Verizon Worker Arrested For Copying Customer's Nude Pictures 282
An anonymous reader writes "El Reg reports that two employees at a Verizon store in Florida are facing charges after making copies of a woman's naked pictures while helping her transfer data from an old phone to a new one. The two employees later offered to show the pictures to another customer, but the customer happened to be the woman's friend. The woman and her friend filed a police report. The police quickly got a warrant to search the store and found copies of the pictures on multiple devices there. One of the employees, Gregory Lampert, was arrested and charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor. The other employee, Joshua Stuart, is no longer in Florida, but will face charges if he comes back."
Can you see me now? (Score:5, Funny)
A special kind of stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously... the Internet has an ocean of nude pictures, and in far higher resolutions than any camera phone could hope to take. You can even get movies in full 1080p of women doing damned near anything and everything you can conceivably think of - be it sexual or not. Nearly any 14-year boy on the planet with Internet access know this!
In conclusion, we know that these two "techs" at the Verizon store aren't exactly carrying a surplus of clue here... ] ...so what does that say about Verizon's hiring standards for technically-minded people? Seriously?
Re:A special kind of stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's more than just having naked pictures of a woman. It's about having naked pictures of *someone specifically.*
It's a power thing. Even if you don't intend to wield that power against that person.
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I doubt it's a power thing. It's a fact that a woman you know, even if you only had a short conversation with her, is more attractive than a similarly built woman that you don't know. It's easy to guess at evolutionary reasons for this.
Re:A special kind of stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's more than just having naked pictures of a woman. It's about having naked pictures of *someone specifically.*
It's a power thing. Even if you don't intend to wield that power against that person.
Ahh, the local AC feminazi speaks, and gets +5 Insightful. Sorry, but you're wrong, it's got nothing to do with having "power". That's a BS idea some man-haters came up with some years back and have been promoting from time to time.
The real answer is that it's about taboo. It's about seeing what isn't "supposed" to be seen. It's why people find it more exciting to catch a glimpse of the "girl next door" naked than to see a porn star naked. Same thing here.
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Re:A special kind of stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but you're wrong, it's got nothing to do with having "power".
You can't beat one blanket assumption with another blanket assumption. Both are incorrect.
Yes, it was probably mostly about taboo. But it also becomes about power when you know you can freely invade someone's privacy, and/or control something of "value" that normally would not and should not be under your control. That *part* of it is entirely about power.
Re:A special kind of stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not a joke, it's as bad as breaking into someone's home. The guy who is out of state should be tracked down and charged for the same crime. Make examples of these miscreants and let the people who smoke dope out. This country has such a fucked up value system.
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Re:A special kind of stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do you think celebrity sex tapes, even the ones who are not all that hot and where the image is just a grainy out of focus night vision shot that shows you almost nothing, are so popular?
People seem to like seeing porn, even bad porn, of people they know. Even if they only know them through the TV.
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Weird. I am turned on by quality and skill, not who's the star. It's like choosing whether to see Mariah Carey juggle 4 balls (no pun intended) and watching a much lesser known true juggler, I'd pick the latter any time of day.
I ain't saying that what you say isn't true, I'm saying that it proves people are stupid.
Re:A special kind of stupid. (Score:4, Funny)
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Maybe I'm not watching low-quality porn.
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> so what does that say about Verizon's hiring standards for technically-minded people? Seriously?
Not a lot. Technical ability doesn't have anything to do with moral reasoning or empathy.
Arguably, you could make one of those pick-any-two triangles from that collection.
Re:Can you see me now? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not exactly the same.
"I left naked pictures of myself on the passenger seat when I gave my keys to the valet and he took them" is closer.
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They performed a privacy invasion and a copyright infringement.
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Not exactly the same.
"I left naked pictures of myself on the passenger seat when I gave my keys to the valet and he took them" is closer.
Close. Try "I left naked pictures of myself in my car, in individual envelopes in a folder called DCIM. When I got back to my car the envelopes were all opened and some of the pictures were covered with fingerprints". Yay, a car analogy.
Re:Can you see me now? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Can you see me now? (Score:5, Funny)
Which part of the word "twenty-four" includes "teen" again?
You're right, it's one 'e' short.
durrrr (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:durrrr (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a reason Fark has a Florida tag.
