The Wisconsin legislature has a bill to
outlaw posting “revenge porn” (nude photos or videos of an ex-lover), due to
many recent harassment cases.
Under current state law, anyone possessing,
reproducing or distributing an image of a nude person taken without consent
faces a felony charge with a maximum sentence of $10,000 in fines and
three-and-a-half years in prison.
The bill is designed to discourage people from
posting naked pictures of their ex-lovers in hopes of embarrassing and
harassing them. Free speech advocates worry that this bill will interfere with
the first amendment. These revenge porn laws need to make it clear that in
order to be found guilty, an offender must distribute these photos or videos
with the intent to hurt the subject, and that the offender was well aware that it
was expected to be kept confidential. These specifics need to be covered in
order to avoid an abundance of charges relating to teenagers ‘sexting’ with
friends.
A common myth
people believe is that there is a law that already covers the topic of revenge
porn as harassment. Even when revenge porn amounts to criminal harassment,
police may refuse to get involved, telling the victims that the behavior is not
serious enough for a criminal investigation.
Under current law a picture is the
photographer’s copyright and the photographer’s call to have it taken down. If
the subjects took the photo themselves, the suing rights are practically
nonexistent. Revenge porn sites usually ignore requests for removal because
most victims don’t take the time, or spend the money on a lawyer.
Under the new bill, anyone who disperses a
nude picture without the subject's consent or regardless of whether the subject
granted consent to capture the image could be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable
by up to $10,000 in fines and nine months in jail.
