guest post by Burstein!
photo and art by Matthew Williams Design
Matthew Williams, who is a deity of subversive design, has created two beautiful MUNI & DHS photography licenses to confound cops and security guards that (incorrectly) believe taking photos in public places is a crime.
In the event you’re stopped by overzealous law enforcement or security officials attempting to enforce fictitious laws, I’ve designed these fictitious and official-looking Photographer’s Licenses.
photo and art by Matthew Williams Design
These unofficial (not fake or fraudulent, mind you) licenses were inspired when our guest blogger Plug1 was stopped by a MUNI fare-inspector who demanded that Plug1 not take any photos and insisted that he needed permission and credentials to take photos. MUNI has since apologized.
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- Strictly No Photography, Photos You Were Not Allowed To Take
- Raccoons Line Up To Ride San Francisco MUNI Bus
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not sure here, but even though you can claim that they are unofficial, and that no license is actually needed, but this is still stamped with official looking seals from government agencies. There may be some laws in regards to falsified documents that may apply. A generic photography license would probably be a little better than claiming that it is something issued by the government.
as perfect as this would be for me and my crew, adam has it right. the seals and agency names would have to go. i dont know about other states but in florida we cant use any agency names or logos/seals otherwise we can be charged with impersonation. its a great idea, and they look awesome. can you make a template that is as close to legally gray as possible without being a crime?
How about if you created a seal and name for an official-sounding but non-existent agency?
for us, id pick something like flurbex which is our community. office FLURBEX photographer lol!
Clever hack, but makes me wonder if this is the right approach. These numbskulls from MUNI and DHS need to be educated at the time they’re hired. It shouldn’t really be the public’s job to train them, nor should we have to go to lengths to work around their ignorance.
But still, clever hack and well designed. :D
Well…when I clicked on this story, it says “this photo is currently unavailable”…so it’s already been taken down….
I’m not sure what’s up with that, but I went ahead and changed the link to that it would go to Matthew’s post.
It was a ‘fake’ homeland security photo ID. I think he pulled it for security reasons. Maybe the FBI is involved?
I have the original file, if anyone is interested.
This is probably illegal. There is a federal law criminalizing fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents:
http://128.253.22.246/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001028—-000-.html
I’m sure that organizations like MUNI or the Department of Homeland Security would be pissed if they caught you using one of these cards, but it’s tough to nail someone with a charge of falsifying documents if there are no original equivalents. In order to produce a fake, a real version has to exist, otherwise it’s just an imaginary ID that doesn’t mean anything other than poking fun at the organization whose logo is printed on it. So the question is, are there real MUNI and DHS photography IDs issued?
There are no $25 bills, but if I print a bunch and try to spend them, then I’m sure that I’d get in trouble. You can produce fake documents even if a real one of that type doesn’t exist. You normally only get into trouble if you try to use these “documents”, which is exactly what he is doing.