So if a young woman posts an intimate picture of herself on her social media its just cool for people to spread it round the world and put it on their own websites is it?
And thats why under UK law sharing that picture without consent would very probably be considered a criminal sexual offence by the courts.
Oh dear, jj1968 please, you really need to read up on this legal stuff a bit more. For your own sake, if not for the sake of those who might believe your erroneous assertions.
The legal reality is this:
- Using, including republishing, another person's published content without permission is a copyright infringement under most but not all circumstances.
However, the legal situation specifically around publishing your content to social media depends on the terms and conditions of the site you're publishing on. A number of social media companies have (or had) Ts&Cs that mean you grant a licence for reuse by the mere process of uploading it to the site. In practice this can mean that others can freely share your content within that site without your consent and without infringing on your copyright.
Copyright infringement, even when the content used without permission are intimate pictures, is not a criminal sexual offence under UK law.
Enforcement is up to the copyright owner, but the subject matter is irrelevant unless
- The images depict a minor. Regardless of whether the child took and published the pictures, anyone who downloads, distributes or republishes them is guilty of of a criminal sexual offence under UK law, but this doesn't apply to your scenario as it concerns a young woman, i.e. not a minor.
- However, there is a law, Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (aka the Law on Revenge Porn), which specifically prohibits sharing, distributing or publishing private photos of a revealing or intimate nature. In order for this law to apply, the images have to be private. For the purposes of the law this means unpublished.
In your scenario, the young woman has freely published her own intimate pictures on social media. Pictures that are in the public domain with the consent of the person depicted can be shared because this is not a criminal sexual offence under Section 33.
So the only issue with sharing the photos posted by the young woman in your scenario is a possible copyright infringement. Depending on the Ts&Cs of the site she used.
And if you ever advise young women, please do tell them not to publish intimate pictures of themselves to social media sites if they do not wish them to be shared by others without their permission.