It all boils down to the same old adage... "Follow the Money." The amount of 
fine the city imposes, compared to the amount of $$ being paid by the 
advertisers of the show makes it all just a part of doing business for them. 
If the TV industry can afford to spend thousands getting the film crew and 
the cast to a site, all the equipment, power bills, etc.. the fines are just 
not enough of a deterrent to make them stop. If they were indeed "Heavy" 
fines it might, but they are not that heavy in most cases. When companies 
are destroying cars worth many thousands of dollars to make a 30-60 second 
commercial, a few thousand $ for a fine to a city. pocket change.
I think the only way to stop this will be to get the viewers educated on the 
proper way to do things, teach them how much information is lost by the act 
of digging up sites on private property without the proper methods and get 
them on our side. Then we Might have a chance. A small one, but a chance.

Richard


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elizabeth Davoli" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> During this show, he had a friend come out and help him dig up a city 
> sidewalk.  I don't know if the city slapped any fines or penalties on him 
> for that (not surprisingly, no mention of fines for digging up city 
> property was made during the show).  Unfortunately for archaeology, people 
> can do what they wish with their own property, even if it's letting a TV 
> crew film someone digging solely for "stuff."  However, if publicly owned 
> property (such as that sidewalk in the hobby show episode) is affected, 
> then heavy fines for damage and for repairs (as well as fines under any 
> other local ordinances) could possibly be a way to discourage this 
> activity not only for reality TV but in general.