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Massachusetts Court Says 'Upskirt' Photos Are Legal
cold fjord writes with this CNN report: "Massachusetts' highest court ruled Wednesday that it is not illegal to secretly photograph underneath a person's clothing — a practice known as "upskirting" — prompting one prosecutor to call for a revision of state law. The high court ruled that the practice did not violate the law because the women who were photographed while riding Boston public transportation were not nude or partially nude."
Obviously, I imagine an upskirt picture does not reveal any more than what you would see at a beach in any western country. I think the issue is that, a person being made to reveal more of herself than she is consenting to, to a person she does not know, and usually without her knowledge. It would be the equivalent of someone being forced to take off her skirt in public without her consent.
Also, what if the woman is not wearing any underwear? It is her business if she is, or is not, and by wearing a skirt she has a reasonable right to privacy in that matter.
- Tempestdata
Well if it really isn't actually illegal except at the subjective assessment of a particular judge, then isn't the ruling correct, and the change of law an appropriate next step? Better to utterly stamp this thing out than leave any room in the law for weaselling.
Myu:
It's time to remove these judges.
Nonsense. A judge's job is to interpret the existing law, not make stuff up to conform to what the law should be. If anyone should be removed, it is the state legislators, and it is the voters' job to remove them.
....charged with two counts of attempting to secretly photograph a person in a state of partial nudity.
....state law "does not apply to photographing (or videotaping or electronically surveilling) persons who are fully clothed and, in particular, does not reach the type of upskirting that the defendant is charged with attempting to accomplish on the MBTA."
While your argument is that it should be cut and dry illegal; the reality is: this specific law does not make it illegal. It has nothing to do with the judge, and everything to do with the way the law is written. The judge doesn't need to be removed, the law needs to be better written considering current technology.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
This is the opposite situation. You're asking people to punish someone for something that is not (yet) illegal. The person that should be punished is the politicians for writing bad laws.
Agreed. A judge isn't supposed to decide what's right or wrong, but rather what's legal or illegal. Judges are just supposed to interpret the laws as written. If there's no law against something, then a judge has no recourse but to deem that thing legal. Even if any rational person would find it in poor taste.
It's then the job of Congress (aka the legislators, aka the law makers) to make a law that rectifies the issue. So expect results sometime between now and Judgement Day. Unless, of course, some senator (or senator's daughter) gets some upskirt pictures taken. Once lawmakers actually feel the effects, the law will be passed so quickly, it might just be signatures on the back of a napkin.
This signature is false.
people can wear skirts all they like, and choose how much or little they want to expose of themselves in public. if you re concerned about some out of focus dark weird angle shot of your panties, i'd suggest not wearing a skirt.
"Too late, Mass Legislation has already passed the law banning upskirting. It's heading to the governor's desk. If not today, by tomorrow, it'll be signed and put into effect."
My take on it is very simple:
(A) If it's visible in public, it's fair game. (This is the only way really to square this with so many other free-speech issues.)
(B) Given (A) above, if you're not a public figure, someone else should not be able to publish those photos without your permission.
I think this is a fair balance between fairness, civil rights, and privacy. If you don't want it seen, don't show it. If you are out flashing it in public, you have no reason to bitch about it later.
The actual power given to them by the constitution is the usual judicial power. Or in other words: guilty, not guilty, adjudication withheld, case dismissed, etc. They have original jurisdiction in cases that involve the states, ambassadors and so forth. Nowhere does the constitution say or imply they can declare a law unconstitutional. That is done by the constitution itself. That's the whole damned point of it.
You need to really read Marbury v. Madison (1803). The Court really lays out the reason why they have to. The judges must hold every law up to the standards of the Constitution, if they do not judge the Constitutionality of laws, then the Constitution has no meaning, because Congress can pass any law they feel like, and there is no one else who can say, "Hey, I don't think that law is actually legal."
Without anyone to actually enforce the Constitution, it's a meaningless piece of paper.
The constitution is written in plain English.
That's actually, in many ways, the problem. If the Constitution were written out in far more formal language, there would be less wiggle room and thus less need for interpretation.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Some here seem to think that the only types of skirts around are the ones that are so short that barely anything is hidden. Skirts come in different lengths. Perhaps the woman thought she was covered up and the skirt hiked itself up in just the right way so that something was visible. Perhaps the pervert just used shoe cameras, pretended to be stooping on the ground to tie his shoes, or some other ploy to take photos up women's skirts. The women obviously didn't consent to this so he shouldn't be allowed to do this.
Don't get me wrong. I understand that you don't get to walk around outside and then claim people taking your photograph are invading your privacy. There's no reasonable expectation of privacy when you are walking outside, but there are limits to that. Everyone has a reasonable expectation of privacy under their clothes. A woman wearing a skirt is not an invitation to take a photo up the skirt any more than a man wearing shorts is an invitation to take a photo up the shorts leg.
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Wait. This actually makes sense. Only instead of coding perfectly legible code, legislators are the kind of coders that craft spaghetti code which has tons of bugs, unforeseen glitches, hidden functions to give their friends back doors through the system, and which can't be read by another human being without them going cross-eyed.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
My take on it is very simple: (A) If it's visible in public, it's fair game.
But this is *not* visible in public from a normal human viewing angle. And the typical case that makes news is someone having a camera on a shoe, or suspended from their hand (in a bag or briefcase, for example), to get an angle that a human would only get lying on the floor - not a typical posture in public.
By the way, how do you feel about Google Earth vans putting their cameras on top of a van higher than the typical fence? Or someone floating a camera drone outside your bedroom window? It's the same argument, from above or below: Yes, you're in public, but we have a convention of viewpoint being within a normal range, and if you go out of your way to get an improper viewpoint you're a "Peeping Tom".