I was hoping to be able to pretend that the Erin Andrews voyeur tape didn’t exist after the Sun-Times alerted me to its fetid existence this morning–can’t find the link, but the gist was that if you try to download the video you’ll get whatever horrible computer virus you deserve–but this post by Creative Loafing Tampa’s Sean Alff dragged me in. Such ethical fumbling shouldn’t go unremarked upon:
“While some may not see the distinction between a peephole video and a celebrity sex tape [Ed. note: hence, why it’s ok to post about a Leighton Meester sex tape of unknown origin, with NSFW pics], the difference is consent. Take Paris Hilton, for instance. While she may not have known Rick Solomon would later sell her sex tape, Paris did agree to appear in the video.”
IANAL, and he may be right along strictly legal lines, even if they’re lines that I’d care to stay far, far away from. But at risk of stating the obvious–and I guess it isn’t obvious enough– they’re really not as different as Alff would like you to think.