Sex + Open Window = Photos + Internet
posted by Daniel Solove
A simple equation of modern life. This story has an interesting set of ingredients: sex photos, privacy, email, websites, and free speech. From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
The University of Pennsylvania has charged at least one student with sexual harassment and misuse of electronic resources after he posted pictures on the Internet that show students apparently having sex while standing beside a large window in one of the university’s high-rise dormitories.
Pictures of the nude students were taken by more than one photographer. The images made the rounds through e-mail messages and various Web sites, and at least one of the photographers posted the pictures on his personal Penn Web site at the end of September. Pictures taken by a different photographer were posted, and widely viewed, on collegehumor.com.
Although the subjects’ faces are not clearly seen in the photographs, Penn students eventually found out who they were. At least one of the students in the pictures filed a sexual-harassment complaint with the university’s Office of Student Conduct, naming the student who posted the images on his Penn Web site.
Student-conduct officials completed their investigation early in November. They recommended that the student, identified only as a junior majoring in engineering, write a letter of apology, write an essay explaining why what he did was wrong, and be placed on disciplinary probation until graduation, a penalty that would create a permanent record of the incident.
Those coming to the defense of the student note that the couple was having sex in public view and wasn’t entitled to privacy and that the University’s attempt to sanction the student was chilling of free speech.
According to another article, the University subsequently dropped the charges against the student, but still noted that it strongly disapproved of the student’s behavior.
Thanks to Orin Kerr for pointing out this story.
December 2, 2005 at 2:30 am
Posted in: Privacy, Privacy (Gossip & Shaming)
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Responses (2)
John Armstrong - December 2, 2005 at 10:35 am
I’d have to agree with the defense. If nothing else, why can’t there be a stupidity clause in the law? In this case: “If you’re too stupid to realize that if you have sex in front of an open window people can see you, then you forfeit the protections herein.”
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but ignorance of common sense is?
Matt - December 4, 2005 at 1:40 am
Amusingly enough, the photo was soon afterwards printed on the front of the school newspaper, so by then everyone had seen it. The headline was something like “Student in trouble for publishing photo”, with a copy of the photo on the front of the paper.
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