COPYCENSE

“A budding filmmaker that FEMA found in the yellow pages used his taxpayer-funded video of the smoldering World Trade Center ruins in a documentary featuring topless women chatting about their breasts.

“Provided with unique access in an NYPD helicopter, Gregg Brown was flown by cops over the restricted air space of Ground Zero daily for eight months beginning on Sept. 15, 2001, capturing countless hours of grim video while snapping 30,000 photographs.

“Red-faced officials at the city Department of Design & Construction concede that the stunning, gut-wrenching material was supposed to belong to the people who paid for it — the citizens of New York and the nation. But Brown, who was ultimately paid up to $302,000 in federal 9/11 disaster recovery funds, refused to sign a prepared agreement ceding ‘title and ownership’ to the city.”

Greg B. Smith. Shameful Abuse of 9/11 Footage. Daily News. Feb. 11, 2006.

See also:

Meredith McKeown. Gregg Brown’s Photographic Odyssey. LIFE. No date.

Gregg Brown. Above Ground Zero. No date.

Updates:

Greg B. Smith. WTC Pix Snafu Not My Fault. Daily News. Feb. 14, 2006.

Attribution: CopyCense first learned of this story via a post in The Trademark Blog, edited by Marty Schwimmer.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.