Techdirt Files FOIA Requests Concerning ICE 'Anti-Piracy' Videos

Earlier today, I filed three Freedom of Information requests concerning the infamous "anti-piracy PSA" that Homeland Security's ICE division started placing on domains it seized. As we noted at the time, the videos were not new and not created by ICE. Instead, they were part of a campaign put together by New York City with the help of NBC Universal and the MPAA. The scripts of the videos were misleading, and I was troubled by the idea that the federal government would be playing corporately produced and funded propaganda, with the imprimatur of the Department of Homeland Security. I asked a series of friendly (non-aggressive) questions to Brian Hale, officially the spokesperson for ICE within the Department of Homeland Security about where they got the video and how much was paid for it. Hale and Homeland Security apparently decided not to comment at all, despite multiple email requests.

Separately, I made requests to the City of New York, to get their side of the story, but after being asked who I was reporting for, what "the nature" of my story was and who else I was talking to (all of which I answered honestly), I received no further response from the City of New York.

Thus, the three Freedom of Information requests -- filed using the new system from MuckRock.com, an open government tool that seeks to publish documents retrieved via such requests and which recently built a tool to make it easier to make such requests (which I'm now testing) -- are as follows:

• A FOIA request to the Department of Homeland Security, concerning the details of any licensing agreement with the City of New York or with NBC Universal directly.
• A request under NY State's Freedom of Information Law concerning details of any licensing agreement with Homeland Security concerning the same videos.
• Separately, a second request to NYC, concerning communications between the Mayor's Office and NBC Universal or the MPAA concerning the details behind those videos as well

The NY State law says that the city must respond to my request within five business days. DHS has a longer period of time to respond. Honestly, it's silly that I had to file such requests. Homeland Security could have easily cleared this up weeks ago by answering my simple questions concerning how the federal government licensed this video. The fact that it has refused to do so necessitated this formal approach, unfortunately.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110516/01224714276/techdirt-files-foia-requests-concerning-ice-anti-piracy-videos.shtml

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