I see what you’re saying, but I think chalking this up as IP infringement also minimizes what’s really being stolen here; dignity, autonomy, right to control one’s own body and image…
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If I leave my doors unlocked and I’m burgled, is it still theft?
I do understand my insurance carrier may take a dim view of a claim, but it’s still theft.
And as others have essentially pointed out [and because I like beating dead horses with mixed-metaphors], just because my house was wearing an unlocked skirt does not mean it was asking for it.
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Speaking as someone who actually was sexually assaulted repeatedly, you have no clue what you are talking about. Having photos of you (which were taken with your explicit permission as is what happened to these celebrities) shared is NOT assault.
They haven’t been touched without permission, they haven’t been held down and had someone put their hands under their clothes. No one forced a physical response to stimulus out of them and then used that as an excuse to carry on because “hey, he must like it”.
Claiming that having phtotos shared is in the same league is fucking offensive and considering you claim to have been raped, you should know this.
I am a victim of sexual assault. I am disgusted at you.
That’s why I think that derailing the topic with talk of theft is, by definition, derailing. What happened was a sex crime and a way to harass and bully a target, through peeping and violation of privacy, online.
Seriously, do you think that the supposed crime of passing around a file you don’t have IP rights to is IN ANY WAY SIGNIFICANT to this case? No? Then don’t call it theft.
Passing files around in violation of IP is incredibly common, and it’s colloquially known as “theft” only because corrupt and powerful people have elevated that act from what should be at most a civil regulatory violation to a felony. If you call the access of these photos “theft”, you give the creepers the ability to say “it’s no big deal, it’s just a photo file”. Because really, when it comes to the misapplied colloquial idea of “theft”, it really is just a file. Using “theft” as a pretext to punish the crime here doesn’t deal with the actual crime very well, it doesn’t provide boundaries for prosecution of much more innocuous violations of IP. It simply clouds the issue. It’s at least two degrees away from the sex crime that happened.
The real felony is some combination of trespass and stalking of the lawfully-protected privacy of specific victims combined with the peeping voyeurism of millions. It’s a new thing with more in common with a hate crime or emotional assault than with the transmission of stolen goods.
So I don’t agree with the way @teapot left his line of thinking, but only because he didn’t really finish the thought. He thought he could persuade people by pointing out that there was no actual theft. He’s right, but the actual crime needs to be addressed, and this back-and-forth about the inadequate tag of theft simply plays into the hands of corrupt rentiers who wish to put off the need to reform our ideas of IP by taking advantage of every internet drama to confuse the issue. Their attempt to bandwagon this is off topic, so lets get back to the sex-crime/invasion-of-privacy/stalking/whatever-our-society-ends-up-calling-this-form-of-assault.
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I have been drugged and raped, by an ex-boyfriend who also manipulated and coerced me into doing things I did not want to do.
I already told you I am a victim of sexual assault. Multiple assaults. Do you not believe me?
I have also been violated in this way as well, and the consequences were just as bad, as where the very, very, very real feelings of violation. My father was sent the picture, for fuck’s sake.
The feeling of violation was just as great as when I was drugged and raped. I am disgusted at you for minimizing my valid feelings of violation. This isn’t a fucking contest. The fact that you’re forcing me to PROVE my valid feelings is disgusting. What happened to solidarity?
“hey, he must like it”.
Hey, I’ve been told MULTIPLE TIMES that I must have enjoyed my picture being shared around because I dared take a private photo for a boyfriend. If I didn’t want others to see it, why did I share it with someone in the first place? And shouldn’t I have known the consequences of sharing a personal moment with someone I loved? I asked for it!
The feelings of violation were identical. I know because I’ve been through both.
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Have you been the victim of revenge porn? If not, can you say that her comparison is wrong?
You may not think that the two can be comparable, but as someone who has experienced both she may have a different perspective. That her experiences and trauma are not the same as yours doesn’t make her wrong.
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That’s actually my entire point. See elsewhere.
So as long as that’s clear, I’m going to leave this topic.
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Then call it what it is. It’s awful, it’s grotesque, it’s voyeurism, it is a terrible thing to happen, it is categorically not ok but at the same time, it is categorically not assault.
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I think the feelings of violation were made even worse because not only did my father see the picture, but I was called not once, but twice by law enforcement officials threatening to charge me with harassment because the pictures (and threats to my bosses) were sent from my fucking google account, and I couldn’t prove that it wasn’t me without a subpoena (and there was no way I could afford a lawyer since I no longer had a job…). That was beyond one of the scariest moments of my life, even more so than being drugged and raped, because at least I wasn’t also being threatened with arrest and a federal crime.
Even thinking about it makes my stomach turn, in a way that thinking about my actual rapes doesn’t. It’s hard to explain, but that was a very difficult and violating time for me. At least my rape was personal and between me and my rapist; the violation of my picture was not. Bosses, friends, family, my fucking dad – they were ALL a witness to it, @CaptainPedge, and that is something perhaps you can’t understand, but that doesn’t mean you have a right to minimize my very real experiences.
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While that may be true, sharing a photo is not assault.
Since no one is getting back on topic and continuing to escalate, this topic is now closed. New replies are no longer allowed.
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