Protecting Edison Chen’s Privates
Posted on February 26, 2008
Filed Under China Internet, China Law, Intellectual Property |
Shanghai Daily reports:
China should start drafting its first law on privacy protection as soon as possible, a law expert said, saying a strong privacy law could have prevented the circulation of pornographic photos of leading Hong Kong celebrities having sex.
“There is no privacy protection law in China, nor is there a single item in any law and regulation that covers privacy protection,” said Yu Guofu, a lawyer with the Beijing-based Internet Society of China.
“The only mention of privacy is in a judicial explanation by the Supreme People’s Court that focused on the protection of the right of reputation.”
I’m all for laws protecting the privacy of the individual, but what happened with Mr. Chen’s salacious portraits (and self portraits) was theft. The photos were stolen from his laptop when he dropped it off for repair. The pictures were his property and were unlawfully copied and distributed. Mr. Chen has realized this and has his lawyers on the case. Shanghai Daily:
HONG Kong singer and actor Edison Chen has asked local Customs to protect his copyright on hundreds of nude pictures that showed him in sexual poses with a dozen women in bed, the latest measure he has taken to prevent more leaks of the racy snaps amid a scandal that has shocked the world’s Chinese-speaking community.
Chen reported to Hong Kong Customs on Friday through his lawyers that he suspected someone infringed his copyright on the pictures and demanded the authority carry out a criminal probe, Sina.com reported today.
Hong Kong law prescribes that people can get up to four years in prison along with a fine of HK$50,000 (US$7,611.74) if they are found to have copied art work for sales or renting without the producer’s consent, the report said.
There’s no business like show business for making a mockery of copyright protection.
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The timeline of events tells a different story. The pictures, with no copyright on it, were stolen. They were published on the internet. A month later, copyright was put on these pictures through an announcement in a press conference. All prior publications should still be legal - not that I think they should be published.
I think the moral of the story is: Put the copyright on your pictures the second they were taken, not a month after they were published.
I’m not a lawyer, but I believe that Mr. Chen has a copyright just by taking the photos. He took them, so they’re his. He doesn’t have to file anything.