Clinton Fein

Clinton Fein (born 1964 in South Africa) is an artist, writer and activist, noted for his company Apollomedia's controversial website Annoy.com and its Supreme Court victory against Janet Reno, United States Attorney General, regarding the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act in 1997. ImageMetadata File history File links Clinton-fein-web. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Clinton-fein-web. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as involvement in action to bring about change, be it social, political, environmental, or other change. ... The front page of the English Wikipedia Website. ... The supreme court in some countries, provinces, and states, is the highest court in that jurisdiction and functions as a court of last resort whose rulings cannot be appealed. ... Janet Reno (born July 21, 1938) was the 78th Attorney General of the United States (1993–2001), and was the first (and, so far, only) woman to hold that post. ... Alberto Gonzales, current Attorney General of the United States The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. ... Constitutionality is the status of a law, procedure, or act being in accordance with the laws or guidelines contained in a constitution. ... The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was Title V of the United States Telecommunications Act of 1996. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

This victory, a landmark for First Amendment rights, won Fein's right to disseminate his art. Fein won another federal First Amendment lawsuit to remove a government-imposed gag order. As recognition, Fein received a nomination for a PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in 2001. Fein now presides the board of First Amendment Project, a nonprofit organization that protects and promotes freedom of information, expression, and petition. The first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. ... A gag order is an order, sometimes a legal order by a court or government, other times a private order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment from being made public. ... Newmans Own is a food company founded by actor Paul Newman in 1982. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

Early life and career

Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Fein graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in 1986, with a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Psychology. After living in New York for a couple of years, Fein moved to Los Angeles, where he began reporting directly to the President of Orion Pictures, as part of the creative team for numerous films, among them Academy Award-winning Dances With Wolves and The Silence of the Lambs. Johannesburgs skyline as seen from the observation deck of the Carlton Centre. ... The University of the Witwatersrand (pronounced vit-vaters-rant, with flat vowels -- see South African English) is the leading South African university situated in Johannesburg. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Industrial psychology is the psychology that deals with the workplace, focusing on both the workers and the organizations that employ them. ... This article is about the largest city in California. ... Orion Pictures Logo Orion Pictures Corporation was a United States movie production company, formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. ... Dances with Wolves is a 1990 epic film which tells the story of a United States cavalry officer in the 1860s who befriends a band of Lakota Indians, sacrificing his career and ties to his own people. ... The Silence of the Lambs is a novel by Thomas Harris, his second to feature Lithuanian count, sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr. Hannibal The Cannibal Lecter. ...

From the outset, Fein's work has led him into some high-profile confrontations. In 1994, his CD-ROM Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military, based on the book by renowned investigative reporter Randy Shilts that examined the issue of gays in the military, used digital technology as an art form. When the US Navy unsuccessfully attempted to block its release [1], it became the first CD-ROM to triumph under First Amendment protections. Conduct Unbecoming won the Critics Choice Award, was praised by Wired Magazine as "a tantalizing peek at the potential of CD-ROM publishing," and dubbed "evolutionary" by Rolling Stone Magazine. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... Randy Shilts (August 8, 1951 – February 17, 1994) was a gay American journalist and author. ... Wired (magazine) is a full-color monthly magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993. ... This article is about the music magazine. ...

Art and Law

Fein was the first South African-born American to challenge government restrictions on technological communications when he filed a federal lawsuit on 30 January 1997. Fein, represented by Michael Traynor of Cooley Godward LLP and by William Bennett Turner of Rogers, Joseph, O'Donell and Phillips, filed a lawsuit against Janet Reno, former United States Attorney General, challenging the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The CDA made the communication of anything "indecent with the intent to annoy", a felony punishable by a fine and up to two-year imprisonment. President Bill Clinton signed the CDA into law in February 1996. Fein filed the lawsuit, Apollomedia v. Reno [2], the same time he launched his Annoy.com web site. A three-judge panel in United States District Court for the Northern District of California made a divided decision on the lawsuit. Fein filed an Supreme Court appeal, which he won in 1999. President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, universities, and countries. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe, III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is comprised of the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma. ... The supreme court in some countries, provinces, and states, is the highest court in that jurisdiction and functions as a court of last resort whose rulings cannot be appealed. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

In June 1999, the U.S. government sent Fein an order to reveal a user of Annoy.com's e-card service. Earlier, in April 1999, the University of Houston tried unsuccessfully to obtain the website's records. The government later ordered Fein to stop discussing details of this investigation, its existence or its application. In United States v. ApolloMedia, Fein argued that this gag order violated the First Amendment and the statutory requirement that it have a definite duration. The case moved from a Texas magistrate court to a Texas District Court and then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Fifth Circuit granted the appeal. The District Court then unsealed the website's records and all related proceedings and lifted the gag order. 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... An E-card is a postcard, sent by means of the Internet, usually through email. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Partial view of the University of Houston campus looking northwest to Downtown Houston Motto Founded 1927 School type Flagship State University President Jay Gogue, Ph. ... The first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. ... A magistrate is a judicial officer with limited authority to administer and enforce the law. ... District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations. ... The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States District Courts: Western, Middle, and Eastern Districts of Louisiana Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi Western, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Districts of Texas The court is based at...

