ERIE, Pa. -- Today’s digital age has changed our lives forever. With just a click of a mouse, photos of your most intimate moments can be displayed to more than 3 billion Internet users around the globe.
These images can quickly make their way to family members, friends, co-workers, classmates, colleagues and employers. Victims could be threatened, stalked and tormented; they might have difficulty finding work or could even be fired.
But there are ways to fight back, and Elisa D’Amico is leading that charge.
A partner at the Miami office of the law firm K&L Gates, D’Amico helped found the Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project, which provides free legal assistance to victims of nonconsensual pornography. She will discuss her work fighting back against cyber exploitation, online harassment, and “revenge porn” during a special presentation at Penn State Behrend on Thursday, Oct. 1.
D’Amico’s 7:30 p.m. talk will be held in Reed Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public, and reserved parking for attendees will be available in the Reed lot.
The Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project was founded in 2014 by D’Amico and fellow K&L Gates partner David Bateman on the principle that people have a right of privacy in their intimate photographs and videos, and that the public, online dissemination of that media without consent is an invasion of sexual privacy amounting to a “cyber civil rights” violation.
The New York Times recently highlighted it as “the first of its kind at a major United States law firm.” D’Amico has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, HuffPost Live, "The Meredith Vieira Show," and "The Security Brief" to discuss the project.
D’Amico’s visit is sponsored by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Behrend. For additional information, contact Sarah Whitney, lecturer in English and women’s studies, at 814-898-6325 or sew17@psu.edu.