recent news//

LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES

Read Marcia E. Vetrocq's essay in Art in America, Rules of Engagement, featuring an examination of Clinton Fein's photography. CURRENTLY ON NEWSSTANDS
Art in America
June/July, 2008

Watch Clinton Fein talk about the Seeing Peace Billboard Project
ABC News, San Francisco
May 27, 2008

READ THE PETER SELZ REVIEW OF CLINTON FEIN'S 'TORTURE' IN THE DECEMBER 2007 ISSUE OF ART IN AMERICA

Bridge: Chicago fair launches first London edition
The Art Newspaper, London
October 12, 2007

Fein Downfall
Artron.net, China
September 2007

Iraq inspires surge of protest art
By Peter Beaumont, The Observer
September 9, 2007

TORTURE: EXHIBITION 2007
BEIJING..LONDON..MIAMI


POINTING FINGERS

Clinton Fein's blog on SFGATE, the San Francisco Chronicle's new experiment with community blogging. An irreverent look at what's happening in the world of pop culture. Check it out...

Listen to Clinton Fein talking to Richard Kamler on his radio show, Art Talk

'NY Times' and the WCHA Dinner
By Clinton Fein, Letters, Editor & Publisher
May 1, 2007

The Horror of Torture, Reinterpreted through Art
By Kenneth Baker, The San Francisco Chronicle
January 20, 2007

Precision Strike
By Michael Leaverton, SF Weekly
January 17, 2007

The Bigger Picture: 'Torture': Photographer restages
infamous images from Abu Ghraib
By Reyhan Harmanci, The San Francisco Chronicle
January 11, 2007

Looking at Torture
By Andrew Sullivan, Time Magazine
January 2, 2007

TIME MAGAZINE: NOTEBOOK, Verbatim

"Who says what's officially annoying? Is that a business we really want our government to be in?" -- Clinton Fein, purveyor of the website Annoy.com, complaining about a bill in Congress that would make it a federal crime to "annoy" someone over the Internet.

Time Magazine, February 26, 2006

Cyberstalking law opens debate on what's annoying


"It's a stupid law that has slipped in under the radar," says Clinton Fein, a San Francisco-based artist who runs annoy.com, a website that he says offers "unique and irreverent" commentary on politics and culture.

Richard Willing, USA Today, February 14, 2006

New cyberstalker law raises criticism


Clinton Fein, who runs the Annoy.com Web site, is also aghast. His site is specifically set up to annoy people through, among other means, anonymous postcards sent through the mail that direct the recipient to read the sender's message at the Annoy.com site. Fein calls the new legislation annoying.

Reid Goldsborough, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 29, 2006

Is it illegal, or just annoying?


The nation's new cyberstalking restrictions started this month. The legislation updates laws designed to protect people from harrassment. The updated law makes it illegal to use the Internet to harrass someone. But a provision of the legislation also adds the word "annoy" to the types of communication that's illegal.

Listen in RealAudio

One of the people who picked up on this new language is the creator of the Web site annoy.com. Clinton Fein calls himself a political artist. He's based in San Francisco. He photoshops irreverant and frequently offensive digital postcards for users to send anonymously to whomever they want--the attorney general of the United States, for example, or perhaps your boss. Fein readily admits to pushing legal boundaries. But he wonders who, under the new law, decides what is legally annoying.

Art Hughes Interview, Future Tense, January 20, 2006

Does New Cyberstalking Law Criminalize Free Expression?


First, we will discover what Section 113 truly means when someone challenges the law. A candidate being mentioned on the Internet is Annoy.com; the site offers a "service by which people send politically incorrect postcards without being required to furnish their identity."

The site owner Clinton Fein has a history of "seeking declaratory and injunctive relief" against the Communications Decency Act of 1996 through which "indecent" computer communication that is intended to "annoy" was criminalized. Fein believes Section 113 "warrant[s] a constitutional challenge."

Wendy McElroy, Fox News, January 17, 2006

PERSPECTIVE: CREATE AN E-ANNOYANCE, GO TO JAIL.


Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

Clinton Fein, a San Francisco resident who runs the Annoy.com site, says a feature permitting visitors to send obnoxious and profane postcards through e-mail could be imperiled.

"Who decides what's annoying? That's the ultimate question," Fein said. He added: "If you send an annoying message via the United States Post Office, do you have to reveal your identity?"

Declan McCullagh, C|Net, January 9, 2006

WITH INTENT TO ANNOY!


Clinton Fein responds to new legislation making it a crime to send anonymous email with an "intent to annoy."

Read more

US criminalises cyber-harassment


Civil liberties groups have vowed to fight the legislation in the courts under the First Amendment, claiming that it would make it impossible for whistleblowers to operate without putting themselves at risk.

Clinton Fein, a South African activist who runs Annoy.com, was scathing about the new law.

"It appears that one is guilty of a crime if one were simply to 'utilise' a telecoms device 'with intent to annoy' a person regardless of the content or even in its absence," he said. "A conduct rather than a content crime; perhaps waving a BlackBerry in someone's face."

Iain Thomson, vnunet.com, January 10, 2006

ARTIST. This South African provocateur's vitriolic, darkly comic digital montages attack President Bush, his cabinet and his Iraq policies. The New York Times.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Clinton Fein (born 1964) is a South African born artist, writer and activist, closely identified with his controversial web site,Annoy.com and his notable Supreme Court victory against Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States, challenging the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act in 1997, where Fein's right to disseminate his art was upheld in a landmark victory for First Amendment rights.

Clinton Fein Biography

Reviews, Articles & Media Coverage

Latest News & Updates

Clinton Fein Editorials & Writing

First Amendment Project Blog

Pointing Fingers on SFGate.comART, POLITICS AND CENSORSHIP

As an artist, Fein is represented by Toomey Tourell Gallery 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 terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Artforum Magazine pulled an advertisment for Fein's show from their October issue. In 2004, printing company Zazzle found themselves embroiled in an ugly censorship dispute after they deliberately destroyed two of Fein's images.

Previous Gallery Exhibitions

Projects

ApolloMedia vs. The United States Navy (The Conduct Unbecoming Censorship Dispute).

ApolloMedia vs. Reno (The Annoy.com Supreme Court challenge).

The United States vs. ApolloMedia (The Annoy.com Federal suit defense).