posts

subvertisers international (SI) is having it’s 3rd annual #subvertthecity week of action. it runs from tuesday 19th of march until monday the 25th. here is a link to the SI post about it with all the details: Call Out: Subvert the City 2019 so if you feel like taking action against advertising in public space […]

tldr: i was convicted on all charges and fined a total of $4500 dollars. my necessity defence was declared “but a furphy” because there is no imminent threat to anything. here is the recording of the hearing:   here is the recording of the the verdict and sentencing (after an hour or so adjournment):   […]

this wednesday, the 11th of april 2018, three seperate charges are being heard together at the melbourne magistrates court. the three ‘incidents’ being heard are: — the 4th of december 2015 — the 5th of may 2016 (the day all the journalists were arrested) — the 22nd of march 2017 (the day i painted over […]

23rd to 25th of march 2018 is subvertisers international’s (SI’s) “subvert the city” global action weekend. here is the call out with details: SI_march_action_2018_ENGLISH_SML get involved, tell your friends, etc. and remember: “creating beauty is the simple yet painstaking task of removing all which is ugly” – some person everyone takes way too seriously   […]

i was in canberra recently and was happy to be able to met with two members of the group ad free canberra, deb and tim. ad free canberra emerged as a group in 2017, responding to the calling of a parliamentary committee looking into the billboard ban that has existed in the ACT (‘australian capital […]

tramclean are a melbourne group who protest against for-profit advertising in public space by pulling it from public trams and tram shelters. their motivations are best explained by them, on their website: tramclean.wordpress.com it’s great to see more people taking action, encouraging others to get involved, and challenging the advertising practices we too often passively […]

found this article while looking for something else the other day: this is the full text of the article: “A PUSH to bring more digital advertisements to Melbourne’s tram stops has been blocked over concerns moving signs will distract drivers and cause traffic accidents in peak hour. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal is set […]

after magistrate bezzani disqualified herself in november 2016, the six charges of posting bills/wilful damage were heard by magistrate gwynn on the 1st of march 2017. with the first subvertisers international global action coming up on the 22nd-25th march, i was planning to immediately appeal if i received a jail sentence (and apply for appeal […]

a new international alliance, called subvertisers international, has been formed to join forces in resistance to the global onslaught of for-profit advertising in our public spaces and media system  — and anyone who wants to be a part of it, is encouraged to be (yes that means you, please join this movement). the first subvertisers […]

being a modern urban man, i saw this news article on an app on my phone the other day: Australian economy shrinks 0.5pc in September quarter, worst fall since global financial crisis of course i was immediately alarmed by this alarming headline — because even a slight stutter in growth could signal that our capitalist […]

the hearing on monday the 28th of november (of 6 seperate charge sheets) started without me — a warrant was issued for my arrest because i was “late”. i was down the mornington pennisula over the weekend to celebrate my mum’s sixtieth — so rather than getting my whole family up early and rushing off to suffer […]

i’ve just completed a booklet that attempts to explain what i’m on about by addressing the common questions/comments/criticisms i have received since starting out. here it is: what the f*#k do you do that for? i’ve just sent it off to the printers, i’m getting 500 copies of the 80-page a5 booklet printed, and i’m […]

going to the melbourne magistrates court on monday the 28th of november for the hearing of 6 separate charge sheets from six separate informants (cops who lay the charge). i’m going to be arriving around 11am, so if anyone would like to attend, you are encouraged, and your support will be much appreciated :) all […]

