Besides being the current media darling, Andrew Drake of upskirt.com can also lay claim to a new entry in the contemporary lexicon. It's called "upskirting" and ABC's 20/20 Wednesday night broadcast a segment about it and interviewed Drake. ABC's report concerned an incident that occured last summer when housewife Gina Bell of Cleveland was at a church carnival with her family and realized a man was videotaping up her skirt. Bell all but called 911 at the discovery. Apparently the suspect ran off but a detective retrieved his video equipment. Unfortunately for him, the perp, David Bartolucci, inadvertently taped his own face and was nabbed. Bell said the only issue that constituted any weight in the matter was a "voyeurism law" which didn't carry much of a fine. Bartolucci, however, did get ten days in the slam and community service on a peeping Tom charge. Ohio has no specific laws against video voyeurism.
Drake said his site against about a million hits a month. ABC quoted Drake as being "unapologetic" about aupplying that demand. Drake said that negative publicity often triples his business. "Honestly, to me it's just a business," Drake told ABC. "It's just a website. All I'm doing is publishing these images to people who want to view the images. If there wasn't such a market, then I'd be out of business. ABC reports that Ohio is trying to enact a law that would make voyeurism punishable with six months in jail and noted that California is the only state that specifically outlaws upskirting. According to the ABC report, jock porn is also becoming very popular. Several college athletes said they were secretly taped.
"Essentially you were made a porno star against your will," reporter Ju Ju Chang commented. "It made me feel angry, disgusted, humiliated," said one unidentified athlete. According to the report, attorneys Lou Goldstein and Dennis Berkson on behalf of wrestlers, swimmers and football players from many universities around the country are filing suit against Internet companies in an attempt to drive them off the Web. Chang, however, said that federal laws do not hold Internet service providers liable.
