According to a new Georgia court decision, "upskirt" photos by citizens are legal as long as they are taken in a public place. ABC 5 turned to Attorney Ian Friedman to see if local women should worry about a similar controversial ruling here in Ohio.
"There is a statute on the books here in Ohio that would fit that conduct squarely and that conviction would have held," Friedman explained. He refers to Ohio’s Revised Code Section 2907.08, our voyeurism statute, which says that no citizen may invade the privacy of another. The statute also makes specific reference to recording "another person under or through the clothing being worn by that other person," ruling out the possibility of legalizing of upskirt pics in any environment.
While Attorney Friedman admits that "everything is challengable," he says that women in Ohio can be confident that if they are violated by a stranger's photographs, the violator could be charged and convicted. "If the Ohio statute were in Georgia, the man would be still convicted right now."
Georgia's "Loophole"
Attorney Friedman also went on to explain that Georgia is not the first state to run into similar dilemmas when it comes to privacy laws. "It's not the first time we've seen it and this isn't the first time there's been this sort of holding," he told ABC 5. "There have been several other states that have run into the same problem."
The good news is that Attorney Friedman believes its rulings like Georgia's that prompt lawmakers to take another look at their criminal statutes and correct them to better fit today's society. "It's a funny law. It was just not written correctly or it's outdated and now it'll change," he said.
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