drewprops.com Bad boy Atlanta designer with so much time on his hands that he wipes it on his pants.

It’s about time that somebody had the temerity to stand up to the Internet and say “No! You must stop photoshopping people’s heads onto other people’s naked bodies!!” and State Representative Pam Dickerson from District 95 is just the lady to make this a reality with her recently announced House Bill 680 [download the PDF]. Representative Dickerson, from Conyers, Georgia, is said to be a very fine, very upstanding representative of her district and probably goes to church every Sunday, as do I (I am in fact the liturgist at my church).

In 2010/11 there was a case in which no law was available to prosecute a young man who posted a female minor’s personal information to a pornographic website. Proposed House Bill 680 seems to be intended to provide a legal bite to discourage similar privacy violations in the future. However, Rep. Dickerson’s goal of providing an apparently “missing law” against Photoshop libel will be tough because the Internet tends to be fairly hard to tame, and some will continue to assert that that existing libel laws and the right to free speech are perfectly adequate for handling these situations and that no additional legislation is necessary. Plus, it’s kind of hard to get stuff off the Internet.

As Joe Gorelli of NewsRadio famously said “You can’t take something off the Internet. It’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool. Once it’s in there, it’s in there.”

I believe that the wags behind the scandalous (possibly photoshopped) image of Representative Dickerson going around on Facebook (attributed to “SexyGeorgiaLegislators.xxx”) should be very careful, as I’m not sure if her law will be retroactive to existing “Frankenstein” photo compositions (as they were once known by teenage boys disappointed by a rather substantial dearth of nude photos of Jennifer Aniston). Me? I’m simply reporting the situation

The text of HB680 (which may be downloaded directly from the Georgia State Legislature in PDF format HERE) currently reads as follows:

To amend Article 2 of Chapter 11 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to offenses against public order, so as to define certain terms; to provide that a person commits defamation when he or she causes an unknowing person wrongfully to be identified as the person in an obscene depiction; to provide for penalties; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:

SECTION 1.
Article 2 of Chapter 11 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to offenses against public order, is amended by adding a new Code section to read as follows:

“16-11-40.1.
(a) As used in this Code section, the term:
(1) ‘Nudity’ means a state of undress so as to expose the human male or female genitals, pubic area, or buttocks, with or without a translucent covering, or the showing of the female breasts, with or without a translucent covering, of any portion thereof below the top of the nipple.
(2) ‘Obscene depiction’ means a visual depiction of an individual displaying nudity or sexual conduct.
(3) ‘Sexual conduct’ means actual or simulated acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse, or physical contact in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or, if such person is female, breasts.
(b) A person commits the offense of defamation if such person intentionally causes an unknowing person wrongfully to be identified as the person in an obscene depiction in such a manner that a reasonable person would conclude that the image depicted was that of the person so wrongfully identified. Such identification shall include, without limitation, a person’s name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address. Such identification shall also include the electronic imposing of the facial image of a person onto an obscene depiction.
(c) Any person convicted of violating subsection (b) of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.”
SECTION 2
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.

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Good luck Pam, you’re going to get a lot of uncomfortable attention from this proposed law.
Stand tough!
(and girl, you rock those bracelets)
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[Update: I looked at the image and the head does indeed seem to be photoshopped onto somebody else's body so I've put a label on top of the fake body in deference to the Representative. To be clear I do NOT think this is her naked body, this is indeed an example of the type of image she is trying to outlaw.]
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[Update 2: I inserted a new sentence and link to the story of a girl who was victimized by a college student who posted defamatory information online. This additional sentence took a bit of the fun out of the rest of the article, since it provided a real world example as to why such a law has been proposed. Dang.]
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