In a story that is amazingly not from Florida, a state politician in Georgia is attempting to pass a law to make it illegal to put his, er, your face onto a random porn star’s body. Because that totally makes sense.
Exactly how ridiculous is this attempted law? So ridiculous that Fox News’ website openly mocks the guy in the opening of the article:
A Georgia state lawmaker with an unconventional grasp of the First Amendment is backing a bill that would make lewd photoshopping a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine.
Rep. Earnest Smith pointed, as proof of the problem, to a picture of his head that was recently edited onto a pornstar’s body.
Smith “explains” the bill by saying that you don’t legally have the right to make fun of anyone (which you do) and that his right to privacy was being violated by putting a picture available in the public domain of his face on a body that was not his.
To be fair to Smith, apparently he started trying to do this a year ago, when a girl in his district had this happen to her. But, oddly, once he became the target, suddenly he was super-serious about all this, you guys. The sad thing is that the girl, not being a public figure, might have a case, but Smith, being one, decidedly doesn’t.
Nobody likes getting mocked, and if you’re prim and proper, being Photoshopped into “Hung Low with Sweet Cherry Ott” probably isn’t a lot of fun. That does bring up some ethical issues. But legally speaking, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it can’t be published. Although, we have to admit, seeing “FAKE IMAGE” slathered across all the examples posted online is nothing short of hilarious, like the one above, is hilarious.
Of course, that doesn’t make it a great idea, either, but the same can be said of most things done in Photoshop.