(NEW YORK) Are these crazy people out to get your money or are these legitimate artists doing their thing? A local New York poll wants to know more about buskers and street performers. What about those cartoon characters? Just who are they? Should there be more restrictions? Less restrictions? Any restrictions?We've all seen the guy holding the a sign with his dog by his side. Is he performing or looking to feed his dog? Are there laws to prevent him from bothering tourists? Should there be? The dog certainly isn't harassing anyone.

What about the Naked Cowboy? What exactly does he do? Is he breaking laws as he reveals more than just his guitar? Does he even play guitar? It's no wonder NYC...

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(COSTA RICA) San Jose has buskers singing the blues. Avenida Blues, a traditional blues band in Costa Rica, is finding national resistance to their style of music and performing. The buskers have been working for the past months filming their performances on the streets, issues with police, and concerts at large national festivals in the country.Due to severe lack of interest of the blues in Costa Rica, they are trying to get exposure with the international blues community. With different administration changes, the police have taken down several artists, jailed some others, and have confiscated equipment. A strike in January resulted in a movement called "Nuestra Calle" when there was the reported abuse of power by local authorities in the arrest of a sax player.

The Avendia blues band has been working hard...

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(KEY WEST) It's been brewing since last year when regulations for street-performing were brought up in City Hall. Now, a tourist was recently bitten on the face by a performer's lemur which has triggered a new law requiring entertainers to have a minimum of $300,000 of liability insurance.

The law was designed to bring street entertainers in line with other groups, such as taxis, pedicabs and street food vendors, all of whom are required to have similar liability policies.

Restrictions where you can perform were placed on Duval Street but not past Petronia. The first two blocks of Whitehead and other "pitch" restrictions also go into effect. The yearly permit was raised from $100 to $150 and if there's is a festival going on, no performing is allowed. Performer's insurance is available on the...

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(HASTINGS) A busker, Dean Langley, set up shop outside the Anchor pub in Hastings and started to play “Wonderwall” by Oasis. He then played “American Pie” by Don Maclean. Then he played Wonderwall again. Then American Pie, then Wonderwall. After two hours, the landlord of the pub approached Mr Langley and pleaded with him either to stop playing or to learn a third song. Mr Langley then became abusive and was arrested.

Is there anyone who can read this without feeling passionate sympathy with the pub landlord? When General Noriega took refuge in the Holy See’s embassy in Panama in 1989, the American army bombarded him with non-stop repetition of terrible old rock records. It has been reported that a torture technique in Guantanamo Bay involved playing Barney the purple dinosaur’...

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The Galway, Ireland busking community has published their own code of conduct ahead of the implementation of city council bylaws to regulate the activity. The code is being launched as part of the ‘We Support Friendly Busking’ campaign.Galway Buskers Community argues there is no need for busking bylaws, stating its new document promotes positive and responsible practices among street performers.

The group is also promoting a new slogan ‘Our Art, Our Streets, Our Responsibility’.

The initiative aims to improve the relationship between buskers and the business community with focus areas including noise levels, duration of performances and crowd obstruction.

The group says any move to rollout bylaws or permits would seriously impact Galway’s reputation as a major arts and culture hub. New bylaws to...

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