Is X17 Now Breaking International Privacy Laws?

In photographing and videotaping Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen while they walked the streets of Paris, notoriously peccant paparazzi agency X17 may have broken French and international law.

The French have much stricter privacy laws protecting non-public officials than America does, keeping even the most famous of celebrities out of public eye, since individuals must give their permission to be hounded by photogs. (After the death of Princess Diana in 1997 in Paris, a campaign was launched to further tighten regulations for civilians.)

But that didn’t keep the agency helmed by industry scamps Francois and Brandy Navarre from harassing the Olsen twins on the street and while they dined inside Cafe de Flore.

Possibly, X17 will claim they only photographed the Olsens inside France’s borders, but did not sell photos there. And that strategy might work — if those photos only circulate inside the U.S., where privacy laws are nil.

But if those photos are sold inside any part of Europe, they may face trouble: In 2004, Princess Caroline of Monaco successfully sued photographers for snapping her in France and then selling the pictures to German magazines. The defense that “we didn’t sell them in France” didn’t hold weight before the European Court of Human Rights, as Caroline claimed a violation under Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention, which protects one’s right to private and family life. Even Britain, which has looser laws than France (which goes so far as to ban photographs of crime suspects in handcuffs, because it could sway public opinion against someone presumed innocent) but stricter than the U.S., must now take the ruling “into account” when making its own right to privacy rulings. In Italy, prison terms are being threatened against invasive photogs.

The regulations in France are so tight, the tabloid magazines are nearly forced to focus on foreign celebrities, including Americans, because they cannot secure legal photos of their own stars. But when those Americans, like Mary-Kate and Ashley, step into France’s borders, they’re afforded the same protections as citizens. And foreign photographers who follow them, like X17, are affording the same legal liabilities for stalking them.