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February 28, 2007

Maybe Coulda Rights, Law

Some legal decisions make your head spin. Case in point (Mojo):

In 2004, two Florida adolescents — 16-year-old Amber and 17-year-old Jeremy — took digital photos of themselves nude and engaged in some sort of sexual contact. They then sent the photos from a computer at Amber's house to Jeremy's email address. Somehow, the Tallahassee police got possession of the photos, and both Amber and Jeremy were arrested and charged with producing, directing or promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of a child. Jeremy was also charged with possession of child pornography.

Amber appealed the charge, believing she had the law on her side. In 1995, a Florida court ruled that two 16-year-olds could not be found delinquent for having sex with each other. Since Amber was engaged in legal sex, she and her attorney reasoned that the police had violated her guaranteed right to privacy. [...]

This month, a Florida Appeals Court voted 2-1 to uphold the charge against Amber. Writing for the majority, Judge James R. Wolf, speculated that both Amber and Jeremy could have eventually sold the photos to child pornographers or shown them to friends. He also said that transferring the digital images from a camera to a computer and then sending them via email created "innumerable problems" because the computers could be hacked. [Emphasis added]

So, ownership of a perfectly legal photo that you could, in some hypothetical future scenario, use for an illegal purpose or that could, through no fault of your own, fall into the hands of persons unknown who could use it for an illegal purpose — that makes you guilty of a crime. Morons.

Posted by Jonathan at February 28, 2007 05:49 PM  del.icio.us digg NewsVine Reddit YahooMyWeb

Comments

So I guess that also means that all gun owners should be arrested because, after all, they *could* use it to, say, rob a convenience store or something.

Posted by: LarryE at March 1, 2007 08:32 PM