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Is It A Crime To Watch The Naked Erin Andrews Video? No, But It Makes You A Total Jerk
from the didn't-stop-the-NY-Post dept
You may have heard that some miscreant somehow surreptitiously filmed well-known ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews naked in her hotel room using some sort of pinhole spy camera installed the room. Obviously, this was incredibly illegal (apparently, the suspicion is that it was an insider at ESPN who knew which room she was in) and hopefully the person/people responsible are caught and punished. However, CitMediaLaw points out that some legal analysts are apparently claiming that it's criminal just to watch the video. But, that's not true. It makes you a terrible person, but it's not illegal. After talking about how a talking head legal analyst on CBS claimed it was illegal to watch the video, Carlos Miller checked in with a First Amendment lawyer who balanced the questions clearly:
According to Photography is Not a Crime's legal analyst Marc Randazza (yes, I have a few, so take that, CBS), Bloom is talking out of her ass.As if to prove the point, apparently, the NY Post posted still images from the video -- and ESPN has responded by banning NY Post writers from ESPN. The Post didn't break the law, but that doesn't make it any less evil a move.
"That CBS analyst needs more legal education and less melodrama," the Florida First Amendment attorney said in an email responding to my question.
He also added that although it is completely legal to download and view the video, he didn't have much respect for anybody who would.
"Anyone who does download it is kind of an asshole," he said. "She did have an expectation of privacy. We live in a society where the sleazes and the lowest common denominator individuals seem to thrive. If we dried up their mud flats, they would die off.
"What I mean by that is that downloading the video is legal. but doing so is a douchebag move. I certainly won't be downloading it (although I personally would love to see her naked too)."
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
Banning Post writers from ESPN isn't a crime either and is a reasonable 'Up Yours!' response.
I do not think I am a jerk cuz I only watched the movie stream I did not download it :D
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Just Awful
I just cant believe people today, disgusting . . . anyone got a link?
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Re: Just Awful
I laughed at a comment made on a torrent of it on TPB that went something like this:
"I agree with you guys, this is a horrible thing to do to somebody. I hope the guy gets caught and spends several years in prison. Just disgusting.
However, I have been waiting for this video for a long time! I've already jizzed to it five times..."
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Re: Re: Just Awful
Every female out there (if she's not a whale or a dog) should realize: if she's on TV--there's somebody (likely alot of somebodies) who want to see her naked.
Like, duh.
The quickest way to diffuse the situation would be for her to pose nude for 2 minutes and then be all like "here ya go" and put in online.
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The sad part
The truly sad part of all this is that she isn't that bad of a sideline reporter. She's got a decent voice, a clear camera presence, and (for whatever reason) the players seem to be willing to discuss her questions at some length.
It's a shame that the fact that she's pretty has caused her to be victimized by all kinds of people: USC football players air-humping her, pinhole cameras, ESPN going out of their way to exploit her looks, etc. etc. etc. I'm not normally on board with the whole feminism thing, but I feel bad for this poor girl who clearly has some degree of talent.
Just not bad enough to not go download that video once I get off work...
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Any minute now...
the words "streisand effect" will actually sink in and people will stop calling attention to these things.
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Re: Any minute now...
.... umm, yeah. And what's Paris Hilton famous for?
K... anything else?
What, just that? Hmm.
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Re: Re: Any minute now...
Curing Polio?
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so.....anyone got the link to the video?
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Re: Re: Re: Any minute now...
Inventing night-vision?
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Re: Re: Any minute now...
If you're implying that she may enjoy the additional exposure(heh) from this, I disagree.
She really didn't need any additional popularity, and it's not like she seeks it out when she's not on camera doing her job. She's never publicly been very pleased with the erotic controversies surrounding her(the USC LB humping her, pictures of her eating a hot dog, allegations of flirting in the locker room, etc.), but she's not stupid; she knows a large part of her popularity is in her attractiveness. Nevertheless, she makes every effort to be prepared and attempts to focus attention on the sport, not on her, and to make it fun.
I read a few interviews with her, and she sounds really honest, passionate, nice, down-to-earth, and just generally appreciative of the games she covers. The more I read, the worse I felt. One recent interview even quoted her dad saying they thought the Playboy award honoring her for being the hottest sportscaster was amusing, but that she would never appear in the magazine for any other reason(believe that or not, but I did).
With the nature of this publicity and sports, I wonder if she'll ever really be able to do her job the same way again, and if she'll derive the same enjoyment of it. Hopefully she'll get over it, the crowds and atheletes will be classy to her, and the incident will be forgotten. She adds a fun, attractive, somewhat tongue-in-cheek element to watching while remaining a dedicated professional that makes it more enjoyable for many of us.
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Good for ESPN. That's an appropriate response to the NY Post's decision to post pics from this video.
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More to the point.. is it a crime to watch Erin Andrews while naked?
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Re: Re: Re: Any minute now...
I takes the right kind of crazy to be truly famous...
Is she the right kind of crazy?
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Re:
Only if you video tape it with a pinhole camera
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Re: Re: Re: Just Awful
"Every female out there (if she's not a whale or a dog) should realize: if she's on TV--there's somebody (likely alot of somebodies) who want to see her naked."
LMAO how do ya think they get on TV
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For all the geeks out there that didn't know about the video and then downloaded it to see what Mike was talking about, that's 'The Masnick Effect'.
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HEY WAIT A MINUTE!
I just figured it out . . . Mike just wants to be google indexed on "Naked Erin Andrews Video" . . . you sly fox you!
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Re: The sad part
OMG DH. I was nodding along agreeing with you. Then I read your last line.