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Slashdot has a florida tag too.
chain of employment? (Score:2, Insightful)
Where they perchance prior Agents for Geek Squad?
bait and switch story (Score:3, Funny)
Show us the pictures!
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Two Felonies! (Score:5, Informative)
I have to disagree on the first part, as often times techs will bring their own hardware to a site and copy all the customers files of in preparation for a reload. "please save my pictures and music" ( or in a business, CAD files, or whatever ) as no one ever backs up...
I have done it many a time over the last couple of decades, both raw files or a disk image. I always would bring a desktop before laptops, then a laptop, and now just a 2.5" usb drive, incase they dont have a DVD recorder or anything, and of course something to boot off of to avoid viruses. ( as technology advances so does what i carry with me ).
However, i dont look thru them, and they are deleted before i leave the site.
Use a company-owned device (Score:5, Insightful)
Copying customer's pictures to his own device - Wrong on so many levels.
I have to disagree on the first part, as often times techs will bring their own hardware to a site and copy all the customers files of in preparation for a reload. "please save my pictures and music" ( or in a business, CAD files, or whatever ) as no one ever backs up...
A tech should use a company-owned device for that, not a personal device, and treat all backed-up data as confidential.
However, i dont look thru them, and they are deleted before i leave the site.
So you follow at least some good practices for confidentiality of customers' data. Customers should insist that this practice be written into the terms of service.
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"Their own" was just to distinguish it from "customer owned", and yes normally it would be provided by the tech's company as part of "his" tool kit. It just was poorly worded.
Re:Use a company-owned device (Score:4, Informative)
I have, and they always made sure we had tools to do the jobs we were sent out on.
Re:Use a company-owned device (Score:5, Insightful)
I've had bad luck in this department, one company always said they would always provide me with what I needed, but every time I asked for the proper tool, I never got it. This business was of reasonable size, 7 locations across 3 provinces. Total staff was around 55-60 people. One example, I was in need of a new coax compression termination tool, and they kept telling me to use the screw on ends. Their honest reason behind it was that we could cut them off later and reuse if we had to :-/. While they do work, I always had a hard time with them. Risking shorting out equipment was not something I wanted to do.
Now I run my own business and do my best to separate work from business, but costs wise is tough. A lot of my equipment i owned before i started up, buying a second laptop at this stage in my business is a cosr issue, but on my list of things to sort out before i incorporate. Confidentiality agreements are key here though. I do web design and web app development, so its less of an issue than dealing with their machines directly, qith direct access to their personal information.
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It's hard to be certain what led to looking at the pictures themselves. most likely they shouldn't have been looking, but sometimes things are just set up in such a way that you aren't sure if the folder you're looking at is pictures the customer wants, or images built in to some app that will be re-loaded anyway. The bigger issue is what happened next. Keeping those pictures is obviously wrong, showing them to other customers... well that's just plain stupid.
Moderately related story... I once worked as a n
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The worst part though was that his wife was also my boss... must say it was very difficult to take her seriously after that!
I've never understood that reaction. I can sort of understand being vaguely uncomfortable interacting with them, but to not take someone seriously because of information you found out regarding their sex life? That's just ... weird, at least to me.
Re:Two Felonies! (Score:4, Insightful)
The worst part though was that his wife was also my boss... must say it was very difficult to take her seriously after that!
I hate to break it to you but for each individual boss you've had and will ever have, the odds are probably greater than 50% that they have sex. Smaller odds are that it might involve whipped cream, video equipment, or other add-ons. Your reaction to that is your problem, not theirs.
A better reason for not taking her seriously as a manager is that she's married to the CEO. Nepotism is a much more solid reason than sexual tastes.
Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately this has been going on since the early days of personal computers. Take your PC in for repair, and often times the 'techs' would scour your drive ( or floppies ) looking for 'cool stuff'. 'Cool stuff" could be anything from hoping they find porn and be fairly harmless ( since back then it wasn't as 'free' ) or in more current times, far more malicious and they may search for your bank records or something to blackmail you with later..
Lesson: Trust no one.
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Interesting)
I woman I know took her PC in for work and found out they were directing her webcam video to their domain. Now, had she not been techie enough, she never would've known to look for that. Who knows what else they did with her computer?
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I woman I know took her PC in for work and found out they were directing her webcam video to their domain. Now, had she not been techie enough, she never would've known to look for that. Who knows what else they did with her computer?
I've seen shows were people take their cars into shops to get repaired and the shops take sledgehammers to the car to drum up more sales.