“anti-advertising activists” from all over the world have finally come together to organise getting organised into some kind of organisation — this unarguably ‘new!’ and ‘revolutionary!’ association of political actors has not yet been named, but the first meeting was held in europe this year, and the first international actions are being planned for early 2017 […]

i went out postering in the city on the 2nd of may 2016, ten days after the angry adshel guy incident. i’d done a bunch of panels at a couple of different locations, then as i was walking down elizabeth street towards bourke street to find a new location, a police car pulled over in […]

the university of illinois in springfield (u.s.a.) has held an event entitled “public/private subversions” on the night of october 3rd as part of the ecce (engaged citizenship common experience) speaker series. more here: http://events.uis.edu/2016/09/uis-speaker-series-presents-screening.html the event is being put on by associate professor of political science richard gilman-opalsky, ph.d., who will moderate a discussion following […]

i’ve changed the name of this website to democraticmediaplease.net, to be more clearly descriptive of what i am pushing for, and to avoid the term “liberal”, which just seems to upset and confuse many people these days. i also dropped the word ‘global’ because it’s hardly necessary to remind people in 2016 that we live […]

so when i was in the police cells after interview on the 18th of december last year, after initially refusing to sign police bail, i began to imagine what was going to happen — i’d be fronting a magistrate without representation, saying i refused to sign bail because i wouldn’t promise not to make my […]

thanks to m.p. fikaris for thinking what i’m doing is alright and making a comic zine about it. he illustrated the the big-arse clumsy-arse text that existed on the about page of this website for a while. here’s a pdf version of it: G.L.M.P you can get a physical copy from here if you’re in […]

a story about what i’m doing was published on free speech radio news (fsrn): http://fsrn.org/2015/12/paint-it-black-anti-advertising-activist-doing-time-in-australia/   fsrn is a non-profit, non-commercial media company (the only kind i’ll speak to) based in the united states. the story was also included in the fsrn weekly edition, which is podcast and goes out to many community radio stations: […]

the local lives global matters conference organisers dobbed me in to the morning show on abc bendigo — i got a phone call one afternoon asking if i’d do a live radio interview the next morning. as it was the abc (australian broadcasting company), a public service broadcaster (not one of the for-profit media companies […]

had court on the 30th of september for the events of the 27th of february. here’s the audio recording of the court proceedings:   (the tedious, fumbling prosecution evidence of the ‘offending’ i freely admitted to actually took an hour (i could have done it in less than 2 minutes) — i get in the […]

just got out of jail last week, was sentenced to 7 days jail on the 30th of september for some postering charges, but i’ll post about that when i have the court audio. right now i’m preparing a presentation for a conference in castlemaine called local lives, global matters. i’m presenting on friday the 16th […]

i’ve decided i will no longer play the tedious game of reducing my motivations into a legally recognised defence — all the jumping through legal hoops and being respectful of the process and processors only made me feel like an absolute sap when i was (totally predictably, in line with my years of experience) shown […]

had magistrate collins for the hearing on the 6th of february, which is apparently a good draw, here’s the super exciting recording:   the recording messed up for the first two parts of hearing, so i was only given the recording for the after lunch session, when i was convicted and sentenced to a $400 […]

this post concerns the the reasons why my freedom of expression/human rights defence will go no further, which basically comes down to the way the word “success” is understood. i had to go to justice connect (formely the public interest law clearing house) to get pro bono assistance to take the appeal further, to appeal […]

got magistrates’ court tomorrow morn, friday 6 february 2015, and as the title of this post suggests, i’m running a new line of defence. i have to run a new argument now the human rights argument has been thoroughly quashed and “the lawyers” won’t help me take it any further (expect a post about that […]

this morning i had the county court appeal of two separate decisions made in the magistrates’ court last year. i had applied for leave to appeal both conviction and sentence in both cases, but following the supreme court appeal decision (which makes impossible any human rights defence), i decided to only appeal the sentence of […]

on the 16th of december justice ginnane handed down his decision in the case of magee v wallace — he didn’t say anything about it in court, just said the appeal was dismissed, handed out the written decision and then awarded costs against me (after my half-arsed attempt to explain the stupidity and injustice of […]

i appeared in the magistrates’ court on the 16th of october, in front of magistrate hardy — the matter was heard and i was sentenced the same day to 70 days jail, suspended for 2 years, for one charge of posting bills arising from the single panel of advertising i obscured on the 9th of […]