Art, Politics and Censorship

As an artist, Fein is represented by Toomey Tourell in San Francisco and Axis Gallery in New York, and his shows have been dogged by controversy. In 2001, Fein was scheduled to open a solo exhibition in San Francisco in October. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Artforum Magazine pulled an advertisement for Fein's show from their October issue. The advertisement displayed an image of a purse lipped former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, sitting naked in a urine-filled glass, referencing the technique used by artist Damien Hirst, in which animate objects are soaked in formaldehyde and encased in a glass containers. Fein’s advertisement, designed to link Mayor Giuliani with mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg, incorporated imagery from the exhibition Sensation that resulted in mayor Giuliani withholding funding from the Brooklyn Museum. Clutching a crucifix with a nod to artist Andres Serrano and with another Giuliani targeted work, Chris Ofili's Virgin Mary forming the backdrop, copy on the top of the image reads: "Mike for Mayor" and at the bottom, "Start Spreading the News." This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... State nickname: The Empire State Official languages English Capital Albany Largest city New York City Governor George Pataki (R) Senators Charles Schumer (D) Hillary Clinton (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 13. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ... Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Rudy Giuliani III KBE (born May 28, 1944) served as the Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1994 through December 31, 2001. ... Damien Hirst (born 7th June 1965 in Bristol) is a British artist and probably the most famous of the group that has been dubbed Young British Artists (or YBAs). ... Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Mike Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is a prominent businessman, the founder of Bloomberg L.P., and the 108th and current Mayor of the City of New York. ... Brooklyn Museum, Eastern Parkway, 2005 The Brooklyn Museum, located at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York, is the second largest art museum in the City, and one of the largest in the United States. ... Andres Serrano Andres Serrano (b. ...

Artforum Executive Editor, Knight Landesman, stated that the magazine was understaffed and that the editors did not feel comfortable publishing a disparaging image of Rudy Giuliani.

In October 2004, Palo Alto-based printing company, Zazzle, destroyed two of Fein’s giant images just before the opening of a solo exhibition at Toomey Tourell Gallery. The one image, reviewed at Chelsea’s Axis Gallery by New York Times’ Ken Johnson, was described as "an American flag with the stars and stripes made from the text of the official Abu Ghraib report is accompanied by fifty representations of the iconic image of a hooded man teetering on a box with wires trailing from his arms comprising the stars." The second image depicting President Bush on a crucifix entitled "Who Would Jesus Torture?" was also withheld by the printing company, who told San Francisco Chronicle art critic, Kenneth Baker that the company had "destroyed the images." Company spokesperson, Matt Wilsey, claimed the image might "offend Christians," and threatened to sue Fein for defamation if Fein publicly criticized the company’s actions. 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December See also: October 2004 in sports Deaths in October • 29 HRH Princess Alice • 25 John Peel • 24 James Cardinal Hickey • 23 Robert Merrill • 19 Paul Nitze • 18 K. M. Veerappan • 16 Pierre Salinger • 10 Christopher Reeve • 9... Downtown Palo Alto Palo Alto is a city in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. Palo Alto is located at the northern end of the Silicon Valley, and is home to Stanford University (which is technically located in an adjacent area — Stanford, California), and... Zazzle is a customized products marketplace for consumers to create apparel, posters, cards, stamps and other products. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... The San Francisco Chronicle, the self-described Voice of the West, is Northern Californias largest newspaper. ...

Fein's image, "Who Would Jesus Torture?" is published in Art of Engagement, Visual Politics in California and Beyond, by Peter Selz, scheduled for release in November 2005. Peter Selz is Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley, is the founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum and a former curator of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. General Electric GE90-115B fanblade, on display at MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. ...

Fein is the current editor of First Amendment Project's web log.

External links

Bibliography

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Clinton Fein

• Clinton Fein Official Web Site
• Clinton Fein at Toomey Tourell Gallery
• Clinton Fein at Axis Gallery
• Clinton Fein and the Art of Political Protest By Deborah Phillips
• Clinton Fein is not afraid to make a statement By Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle

Image File history File links i would like to see some quotations by or about goebbels. ... Wikiquote logo Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ...

Articles

• Everything's Fein By Molly Freedenberg, Ventura County Reporter
• As Nov. 2 nears, artists get in their last licks, sending up Bush and company on center stage By Steve Winn, The San Francisco Chronicle
• The Clinton Cabinet Surface Magazine
• The Importance of Being Annoying By Michelle Goldberg, Metropolitan Magazine
• Designed to Annoy, Web Site Flouts CDA By Steve Silverman, Wired
• Asserting a Constitutional Right to Annoy By Pamela Mendels, The New York Times
• Does Anything Go? Limiting Free Speech on the Net:Five Players Debate the Issue The Wall Street Journal
• U.S. court protects 'annoying' online speech By Elinor Mills, CNN
• A very confusing decision KRON TV
• Additional articles

News

• Corporate Policy Leads to Political Censorship By Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Arab News
• 2 of Clinton Fein's political works run afoul of his printer's policies By Kenneth Baker, The San Francisco Chronicle
• Annoy.com Webmaster says war art censored By Paul Festa, C|NET
• Artist and advocate Clinton Fein has his controversial images destroyed prior to exhibition By Kresta Tyler Johnson, Artthrob Magazine

Art, Editorials and Writing

• Annoy.com
• Pointing Fingers
• The First: First Amendment Project Blog