People are greedy and stupid. Always.
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What's the name of the place? Those people were brought up on charges, right?
Re:Nothing new (Score:4, Interesting)
That was my suggestion, she blew it off. Drives me nuts when people drop these kids of issues. My GF had her phone stolen (probably by an employee) and just blew it off and never bothered to file a police report.
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So, not only did they get of scot-free and potentially still have a backdoor into her system, but they're free to keep doing this to other people. And, since they were never brought up on charges, it's probably slander/libel to even tell someone to avoid the place! Because you know the type of person who'd spy on someone's webcam would have no hesitation in bringing charges against a victim who tried to spread the word.
Actually, where's this lady live? Does she have a nice car? I guess I can just take it wi
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a female friend who accidentally shared naked photos (showing everything) of herself with me (and publicly) on Facebook. She was trying to create an account for only her boyfriend to see, but not being very computer-literate, screwed up the privacy settings and publicly exposed some obviously very private photos. I immediately just politely and discretely informed her that these photos were visible, and how to fix it. For my effort, she immediately decided I was some kind of creep, blocked me, and never spoke to me again. Cow. But at least I did the right thing, I think.
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
You did the right thing. Calling you a creep and blocking you is merely deflecting her own stupidity outwards so she doesn't have to deal with it.
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it's even worse to watch guys who I thought were rational and mature experience omg-shes-hawt-brain-leak-out-ear syndrome and decide that despite all facts and evidence that he's going to somehow get laid by taking her side.
I remember this attractive woman asking me to cut in line. She looked confused and hurt when I indifferently told her no.
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
When someone accuses you of being a creep after you do a nice thing for them, because they lack the morals to take responsibility for their own embarrassing mistakes and would rather blame the person who helped you out, you are absolutely 100% justified in calling that person whatever you want.
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Trust no one.
I want to believe.
Burma shave.
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It's supposed to be five lines:
Trust no one.
I want to believe.
The aliens soon
Will take
Their leave.
Burma Shave
http://www.sff.net/people/teaston/burma.htm [sff.net]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple [wikipedia.org]
Oh sorry, I mean:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc [wikipedia.org].
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Since this was about phones i kept it in the digital world, but yes, i know of lots of developers that would make copies of things for themselves.
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"Lesson: Trust no one."
Lesson, remove your hard drive before repairs.
pics (Score:5, Funny)
Protect your data (Score:2, Insightful)
Stories like this shows up all the time. If it's not nude pictures, then it's the product ID for antivirus or something else. The only thing you really can do about it is to avoid giving access to anybody.
Personally I had a computer which died and had to be fixed on warranty. I swapped the HD just in case and swapped back when it returned. The real problem is for people without the knowledge on how to do that, which would likely be the case for somebody paying for getting data transferred. Once in a while m
The techs don't even have to copy the pictures. (Score:4, Funny)
My old roommate (who was very hot and used to dance at the strip clubs) took a bunch of nude pictures of herself with her Verizon blackberry. When her blackberry died she took out the card and sent the phone back for warranty replacement. When she got the replacement phone and put in the card she couldn't find any of her pictures or anything so she asked me for help.
Turned out she had kept the (completely useless) vodaphone simcard, and left the sdcard full of pictures in the phone. So now some lucky Verizon warehouse tech has an sdcard full of her nudes.
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My old roommate (who was very hot and used to dance at the strip clubs) took a bunch of nude pictures of herself with her Verizon blackberry. When her blackberry died she took out the card and sent the phone back for warranty replacement. When she got the replacement phone and put in the card she couldn't find any of her pictures or anything so she asked me for help.
Turned out she had kept the (completely useless) vodaphone simcard, and left the sdcard full of pictures in the phone. So now some lucky Verizon warehouse tech has an sdcard full of her nudes.
I think I downloaded those pics from thepiratebay...
who is she going to wine to (Score:2)
when she looses her phone ?
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There is a reason we have to preview before we post comments.
Who's it now, huh!? (Score:2)
Well, now we know... (Score:2)
That's Florida for you (Score:2, Informative)
Control of information (Score:2)
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This doesn't need copyright rules to fix, and in fact it doesn't look like they've been charged with any copyright infringement, so doesn't look like copyright helped at all here.