so i had the appeal hearing in the supreme court on august 7 — it went okay. i felt a little under-prepared because i had to move ‘houses’ a week beforehand and didn’t spend as much time getting my legal ducks in a row as i should of — but it all went pretty well […]

the age — melbourne newspaper and middle-class-liberal cream of the for-profit media swill — ran an article this monday regarding a “highly unconventional entry in the prestigious Archibald prize”: a portrait of my dumb head, sprayed onto a soon-to-be-garbage advertising poster by street artist cdh. here is a link to the article online: stolen bus […]

richards v magee heard in front of magistrate chambers — behold the resultant audio recordings in all their glory first day, 22-04-14:   my evidence starts at 44 minutes if you want to go to the slightly more interesting bit — but it’s all intensely boring in my opinion, actually listening to my amateurish rambling […]

the brandalism project has recently completed a new run of ad-takeovers in the united kingdom — see their website: www.brandalism.org.uk — 365 street level ads replaced by volunteers with the artwork of 40 different artists, over 2 days, across 10 cities — examples: it is really good that so many people are fully aware that […]

no surprises here, found guilty following the dictum of supreme justice kyrou. here is a pdf of magistrate chambers’ written decision. after the decision was read out, i was told that i thought i was ‘above the law’ — something highly offensive it seemed. i told the learned magistrate that i was sure i was […]

had a case go before the melbourne magistrates’ court today, one charge of posting bills covering over 100 ‘incidents’ between 03/10/2012 and 31/03/13. here are my submissions: richards v magee magistrates submissions 22-04-14 i don’t know the name of the magistrate presiding, as she, like all magistrates, didn’t introduce herself (how rude), but she is […]

on friday the 28th of march i filed (gave to the supreme court registry) and served (gave to the prosecution) my outline of submissions for the appeal in the case of magee v wallace, being heard in the supreme court on the 7th of august 2014. here is a pdf copy of said outline of […]

i was advised late december that a date has been fixed for the supreme court appeal hearing: 7th of august 2014, starting at 10:30 for an estimated hearing of one day. an email i received from the o.p.p. today suggests the timetable will likely stretch out to make use of the time in the lead […]

early december i received a summons to appear before the costs court in the supreme court of victoria on the 11th of february 2014. the proceeding was initiated by the victorian government solicitors office (vgso), on behalf of the attorney-general’s office, for taxation of costs thrown away by reason of the abandonment of ground 3 […]

this was the second posting bills charge to go to the magistrates court — this time regarding an ‘incident’ where i covered over three video advertisement panels inside flinders street station in the middle of the day, i have previously included pictures of this ‘incident’ in this post. i was interrupted by metro staff after […]

another single incident charge is being heard at the melbourne magistrates court this thursday the 14th of november 2013 — starting from 10am in court room 1, from where i will be allocated to another court room with a different magistrate sitting in it. this time the charge concerns postering over video screen advertisements inside […]

on november the 4th (the 28th day (last day to appeal) after the decision was made on the 7th of october) i submitted my appeal to the supreme court registry. i had to prepare three documents, and take them in to the supreme court registry in quadruplicate (a copy for the supreme court, one for […]

was interviewed recently on 3cr by some friends doing the squatters and unwaged workers airwaves show — here is the link to the podcast: http://www.3cr.org.au/suwa/podcast/suwa-11102013 actually that podcast will expire one day probably, so here it is here:   3cr is an awesome actual real community radio station, meaning it doesn’t have ‘community messages’ from […]

so i had the second day of hearing on the 18th of september and then came back for judgement on the 7th of october, magistrate capell delivered his decision orally, i was found guilty of posting bills and fined $400. i have been convicted of the indictable offence of criminal damage nearly 30 times, but […]

drew magistrate capel (not sure i spelt that right, i only found out the name of the magistrate by asking the prosecutor before the magistrate appeared out of the magic wardrobe). magistrate capel was good, in that he wasn’t bad — wasn’t rude, short-tempered, dismissive or any other of the attributes i’ve come to expect […]

here are the submissions i’m going to submit tommorrow at the melbourne magistrates court: magistrates submissions for 20-08-2013 hopefully i don’t pull a magistrate that makes me wish i didn’t exist with particular intensity – the odds are stacked against me.

