Speak Out: Should Photoshop Parodies Be Considered Protected Speech?

Should manipulating photos using Photoshop or other software be protected under the First Amendment?

A bill in the Georgia legislature, HB 39, provides “that a person commits defamation when he or she causes an unknowing person wrongfully to be identified as the person in an obscene depiction.”

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund says that Rep. Earnest Smith, one of the bill's co-sponsors, demonstrated “a profound lack of understanding of the First Amendment” when he told The Savannah Morning News “no one has a right to make fun of anyone….It’s not a First Amendment right.”

Smith was commenting on a parody that featured his own face pasted onto a nude body. The photo is marked "fake image."

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund says Smith is wrong, stating that the Supreme Court upheld the right to mock other, including public figures, more than 20 years ago.

Rev. Jerry Falwell sued Hustler Magazine for libel and infliction of emotional stress, after the porno mag published a parody ad of Falwell and his mother engaged in intercourse.

A lower court threw out the libel claim, but found that Falwell had indeed suffered emotional stress.

But Hustler publisher Larry Flynt appealed that ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that:

"[P]ublic figures and public officials may not recover [damages] for…intentional infliction of emotional distress by reason of publications such as the one here at issue without showing, in addition, that the publication contains a false statement of fact which was made with ‘actual malice,’ i.e., with knowledge that the statement was false or with reckless disregard as to whether or not it was true."

People have been arrested for pasting a photo of someone's head on a picture of a nude body and posting those photos on adult websites, but those cases have been prosecuted under cyber-stalking laws.

Should obvious parody Photoshops be protected under the First Amendment or should it be illegal to manipulate a photo in order to make fun of someone? 

Tell us in the comments!