International Law

Subway kiss leads to lawsuit

The Guardian reports on a privacy lawsuit from China:

A Chinese couple filmed kissing on a subway platform are suing the train operator after the video was uploaded to Youtube and watched by thousands.

The three-minute film of the couple, in their 20s, was taken in September and uploaded to Youtube and Chinese video-sharing websites last week.

It attracted more than 15,000 hits in two days, the China Daily, citing a local newspaper report, reported today.

"A mocking voice can be heard in the background of the video. It has extremely embarrassed the couple," the paper said.

An unnamed man in the video said the couple had hired a lawyer in the interests "of all passengers travelling on metro trains in Shanghai", adding: "Now, every time I walk into a metro station, I feel uncomfortable."

The subway's operator, Shanghai Metro Operation Co Ltd, was investigating and had promised "severe punishment" if employees were found to have misused the video, the paper said.

Authorities have credited the installation of hundreds of thousands of closed-circuit security cameras in large Chinese cities for helping to reduce crime in recent years.

However, Chinese legal experts and scholars have called for more robust privacy legislation to regulate the use of video footage and impose penalties for its abuse.

Read more here.

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on January 23, 2008 (boomark / email).