A Taipei resident surnamed Chen (陳) has been let off the hook for sharing a photograph of a “hot girl” on the Taipei MRT, after a woman pictured in the background tried to sue him for invasion of privacy.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported earlier last week that Chen took the photograph of a young woman who he said looks like Japanese adult video star Yui Hatano.
Sitting on the dark blue seats reserved for elderly and infirm passengers behind the purported Hatano look-alike was a woman looking at the camera, surnamed Hsiao (蕭), who was not at all happy about her likeness circulating online — even though she was not the subject of the image — and was further incensed by Web users who called her an “old lady.”
Prosecutors dismissed Hsiao’s lawsuit, saying Chen was within his legal rights to take a photograph in a public place, no matter how “creepy” it might seem, and he did not share personal information about the plaintiff when circulating the image.
Chen and the friend who posted the image on his behalf might be breathing a sigh of relief, but the object of the photographer’s attention is still very angry.
“Nobody would be happy to hear [that] she looks like an adult film star,” said a woman surnamed Yang (楊), who identified herself to the newspaper as the young woman who caught Chen’s attention.
“When [the image] was uploaded last year, it was a difficult time for me, and my husband was livid. We asked PTT to take the picture down,” she said, referring to the enormously popular forum frequented by university students.
Chen’s post had asked PTT users, well-known for their online sleuthing prowess, to identify Yang and find her contact info.
Prosecutors said that while it is legal to take pictures in public and share them online, victims of wandering cameras can sue for compensation — but only if they can provide evidence that the dissemination of the photograph created difficulties or caused emotional stress.
Public area photographs are legal as long as they serve a public interest.
Since Chen’s interest in Yang was decidedly private, she was able to demand the photograph’s removal based on her right to control the use of her image.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods