Filed Under ODD
Yes, I’ll take a Number 3, a large Coca-Cola, and, ohh, are you all out of naked pictures?
Here’s an obvious tip (barring Arkansans): If you have inappropriate pictures of your wife (husband, significant other) on your phone, don’t leave it at McDonalds for some unsuspecting, biggie-sized patrons to stumble upon them.
Phillip Sherman of Arkansas learned that lesson the hard way (no pun intended), after leaving behind his phone—complete with pictures that would Larry Flynt blushing—in a Fayetteville-area store. But before Sherman could retrieve the phone, its contents had been compromised and posted to the internet. Now, Sherman and his not-so camera shy wife, Tiny, are suing McDonald’s Corp, the franchise owner, and the on-duty manager for $3 million in damages. The couple filed suit on Friday, citing undue embarrassment, mental suffering, and demanding reimbursement for the cost of a new home.
While utterly laughable, this case is downright foolish. In their frivilous quest for mental and monetary damages, the Shermans might as well sue former Vice President Al Gore for “inventing the internet,” i.e. the medium by which these pictures were distributed.
There is an implicit risk in taking pictures of a graphic nature, and while I feel for the mental anguish Tina Sherman suffered, this lawsuit almost makes me wish “McDonalds girl” goes viral.
I disagree completely — there is no assumed risk in privacy — the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, numerous times, that there is privacy to be assured the citizens in the penumbra of the Constitution.
While that penumbra may well be where these photographs should have remained, this couple had a reasonable expectation to privacy with regard to their cell phones, even though they inadvertently left them in a public place.
To say that this couple is assuming risk, and therefore should essentially swallow their damages with a spoonful of sugar… because they’ve taken nude pictures is a bold assertion — one, in fact, that leaves me wondering where you would draw the line.
If you’re in your bedroom having sex with your partner… and your drapes weren’t completely closed, and somebody was able to get a peek of you going at it hot and heavy with his nice new DSLR camera — would you consider that free game, too?
Essentially — there’s a pervert who exploited photographs taken by a husband, of a wife… for his pleasure — retained them in a personal place, in which he had a reasonable expectation of privacy… and somebody violated that… you’re supporting the violator.
Thankfully, in a case like this, the court will likely consider the reasonable person standard. It’s reasonable to look at the phone numbers to see if you can contact the person… it’s reasonable to call and alert the owner as to the location of the phone… I dare say, however, that posting nude photographs of somebody’s wife to the internet without that wife’s permission… is a bold violation of that pesky reasonable expectation of privacy assured to us by that pesky technicality called the Constitution.