i had a contest mention on the 19th of july in the magistrates court. i went up and told the clerk i was there, even though i wasn’t sure i had to do that, she gave me some small attitude for not being a professional, which is to be stupid. my case was called up […]

first mention of the posting bills charge today was just about me entering my ‘plea’ of not guilty and getting another date for a contest hearing — i’m representing myself now (reasons being: my legal aid lawyer james anderson moved away, legal aid will not run appeals for my case anymore and i have become […]

i received this charge-sheet and summons a while back, it is just for one charge relating to how i ‘did post a document on a structure namely advertising board’ inside southern cross station on the 14th of february 2013. all the other charges are being compiled into one big thing of charges that will all […]

an article was brought to my attention recently that talks about the ethical problems of advertising,€“ it is a british collaboration between the public interest research centre (PIRC) and WWF-UK entitled think of me as evil? opening the ethical debates in advertising, published in 2011. as george monbiot puts it: ‘€œthis is a fascinating, clear-headed […]

well i’ve been a bit fucking slack really (that’s depression for you), but after taking much time off over the ‘festive season’, i’m starting again with a new approach: i’m going out in the middle of the day with the ambitious aim of being ‘caught’ every time — i’ll bore you with the details of […]

i’ve always thought that acting in the way that i do is an implicit recommendation of others choosing to behave in a similar way, but just to make it explicit: i believe many people, as many people as are willing, should protest against corporate/capitalist domination of our public space/media, starting with the simplest point of […]

here is a bunch of sewn together photos of ‘this is how i’m fucked’ — what i did for an exhibition back in august 2011: (it is probably best to download the image (by right clicking and selecting ‘save link as’ — depending on your browser/OS), then view it in whatever image viewer you have […]

an article in the herald sun (also appeared online at news.com and on the australian’s website) has blamed the chronic under-funding of legal aid on legal aid itself. the title of the article is: lawyers fear the innocent could go to jail with victoria legal aid facing budget blowout. if i try to link to […]

here are some scenic snaps i have taken on my early morning sorties. as all the pictures of the covered advertising panels are of the same, quite uninteresting thing, and i do not wish to show before photos of the advertisements covered, i figured the only interest (and there is not much) lay in the […]

i had an interview with s/c brookes and his partner on monday october 29th, they said i’d be charged with posting bills and that i would get a summons and a brief of the charges soon. the ad company is claiming the cleaning bill for the two panels out the front of the courts is […]

another article on where the media is headed has totally fucked me off –€“ this time it is the article published in overland (‘progressive culture since 1954’) entitled ‘the end of a world,€“ an elegy for the newspaper’ by jonathan green. the online version is here: http://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-208/feature-jonathan-green/ i had to look up what elegy means:€“ […]

i received this email on friday the 19th of october: Subject: Fly posting on bus shelter in Brunswick Dear Kyle, I received a report from a member of the public regarding unsightly fly posting on one of our bus shelters in Brunswick.  One of our employees has removed the offending posters and informed me that […]

some photos of what i did in the wee hours of monday and tuesday this week. this is on the corner of elgin and swanston, near melbourne uni: that advertisement was for alcohol (spirits). this one, the corner of swanston and latrobe, that’s the state library in the background (the red glow is from a […]

this morning i was spotted by a team of ad company maintenance staff covering a car advertisement on elizabeth street (near the intersection with flemington road) at about 4am in the morning. there were two vehicles that pulled up on the tram tracks alongside me, only the driver in the front van spoke to me […]

