[Infowarrior] - SUV sketch gets artist detained @ border

[Richard Forno]

Published October 04, 2008 10:00 pm -

Woman was detained by Customs and Border Protection because of an SUV  
sketch she made for artwork.

http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_278220015.html


By LOHR McKINSTRY
Staff Writer

KEENE VALLEY -- Keene Valley resident Jerilea Zempel was detained at  
the U.S. border this summer because she had a drawing of a sport- 
utility vehicle in her sketchbook.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers told Zempel they suspected  
her of copyright infringement.

She was released after more than an hour in custody at the Houlton,  
Maine, port of entry from New Brunswick, Canada.

Her release came only after she persuaded border guards she was an  
artist doing a project that involved a crocheted SUV as a statement  
against America's dependence on oil and love for big vehicles.

SHROUDED CAR

Zempel's adventure began when she was returning from the Cultural  
Capital Festival in Sackville, New Brunswick, where her submission was  
an SUV cozy on a rented Hyundai Santa Fe.

"I wanted to turn an oversize, macho, gas-guzzling vehicle into a  
technological ghost by shrouding it in a white, fuzzy cover  
reminiscent of women's handiwork from another time, another place."

After the festival, Zemple headed for home in her own Toyota Prius  
hybrid and stopped at the border crossing on Interstate 95 in Maine.

"What happened when I re-entered the U.S. made me ponder what my lowly  
art project could mean in a larger political sphere.

"And it gave me an idea for a title: the Homeland Security Blanket."

SEARCH AT BORDER

Zempel's passport showed she'd been to Africa, Australia, Central and  
South America, Mexico, Turkey and Europe in the last nine years.

"U.S. citizens who've traveled to the places I've been need to be  
looked at. A half hour at the computer gave the agent cause to put me  
into another suspicious category, meriting a full car search. She (the  
agent) took my keys and went through my car.

"After going through my (laptop) computer, digital camera, cell phone,  
business cards, suitcase, reading materials, boxes of yarn and crochet  
tools, she returned with my sketchbook.

"I was taken to a room and told to sit on a bench with handcuffs at  
both ends. But they did not handcuff me."
Zempel had drawn an SUV covered by a cozy, with its mirrors marked as  
"ears."

"My sketchbook puzzled her," Zempel said. "It was a cartoon sketch.  
They couldn't understand what I was doing. She said, Just what were  
you doing in Canada? We think you're engaged in some kind of copyright  
infringement."

She said she and the CBP agent then had a "lively discussion" over  
Zempel's status as an artist and a professor at Fordham University in  
New York City.

"I had to spell Fordham for her. She left the room to see if she could  
find me on the college's Web site."

While she was out, Zempel found her college ID and showed it to the  
agent when she came back.

"Somehow being a college professor made it all OK. She said, Welcome  
back to the U.S.' I was allowed to leave."

CIVIL RIGHTS

Zemple said that before the incident she didn't know border guards  
could search computers and other digital devices "without reasonable  
cause ... I was surprised to learn all your civil rights are  
suspended. It was a form of intimidation."

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) recently introduced a bill that would  
prevent Customs and Border Protection officials from conducting border  
searches and seizures of laptops and other electronic devices when  
U.S. citizens return from international travel unless the agents have  
justifiable reason to do so.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Theodore Woo said he could not  
discuss the specifics of the interview process Zempel went through.

"CBP officers may, at times, inspect a person's belongings to  
determine whether or not items are admissible or are illegal."

Woo didn't say how a sketch of a car could trigger a border guard's  
suspicion of copyright infringement. But he did say agents are trained  
in trademark and copyright laws.

"It's a part of a CBP officer's training. Time is set aside for  
intellectual-property-rights training."

The agency's role is to keep the country's borders safe while at the  
same time enforcing many rules and regulations, he said.