I so needed that laugh. I just spent the last 2 1/2 hours in a boring ass tele-con. Thank you.
And of course I know you live for comments like this. :)
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Re: Re: The sad part
You have officially CwDH.
The real question after watching this video is what can Dark Helmet do to CwEA?
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Actually, here is an interesting take. Without proof (model releases), there is no way to prove that the video in question isn't child pr0n. Undocumented sex videos are really bad things to have. There is no way to know the age of the people appearing in the video.
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Re: HEY WAIT A MINUTE!
loooooooooots of T-Shirts ;)
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Look at this silly response from a sport media journalist, here. He wants the internet regulated because of this.
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Re:
Also a sign that the child porn scare has gone too far when hiding your porn can get you arrested.
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Naked...
It isn't a crime to watch it, but it's probably a crime to have it on your computer. It was most certainly a crime to record it!
By the way, all you drooling geeks, there's a million beautiful, intelligent ladies out there. Stop typing one-handed and leave the house to meet one...
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Re: Naked...
"By the way, all you drooling geeks, there's a million beautiful, intelligent ladies out there. Stop typing one-handed and leave the house to meet one...in an internet chatroom or on adultfriendfinder.com"
Fixed that one for you.
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could be...
ESPN finally got it right, and coordinated something like this to increase their ratings. I think I would be looking at her ratings on ESPN and see if they have gone downhill recently. If they have, it is a good argument that this was staged in order to bolster her reputation. Someone made a comment about how women got in TV to begin with, well if what I said is true, she just proved that point, she just did it with Streisand Effect combined with Viral Video.
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Re: Just Awful
try searching video at bing.com
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Andrews
"the press release and the video's subsequent removal spurred tremendous interest in it online.... Two of the top four search queries on Google Search on July 21, 2009 were related to the video.[14]"
streisand effect hits again
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Re: Re: Any minute now...
The difference is that Paris knew the video was being taken. I don't know/care whether or not she likes the fact that it got leaked, but, again, she knew about it.
Erin Andrews did not.
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Re: Naked...
Leave the house?!?!?!?
You can DO that???
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Some additional legal analysis
I posted some additional legal analysis on watching/downloading the video, as well as hosting it, on the Citizen Media Law Project site -- http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2009/news-flash-watching-erin-andrews-video-perverted-not-illegal
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It's not illegal to film naked people in their hotel rooms (even their homes) if there's no audio. Please read the law Mike.
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Re:
Well unless the video is of a sexually explicit nature, it wouldn't matter anyway. Just being naked isn't enough to be criminal.
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Re:
Your'e a f****ing idiot. I feel ashamed that I'm even granting you the honor of being replied to.
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Re: Re:
Unless you live in the US
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Re: Some additional legal analysis
"I posted some additional legal analysis on watching/downloading the video, as well as hosting it, on the Citizen Media Law Project site -- http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2009/news-flash-watching-erin-andrews-video-perverted-not-illegal"
Does your additional legal analysis on watching/downloading the video also happen to include a step by step procedural schematic on where to get said video, how to get it onto my screen, the best viewing sizes and formats, and how or where we might be able to get more of this type of video?
Otherwise I don't know if I want to click your link...
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TechPuritan is now, eh?
I don't find it surprising in the least print entertainment going after tv entertainment on this one.
To me it appears to be karma. Yes, the invasion of her privacy is wrong and should be punished but the resulting interest is a result of the whole entertainmentsurface > newssubstance that exist in today's media.
The false indignity surrounding this is quite surreal.
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possible diffusion
Personally, I think if she would have said, "It's a really good fake. I commend the creater, but you didn't include my tattoo", that the matter would have gone away very quickly. Because of the media attention, everyone wants to see it.
and before you say, "but what if she doesn't have a tattoo?" does it matter? The point is to redirect it so the matter goes away. If it does surface again that the video is real, she could be coy and say, "I leave that to the perv's imaginations, like I always have."
but that's my 2 cents.
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Re: Re: Re: Any minute now...
Ummm, Paris signed a model release and profits from the movie. Erin Andrews did not.
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YET!!!
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Re:
I finally found the thing, most of the sites I’ve seen are scams but they’re streaming the video over at http://408passion.com/watch282.html (it’s free but I have no idea how long it’ll stay up obviously)
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Re:
I finally found the thing, most of the sites I’ve seen are scams but they’re streaming the video over at http://408passion.com/watch282.html (it’s free but I have no idea how long it’ll stay up obviously)
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Re: Re: Re: Any minute now...
Actually, I didn't know who she was until I read about this...lol. I don't really watch ESPN since I'm not really big on sports. I've always respected women for everything they have to offer and of course their body is a part of that. Now, the way these images were acquired is highly disrespectful to her privacy, and the people responsible should be punished. If she had posed for Playboy or something then it would be a completely different story, but she really should consider it since the pics are out...might as well make them artful and shot by a pro.
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Horrible.
I've seen the video about a couple dozen times, and I find it dispicable that the picture quality is so poor.
Anyway, I've reviewed the tape, and I'm pretty sure it's not her, but I want you to be the judge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hczaiM3LH0M
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Makes me a jerk? lol what a joke lol, I am the biggest then.
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*fap* *fap* *fap* *fap* *fap*.....
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Well, I guess we can reliably say that ESPN and Erin Andrews are not firmly in the "if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't be worried about cameras" way of thinking.
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Re: Re:
Yes, everyone that knows the law are idiots because the laws were never updated...
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Re:
I will send some of it to you if you want. It's great
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Erin Andrews Hotel Video
Who want the video? I have a copy, but nothing special in it
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I watched it and it does look staged to me.
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