this morning i covered over the ads in one of our “super-stops” on swanston street (just below grattan street). there are six panels facing in to the platforms and six facing out to the street. originally i planned to just do the six facing inwards, but when i had done those i had some paste […]

the photos are down the bottom, you can click on them to see them bigger. i went out this morning (wednesday) for the 8th time to the tram shelter on william/lonsdale. i arrived there about 6:30am because the previous morning i had finished covering the ads at 6:15am and when i went to look later […]

i went out to cover the william/lonsdale ads again this morning at about 6:45 (this was the fifth time i’d covered it recently). i went later in the night (so late as to be clearly ‘the morning’) because yesterday morning i covered the ads at about 4:30am and then they were gone the next day. […]

here is the text that i’ve been sticking up over the top of the ad-blocking papier-mache. each paragraph is a different poster, some a4, some a3. this unsolicited and fundamentally offensive corporate intrusion into public space and your mind (corporate advertisement) has been covered-over (papier-mache style) as a protest against the all-pervasive advertising of profit-driven […]

i’m back covering the same advertisements housed in the tram shelter on the corner of william and lonsdale, out the front of the magistrates, county and supreme courts (i guess because it’ll be clear who is responsible as i’ve been there before, and i am challenging law that allows and protects corporate advertisements, so it […]

it is extremely unfortunate that the non-government organisations that provide us with the products and services we need to live comfortably tend to be profit-crazed psychopaths that would eat their own children for a profit if they were able to have sex and bear children. of course, advocates for the profit-crazed psychopath organisations (‘corporations’) keep […]

there were corporate newspaper and television people at both the day of the trial and at the judgement (the quasi-corporate/public australian broadcasting corporation was there too). none of the television news people ran a story, perhaps partially because i don’t talk to corporate media, as i informed them all (and as those that reported were […]

the supreme court appeal trial on the 23rd of august went along alright, our argument and responses to criticisms were presented as well as they could have been by saul and james (who did a fantastic job for which i am very grateful). justice kyrou seemed a decent man in court and has a reputation […]

i don’t want to say much on this subject, generally i think it is best for me to keep my mouth shut — i just want to offer my opinion on what it would really mean for ‘australians’ to apologise to indigenous ‘australians’ (i don’t see opinions similar to mine expressed anywhere, so i feel […]

first, here are the submissions from the haters (the prosecution and the attorney-general): prosecution/police submissions attorney-general submissions (our submissions have been posted previously, in the post ‘supreme date and our submissions’) the equal opportunity and human rights commission didn’t end up intervening, not sure why, perhaps because they thought it would be bad p.r. for […]

the idea of unbiased news media is idiotic, everything about the phenomenon of presented news is a product of the defining ideology of the news service, arguments against this view are many and varied, but all outrageously stupid, so i’m not going to waste time dismissing them as hypotheticals. what i want to go straight […]

we’ve got a new date for the supreme appeal, the 23rd of august (we’ve had it for a long time, i just hadn’t posted it). here are our submissions: supremesubmissions2012 (i say ‘our’ submissions but i really did nothing to produce them, that was all james and saul, i do, however, endorse the submissions). i […]

observing the conversation in our public sphere (as carried forth by the respectable and credible professionalistical expertisiests within our mainstream media), it seems everyone is okay with the corporate/capitalist media/advertising farce as long it it subject to two restrictions: (1) no media company shall break the law during the assemblage of their steaming piles of […]

thanks to susan and david for thinking what i’m doing (and what i bang on about) actually has something to it. the article speaks for itself. here is the link: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SCULawRw/2011/12.pdf

i’m going to answer some imagined/experienced criticisms (phrased as questions for my convenience) of this whole globalliberalmediaplease thing (my life), ones i would be very reluctant to answer in person (because of the risk of me becoming extremely emotional/angry and then breaking down crying, maybe saying some really stupid shit in the process). there is […]

supreme court decision is still a long way off. the attorney general of victoria, renowned rights-charter-hater robert clark, has decided that he should have his say on the issue (which is allowed for under human rights law). our march 8th date will have to be put back a couple of months or so (maybe august […]