Get them under breach of trust or contract issues, get them under various hacking laws. When you have a dozen different laws you can apply to each situation, that says that you have a dozen less one too many laws that apply to that situation.
The customer (Score:5, Insightful)
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Funny thing nobody seems to mention. But the customer, the woman's (boy)friend must have taken up on the offer. Otherwise he couldn't have known it was her. Right?
Not necessarily. "Psst, hey buddy, see that hot chick over there? Wanna see her naked?"
However, if you read the article, yes, he did look.
DRM/Walled gardens "protect" the user (Score:2)
DRM/Walled gardens "protect" the user (yea right), but when it comes to protecting the users files it's useless, and somehow blameless: Nobody in this thread blames the phone manufacturer or Verizon for not locking down the software and protecting the user. We know it's hypocrisy to say DRM and walled gardens benefit the customer, but they still deserve the blame for events like this -- they want to control the device, they should get the blame.
...And the moral of the story is.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Nude pics want to be free! Censorship is slavery!
Re:can you see me now? (Score:4, Insightful)
Practically speaking there is a reason you only hear about dumb criminals; the mart ones are smart because they don't fucking blab about it.
I'll see people who rob or steal something then brag on Facebook publicly about it; at that point you might as well turn yourself in.
Re:can you see me now? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll see people who rob or steal something then brag on Facebook publicly about it; at that point you might as well turn yourself in.
Here in England, some guy was in court for some crime, there wasn't very much evidence, and he posted on Facebook "I think I'm getting away with it". The judge took that as a confession and he was convicted.
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I remember that one, I wonder if they would call their bank if there was an accounting error in their favor.
> Yea I made a deposit but you added an extra zero, can you fix that?
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Yes, I get this is not upstanding behavior. Is it a 'dealing in stolen property' felony? What the heck is an 'offenses against computer users' felony? Misdemeanor theft, yes. But 'handling lewd materials'? That's a crime?
It feels like most of the laws are on the books just so the police can hit you with a zillion for anything then drop most of them to appear like the good guys.
How 'bout "violation of customer privacy".
(OTOH, smart people don't take or allow pictures of themselves that they don't want the whole world to see. There's a whole internet out there eagerly waiting to spread them around for you.)
Re:Okay (Score:5, Insightful)
It is a problem with the legal system. It is often difficult to convict based on the exact charge filed. So if they really want to get you convicted on something, they slap you with everything vaguely related and hope something sticks. Unfortunately, with all the millions of laws on the books, everybody is guilty of something. How many people can honestly say they have never went outside on Sunday without a hat on? So basically, anybody can be thrown in jail at any time.
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Yes, the laws need a good refactoring. Too bad they're written by lawyers instead of engineers.
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What theft?
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This is not theft. nothing was stolen from anyone.
It is copyright infringement, (which courts have decided is one of the most heinous crimes possible with punishments far harsher than simple theft)
It may also fall under various hacking laws
It probably also falls under "mischief" which is always a good catch-all
Likely it also falls under various clauses of their employment contract, so they can say goodbye to their jobs too.
Of course I still don't know who thinks they can take naked pictures of themselves an
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Yes, it was a dumb thing to do. No, these knuckleheads shouldn't get a pass for doing it. This is actually why i never let cell phone vendors move my info to the new phone. They SHOULD simply move data from A to B without retaining or examining the data in any way. I don't trust them to. And there aren't nekkid pictures of anyone on my phone anyway.
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Keep accounting or tax records on your computer, or personal files with your information. Then ask some dweeb at a store to copy them over to your new computer???
I'm sorry, but what in the hell did you expect??
Well I actually expected them to copy the files over to the new computer and not make a copy of them. You know, behave professionally and all that.
Re:Needed: a "Stupid" Law (Score:4, Informative)
"I'm sorry, but what in the hell did you expect??"
That the "dweeb" at the phone store would (gasp!) behave professionally and not invade a customer's privacy?
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That the "dweeb" at the phone store would (gasp!) behave professionally and not invade a customer's privacy?
More professional pay might encourage more professional behavior.
But everything is about racing to the bottom and squeezing blood from turnips these days.
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That the "dweeb" at the phone store would (gasp!) behave professionally and not invade a customer's privacy?
More professional pay might encourage more professional behavior.
But everything is about racing to the bottom and squeezing blood from turnips these days.
Utter bollocks. You don't get more professionalism by paying people more. Otherwise investment banking would have the highest standard of ethics out of any business.
