How do I know when something is a legal issue?

Question

Just the other day I gave my old camera and empty memory card to another employer at work. I thought I was doing a nice thing since I had just bought a new camera. The next day he comes in and says that I'm going to be mad at him. I ask what for? He then goes to tell me that he has a program that can recover old pictures from a memory car. I feel that not only my generosity was betrayed but that he broke some kind of law. We work at an internet company and he knows all the dirty little tricks. I feel that some type of right that I have has been crossed. I don't need to tell you what kind of pictures they were, I'm sure you get the idea. Do I need to get a lawyer involved since this was done illegally? Or am I just over reacting because he broke the trust and invaded a privacy that was deleted?

Answer 1

How terrible, I would definitely contact a attorney and get some advise on this.

Answer 2

It is unlikely that he broke any laws. You took the pictures, he didn't. You gave him the memory card voluntarily, he didn't steal them. The deleted pictures aren't protected under copyright.

What you might be able to do though is to sue him to recover the camera and memory card, as the transfer was due to a mistake, your mistaken belief that the pictures were deleted. You need to act FAST, and include a preliminary injunction against him copying or distributing the contents of the memory card.

If you get that preliminary injunction, and ultimately recover the memory card, and IF (super size that particular 'if') you can get him on record saying he hasn't distributed the pictures, he'll go to jail for Contempt if they ever surface anywhere.

This won't be cheap or easy, but it's a shot.

If you do nothing, you are tacitly accepting his possession of the pictures, and whatever he wants to do with them.

Answer 3

It might not be a legal issue -- it's none that I have ever heard of -- because you gave it to him willingly. But if he uses those photos or even mentions them, it's sexual harassment.
Did he say he would do something bad with the photos? Did you ask why he even attempted to look at old pictures on someone else's memory card? It's certainly an invasion of privacy, and it's totally creepy, but it seems to me that legally, you really can't do anything until he posts them on the internet or something.
My advise is to ask for the card, photos and all traces of them back, and to inform him that under no uncertain terms he will be sued and worse if anyone ever hears about or sees the pictures.

Answer 4

It's a legal issue when the law provides a remedy. Which, granted, is not really a helpful answer, but....

In the above case, you gave him the camera and the card. He didn't take them. So, in your gift, you gave him the right to do anything with that hardware as it were his hardware.

BUT, the hardware is not the data. Your photographs are still your intellectual property, and still your private property -- so, absent a license to use that data, it's still yours.

If he attempts to make copies of the recovered data, that's copyright violation (statutory). If he attempts to post that data, that's tort (civil law) invasion of privacy. Both are actionable in court. Whether it's worth the cost to you, given that you won't get much (if any) monetary recovery is up to you.

Answer 5

if you were to sue him it would be kind of difficult since you willingly gave him the camera. Even though he did betray your trust by unlocking the old photos, the camera was now in his possesion and he had free liberty to do what he wanted with it.

I would ask for the camera and card back and go to a lawyer to make sure that if any photos get out, you could now sue this guy.

Life lesson: no good deed goes unpaid...