we finally have a date for the supreme court appeal – 8th march 2012. that makes it over two years to get the case heard in the magistrates court and to appeal to the supreme. i stopped painting to give the legal system the benefit of the tiniest doubt, to give it a chance to […]

the latest initiative in my ‘broadcast your ills’ project is an ‘art’ exhibition that my friend mister sam wallman invited me to do with him. it is upstairs at brunswick bound (a book shop), 361 sydney road brunswick, saturday 6th of august, 2-4pm, stays up until october 2nd (maybe longer). come watch me squirm, i […]

i’ve decided to quit it with the drugs (including alcohol) completely. this is only until humanity has achieved the modest revolutionary goals of abolishing corporate advertising worldwide and establishing a global liberal media system of acceptable brilliance, so not too long at all really. then i may, or may not, party like the biggest arsehole […]

magistrate mealy called the case of magee, stated he found the charges proven, handed us his decision, then stood the matter down, i guess so we could read the decision, even though there was no point to read it before he proceeded to sentencing because the decision was made and there would be no further […]

the next magistrates court date has been pushed back from 28th of january to february 14th for some unknown reason – possibly just to make it a bit more romantic (feb 14 is valentines day i’ve been informed), which i am glad about whether it was on purpose or not. this should finally be when […]

started with a brief cross-examination from the prosecution, which consisted mostly of the prosecutor accusing me of believing everyone has the right to smash shit they don’t like no matter what the circumstances, which i don’t believe. i tried to explain that it was complicated, that in this instance i haven’t damaged anything with a […]

we got a very grumpy, rude magistrate man called mealy. before he came out the clerk called him up and told him that they were ready in the court room and that she had put the chair the way he likes it. the prosecution changed the damage value from $200 to $40.71, possibly because i […]

after a few delays, the date for a contest hearing  in the magistrates court has been set for wednesday the 29th of september, 2010. at a preliminary hearing, i think it was a contest mention, my lawyer, james anderson, submitted an application to have the case heard in the supreme court, as the argument has […]

these are some pictures a friend took of some ads i had painted out at some point or other, except the one that has ‘you don’t have too’ still visible, some friends did that one. i started out painting over the ads methodically and completely from one side to the other. that was firstly because […]

after an extended dalliance with aca-fucking-demia, i have finally decided to stop academiaing 4 eva. the main reason i went back to uni to study arts (after quitting the science/engineering course that i started straight from high school) was because everyone (family, friends, police, lawyers, magistrates, psych -ologists and -iatrists, associates, barely-associates, non-associates, etc.) kept […]

these pictures are of some billboards i painted early in my illustrious career. i got a couple of big tins of mis-tints (fuck ups from the paint shop that they sell cheap) and the sticker on top of the tin said the colour was ‘razzle dazzle’, which i found amusing enough to remember. the first […]

this was recorded when it went to air on 3CR 855 am, in melbourne, at 6pm on may 4 2010:   you can also access the recording at http://www.donebylaw.org/2010/05/04/paint-it-white-may-4-2010/

here is the decision of the supreme court regarding my appeal for bail: supreme bail application decision to explain the quite confusing circumstances surrounding this: when i was being a brat, refusing to promise to magistrates that i wouldn’t ‘reoffend’ and breaking any bail conditions that i was given when i was bailed from a […]

this footage was taken on the morning of the 2nd of february, 2010, at the intersection of william and lonsdale streets, melbourne, victoria, australia. this footage was taken during the production of a film on australian graffiti and street art (not sure why my political protest was included but hey, any publicity is good publicity […]

I think that in a sane society, advertising would be considered completely unnecessary and insulting, would be ineffective, and would not be tolerated. As things are today, I believe advertising is generally effective in its creators aims,€“ through perversion of art and abuse of psychology it can succeed in disrupting the sound decision making of […]