Needless to say, this is highly embarrassing for the “victims” - if they wanted it to be around, they would have used Facebook, Instagram or Flickr. But there is more to it; making a screenshot could also be illegal.
Ed Vaizey, the UK's Culture Minister, stated that if a Snapchat user saves someone else's picture and shares it again without their permission, they are leaving themselves open to being sued under British copyright law.
This makes sense, since selfies and images are protected by IP laws. Once someone shares Snapchat content of other users without their permission, that person infringes on their copyright and therefore could be sued.
As the minister explained: "Under UK copyright law, it would be unlawful for a Snapchat user to copy an image and make it available to the public without the consent of the image owner. The image owner would be able to sue anyone who does this for copyright infringement.”
Snapchat photos are automatically deleted after 10 seconds. The Snapchat privacy policy states that if Snapchat is able to detect that a recipient has taken a screenshot of an image, they will try to inform the original poster. Needless to say, Snapchat advises users to avoid messages which they would not want to be saved or shared.
Bottom line: it’s better to be safe than sorry. Do not post, share or pin any image that could be considered to be sexual, obnoxious or embarrassing. Be aware that reposting, sharing or repinning such an image without permission makes you liable. In the UK, that would mean up to two years imprisonment. The current maximum penalty for copyright infringement in the UK is up to 10 years in prison and an 'unlimited' fine.
Ergo, caveat usarius Snapchati!
