Can You Grab Someone’s Phone If They’re Taking Dirty Photos?

Can You Grab Someone’s Phone If They’re Taking Dirty Photos?
Wang was just an ordinary office worker in Beijing.
One day on his subway commute,
he noticed the man next to him secretly taking photos up a woman’s skirt.
In a moment of righteous anger, he grabbed the man’s phone and smashed it to the ground!
When police arrived, they restrained the photo-taker but also handcuffed Wang.
As he was being taken away, Wang shouted, “I was just being a good Samaritan!”
Being taken to the police station caused Wang to lose his perfect attendance bonus for the month.
Furious, he sued the investigating officers in court,
where he demanded: “He was taking inappropriate photos of women!
How was I wrong to stop this public menace?”
The photo-taker coldly responded:
“There weren’t even any photos on my phone! My iPhone Pro Max is worth
10,000 bucks!”
Turns out that the man had only intended to take photos but hadn’t actually captured any images.
As a result, he was only held partially responsible,
while Wang was sentenced to five days’ detention and ordered to compensate the man for his phone.
According to Article 1019
of the Civil Code:
“Without the consent of the portrait rights holder,
no one may produce, use, or publicly display the portrait of the rights holder, except as otherwise provided by law.”
So if you encounter someone taking unauthorized photos,
you should instead take a video of him taking the photos, alert the victim and call the police instead!​