Eight months after the full U.S. Senate passed such a measure, the House Judiciary Committee has approved a joint bill that would ban upskirt and other video voyeur photographs, punishing violators by fines and up to a year in prison.
The so-called Video Voyeurism Prevention Act passed the Judiciary Committee by voice vote May 12, and would ban video voyeurism by mini-cam, cell phone camera, and other such shrunken technology in locker rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, and other places "where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy," as a published report phrased it.
Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio) had introduced the bill last September with Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), both of whom hail from a state which already has such a law on its books. DeWine said the bill would "help ensure that when a person has a reasonable expectation of not being videoed, filmed, or photographed... the expectation of privacy would be recognized and protected by the law."
The language of the bill specifies "captures" as involving videotapes, photographs, films, "or record[ing] by any electronic means," and defines "improper image" in terms of an "individual, of the naked or undergarment-clad genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or female breast of that individual." It defines "circumstances violating the privacy of that individual" as being those where a person "expect[s] that the improper image would not be made, in a situation in which a reasonable person would be justified in that expectation."
Video voyeurism wasn't the only thing on the Judiciary Committee's mind May 12 - the committee also approved bills to boost prison terms for identity thieves and for those who use fake information in cyberspace to commit felonies and trademark abuse.
