner of the account, Glenn Friedman, and have settled the matter. We would like to help Glenn get his account re-opened ... Please let us know how we can assist Glenn.
Thank you,
Rxxxx Bxxxxxx
TWC Local News Division
Licensing & Clearances

Decent enough for them to write that. Then I get this back:

Dear Glen,
Based on the communication we have had with NY1, we will not be able to restore your account.
Sincerely,
Jacob
The YouTube Team

Damn...