Wednesday, 5 August 2015

Copyright and revenge porn: can you help?

Part of the UK campaign
to stamp out revenge porn
I have recently received a request from a student who is conducting research into the question whether the various rights within the bundle which we affectionately call copyright -- unless we come from jurisdictions that call them authors' rights -- however ill-adapted they may be for the purpose, may be utilised in order to combat revenge porn. In particular, have there been any cases or discussions of this in the European Union? Even information about cases that never made it to court would be good.

If you have any leads or references, please feel free to post them as comments below. If for any reason you'd rather do this by email, that's fine too.

Thanks so much for your help!
at

7 comments:

  1. Ben5 August 2015 at 14:33

    In Aoril I blogged on this here on the 1709 Blog http://the1709blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/revenge-porn-need-to-legislate-between.html : I also spotted (although this is NOT copyright related) that a teacher who posted explicit photographs he had stolen from a 17 year old girl's tablet - then blackmailed her to get more images and when she refused further demands hacked her twitter account and posted the images - received a 18 mionths term of cistody and was placed on the sex offenders register for 7 years at Amercham Crown Court by Judge Karen Holt. The charges were blackmail, sexcual assault, voyeurism and distributing indecent images of a child according to the Times. Samuel Alexander, 24, had been obsessed by the girl since she was 15.

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  2. Marie-Andree Weiss5 August 2015 at 15:26

    This is a link to a post in French about how the issue would be addressed under French law. Please contact me if you need help translating. https://www.murielle-cahen.fr/comment-se-defendre-face-au-revenge-porn/

    Best,

    Marie-Andrée

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  3. Mirko Brüß6 August 2015 at 10:20

    There are a few cases in Germany, too.

    Regional court of Frankfurt: https://www.kanzlei.biz/20-05-2014-lg-frankfurt-2-03-o-189-13/
    claim to cease and desist, as well as 1000 EUR damages, partly based on the copyright of the person who was in the pictures (selfies).

    http://www.raschlegal.de/news/olg-koblenz-anspruch-auf-loeschung-von-erotischen-aufnahmen-nach-beziehungsende/2014/
    This is also interesting, the pictures were made with consent during the relationship, they were never published but the woman asked for deletion of the pictures after the relationship ended. The court agreed, basing this on personal rights (most pictures were not made by the claimant, but by the defender)

    http://openjur.de/u/31273.html
    Regional court of Kiel, 23000 EUR damages for a violation of the personal rights (not based on copyright)

    Feel free to contact me with your questions

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  4. Pauline Walley6 August 2015 at 23:49

    Re your query on copyright in the context of revenge porn, I think colleagues here in Dublin have on occasion used the copyright argument to justify take down in "selfie" cases, although Google Spain is now making such requests somewhat easier. I know I have advised solicitors sending cease and desist letters re take downs to incorporate the copyright argument re selfies, especially for young adults who cannot rely on child porn laws as they are over 18.

    I came across a piece by an American student/academic when I was writing an article for the Irish Bar Review on revenge porn. It's by Amanda Levendowski which I think was published in the NYU Jnl of IP and Ent Law.

    My own article on the general topic of revenge porn- "In Memoriam amore: revenge, sex and cyberspace" was published in the 2015 Bar Review (20) (2) 33-38. You will find it on Westlaw.UK

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  5. Eleonora Rosati7 August 2015 at 10:47

    Although copyright arguments can be clearly employed to combat revenge porn, it seems to me that at the moment discussion in Europe has been focusing on two different aspects, ie: (1) using the right to be delisted or forgotten, following the Google Spain CJEU decision; and (2) new or harsher criminal sanctions in revenge porn cases (see eg UK).

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  6. Ben13 August 2015 at 19:52

    There is a UK TV programme on this topic called 'Revenge Porn' next Monday on Channel 4 (17.08.15). I have no idea what's in it - but maybe it's worth a watch.

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  7. Ben21 August 2015 at 18:11

    The latest Ashley Madison leak and DCMA implications are discussed briefly here https://reason.com/blog/2015/08/20/ashley-madisons-response-to-hacking-invo

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