Yes, I can, I will videotape the show in a high risk environment. There is a hole in the projector mask for it.
quote:
and again, with little to no enforcement, what difference does it make? if you get sued and have a variance, the lawyers are probably going to laugh at it... they wont be suing your projector, they will be suing YOU[/QUOTE]
Your very naive....
I can't help it your local government doesn't do its job. But elsewhere in the country, it does work.
Risk mitigation, damage mitigation, and avoiding a meet with a US Attorney if a incident did happen.
I can tell you've never worked for a amusement park or a major tour, a variance is a legal requirement and you WILL meet the requirements.
So Joe Blow's bar doesn't care, or FlyBy Night's rave doesn't care. The folks who pay the big money do. The insurer you hire will care. Since the lawyers sue everyone remotely connected to a incident, the folks who hire you should care. If you have insurance, and they find you didn't pull a permit, your on your own in a incident. They will hire a expert to mitigate damages. Case in point:
A few months ago I flew to the scene of a fire. Based on my field of work at the university, I was considered a expert in my field. The opposing side had two professionals tearing the building apart looking for a cause. They were cutting into the walls with a sawzall and looking at every wire, every GFI, even the placement of paper on the workbench. Smoke patterns pointed to a specific spot as the start. 200,000$ was at stake, and they smelled a easy target, with respect to my client's gear. I took me about a day to prove them wrong, that a operator poured solvent into a power supply, which ignited improperly stored metal powder in the lab. The operator left the building with the gear running on a weekend. Boom. Major fire at a public building occupied by a hundred or so people.
Two days of my time helped save that small company,and 10 jobs, as they were self insured. What really saved them was taking a photo of every unit before they shipped. It gave me the nail in the coffin ,for the other guy's theory, which was bad wiring. They could not afford UL and CE on every custom item they make. But the paperwork trail saved them.
And again, I dare you to set up at a large university or corporation that has a safety department and let them find out you do not have a variance. Or run in Arizona where the DPS WILL notify radiation safety and you will be fined or your equipment seized.
And I've been present a number of times where a official looking for a way to shut down a show looks at the lasers. Any paperwork helps.
All during college, I ran around helping varianced laserists. Every time I'm unemployed or business is slow, I do the same.
Jeeze, its what, a day of your time to file the paperworK?
Next you'll tell me doing shows without insurance is just fine, as no insurance company would possibly cover all your liabilities.
The words here are RISK MITIGATION.
If you have the paperwork, when it comes down to the lawyers, they then have a tool to negotiate. If you have the paperwork, and a idiot starts flashing a 250 mW pointer around the rave, you can get the pointer shut down. And oh, BTW, if a hot pointer is at your gig, it is your responsibility to let the client know it needs to go. And it does need to go. Its your a$$ if it doesn't.
Or a client books two laser acts at a gig, the other guy audience scans, you don't, who's got the higher ground now??
This happens all the time to my friend and sometimes business partner.
Lighting guys show up with truss mounted 200-300 mW P.O.S. and let it flail on auto all night. Its now right in his show rider and contract, no other non varianced lasers. considering he is a premier act in his area, that means something.
Oh, and AZ rad safety inspects him frequently and goes to raves looking for lasers.
And laser safety could get tossed to Homeland any day after one big incident. Those who have paperwork will get grandfathered. Those who don't will see power delegated to local law enforcement, who WILL get a memo on it.
A example from one of my favorite lawyer movies:
Lawyer, "Imagine you put Jesus Christ on the witness stand..."
" Mr Christ , have you been seen in the company of a known prostitute.???"
Jesus, "well, yes, but I was ..."
Lawyer, cuts him off in mid answer " Just answer the question,, Yes or NO, Mr Christ ???"
Roughly quoted From Adam's Rib.
Here's the scheme:
You do a show at a bar.
Ambulance Chasing Lawyer, "your clients lazzor thingie zapped my clients eye, I own you!" "Oh really", says your lawyer, "My client was in complete compliance with the law, Prove otherwise, and prove your client didn't hit his head on the dashboard on the way home"
Ambulance chaser who can't afford a expert goes to next ambulance.
Knowing that a jury will tend to favor the licensed, insured, person."
"Yes or No, Mr Flecom, did you know you needed a variance?"
And one other thing that has happened to my pal more then once. A venue gets shut down or goes broke. The Sheriff seals the place. My Pal cant recover his gear because they just tossed him out. Guess what gets him his gear back, or in some cases, when a rave is shut down, gets him back in the venue long enough to tear down. It does happen. Law Enforcement understands and tends to respect paperwork. And yes, there have been times when he could not get his gear back for a month when a landlord popped the lease.
Steve
Last edited by mixedgas; 11-10-2009 at 08:29.
Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
When I still could have...
Originally Posted by allthatwhichis
I am not worried about you getting sued; The authorities, whoever they are that are not bothering to inspect you currently, will be investigating you after this hypothetical blinding by the high powered pointer. They will want to see your varienced projector just because it was in the same place as someone getting blinded by the fool with the "pointer". If you have a varience, in this instance, the authorities will look at your paperwork, and know you are a safe operator; if you don't have a varience, who knows what they will do to you and this is assuming everyone knows there was a fool with a pointer. My point is a varience is not useless just because you know you are not a fool; there are fools out there, and some of them have high powered hand held lasers.Which will bring the authorities to you...
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buffo
The Government has it's own language when it comes to forms, and it always seems to be needlessly complicated. But we're stuck with what we have, at least for now. (There is a movement in the CDRH to make things easier, but it's one of probably a hundred items on their "to do" list, and they don't have the funding to accomplish everything...)
