August 18, 2005
Loophole lets man skirt state's privacy law
A Virginia man didn't break the state's privacy law when he used a camera phone to take a photo up a woman's skirt at a midstate shopping mall, a Cumberland County judge ruled yesterday, reports The Patriot.
"It is a case where Pennsylvania law simply hasn't caught up with advances in technology, Judge Edgar B. Bayley concluded.
Pennsylvania's privacy statute, last revised in 1998, didn't anticipate camera phones and has no provisions barring their use for what most people would consider the indecent act of "upskirting" in public places, he said.
"Although invasion of privacy sounds like what this defendant did, he did not violate" the law, Bayley wrote in a seven-page opinion. Therefore, Bayley said, he had to acquit Robert G. Sullivan.
.. Abom's law partner, Jason Kutulakis, said Bayley's ruling likely is the first in Pennsylvania to address such a case".
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