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The real joke would be if he got a job at another Verizon store, in another state.
After all, he's got experience working in a Verizon store on his resume now, right . . . ?
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Dude, it's all imaginary lines. And the clue is in the name: "United States"
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We're the country with by far the most people behind bars, the country kicking in doors on behalf of media cartels, the country bombing random people in far-flung countries...
and our problem is really enforcement underreach?
I disagree.
Re:America's idiotic state system (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes. Yes there is. Corporate policy and apparently at least Florida State Law says so.
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But if i take my home photo book to kinkos for some mending. Is there really an expectation of privacy?
You must be joking ... so every single computer repair place in the entire world are fully allowed to copy and spread anything and everything off every computer that ever comes their way? Really!?
If you can't see why that's retarded then I have lost all hope for the human race. When you take a phone in for services like this, you can and should expect some level of professionalism.
Re:Stupid is as stupid does... (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, as Bruce Schneier argues in his latest book, Liers and Outliers, society functions on the assumption that most people are honest, and so we don't have to waste a lot of time on excessive sucurity. For example, if we extend the coffe shop example, if you don't always have you car in a secured garage with armed patrol, it is your fault if it gets stolen? I think so, based on the example.
These people got fired because they violated the assumption of trust that Verizon depends on to grow it's business. If I am worried that Vernon reps are primarily there to stea personal data, I will go elsewhere. The fact that the personal data is nude pics is a judgemental viewpoint that has more to do with the confort Jon's own body than the issue at hand.
Tomorrow I will see all these people in these large building just leaving thier cars in unprotected oparking lots, letting thier children run around without proper supervision, letting the public in with no security. I suppose if something happens it will be thier fault, not the malice of the perpetrators. I would hate to live in the world where one is afraid of everything.
And you need to trust people (Score:5, Insightful)
For example at work I'm the Windows support lead, an upper level tech support guy basically. This means I have a domain administrator account, the root account on our UNIX systems, the admin account on our NetApp and so on. In other words: I have full access. There is no system in the building I can't get at everything on it.
This means they have to trust me, they have to trust that I won't go and rifle through shit I shouldn't. Even if you naively believe that people never do anything personal on work systems, there's still all kinds of work related stuff I need to leave alone.
And I do, I respect the need for privacy and understand that my access is not synonymous with permission.
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Secondly, don't you think it might be a good idea to get rid of such photos before going in to get a new phone?
How do you know she didn't? Deleting pictures on a phone does very little. There are several completely freeware utilities that will recover those pictures with no problem. A Verizon in-store repairman would certainly know that.
Flash memory is even more of a problem than one would expect. Since manufacturers know that Flash memory is fallible, they take great care in making sure that the same memory space doesn't get used too many time (on average). Distributing the load on memory usage helps the failure r
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Not quite sure why you're modded at -1. This is all too true. A friend of my wife's was visiting not too long ago and showed me her camera - the same one she had three years ago when she last visited. Had a 4 GB SD card so it has a capacity of one zillion little jpegs. She's never off loaded them, never backed them up. They are pictures of kids, grandkids, family events.
She went home with a spare old 10 GB drive with her pics backed up. But some people.....
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I guess they wanted to go easy on him. The correct charge would be copyright infringement, but the punishment for that these days is so severe that you're better off charged with theft...
Re:Scary Charges (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me guess "It's nothing we haven't seen before!"
re: acting as a company representative (Score:3)
I get that, completely .... and you're right. But still, the whole argument that someone acting improperly on company time deserves punishment really only extends as far as reprimanding them, giving them a pay cut or demotion, or firing them.
The police shouldn't really differentiate when it comes to who (if anyone) someone was employed by at the time they did something unlawful. (The courts *might* do so when a case goes to trial -- but that's a different issue, and would typically only come into play if
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Feigned outrage aside, if just about every man out there were in the same position they'd do the same (except showing the pics to customers), given the opportunity.
They most certainly would not. Just because you would do so, does not validate the behavior. You are using the typical defense of the unethical creep--deluding yourself into believing that creepy invasive behavior is normal.
Re:What did you expect (Score:5, Insightful)
Feigned outrage aside, if just about every man out there were in the same position they'd do the same (except showing the pics to customers), given the opportunity.
Anyone who is so weak-willed and untrustworthy that they make copies of a customer's photos doesn't meet my definition of "man".