Sex pictures and digital rights

A German court has ruled that a man, who had photos of his naked girlfriend, should destroy them now the relationship has ended. The two weathermen looked at their delete buttons.

Weatherman  1 : Did you hear a German photographer has been ordered to destroy nude photos of his girlfriend?

Weatherman  2 :  Yes, the courts said he had no rights over them, once the relationship ended.

WM 1 : I have a lot of sympathy with the woman – but it strikes me that trying to remove permissions, after a relationship has soured,  is fraught with difficulties.  I once gave a school friend some Lego, and when he started being nasty to me, I wanted it back. I never got it.

WM 2 : But that Lego didn’t give him power over you whereas intimate photos do. It does open an interesting question of when it is legitimate to ask for something back or ask for it to be destroyed. It’s not just taking clothes off – our guards are down amongst friends and we need to rely on trust. Gossip can be almost as insidious.

WM1 : Parents do it sometimes and think it’s cute. They pass around photos of their children doing childish things, and now that child is an adolescent or an adult – he doesn’t see the funny side of it.

WM 2 : There’s one of me in a girl’s frock somewhere. You’re right – it still exists and I should be worried. And it’s worse for these women because there are places on the internet to upload these photos. Once you have digitally copied something and put it up into cyberspace, you have all lost control of it.

WM 1 : We need to tackle the mindset of the photographer. Does pressing the shutter buy me the right to own it, or use it?

WM 2 : The Royal family have been banging on about it this for years. Long distance lenses poking into their private holidays and the published aftermath embarrasses them.

WM 1 : But they didn’t give permission for the photo to be taken, and as child you didn’t either. In most cases these women did grant permission. They wish to revoke it.

WM 2 : So when I take a photo, I am only creating an image – that does not offer me a right to publish it.

WM 1 : Correct. Schools are sensitive about it these days. Headmasters are careful to get permissions from parents before using images of their children.

WM 2 :  I can see why it’s hard. If someone purchases a camera and lenses, they may feel they have bought the right to publish too.

WM 1 : It’s the same at concerts. Bands don’t want illicit videos of their performances out in cyberspace. Owning a digital recorder buys one the means, but not the right.

WM 2 : It’s the permission aspect at the heart of it isn’t it? The woman grants the photo owner the right until she doesn’t. That’s a moment of her choosing.

WM 1 : And I doubt if the woman ever granted her boyfriend the right to show these compromising picture to his mates down the pub. They were for his own pleasure. A sort of erotic forget-me-not, taken in good times.

WM 2 : We’ve all heard of the jealous wife cutting her husband’s suits into ribbons when she learns of his infidelity. You can’t blame the man for buying a suit, and you can understand the white hot anger of a jilted woman.

WM 1 : But publishing pictures of a naked ex-girlfriend crosses a line. Never trust that any permissions offered can be revoked. That’s why the German court is trying to enshrine it in law.

WM 2 : The girl’s frock picture of me was taken on an old 35mm camera. My parents would have to go to some trouble to get it digitally copied and embarrass me. In a digital era, women must know the risk.

WM 1 : If someone has your heart, it is easy to believe that their intent will always be benign.

WM 2 : That husband who had all those suits should have locked them in his car when he started the affair.

WM 1 : But they were his suits.  In these cases, it is the chap’s camera and her body. That’s where the confusion starts.

WM 2 : What’s the answer?

WM 1 : Germany is on the right track because this legislation may be applied retrospectively. The only safe answer for the woman is to say “no”.

WM 2 : Pictures of sunsets will start to proliferate on the internet.

WM 1 : Maybe that is preferable to a woman’s dignity being pulled down over the horizon.