France Trying to Legislate the use of Photoshop

A bill filed in the French National Assembly is proposing a requirement to add disclaimers to photos where a person's physical appearance has been altered. UMP member Valeria Boyer filed the bill in order to help combat anorexia and other eating disorders by noting when a body has been photoshopped. The bill reads (translated into English):

The publicity photographs of people whose physical appearance was altered by software image processing must be accompanied by the words: + retouched photograph to change the physical appearance of a person +

Lets be clear here: every image in every ad in the history of modern civilization has been altered in some way, shape, or form (some quite humorously). Everybody knows that. While we're all for promoting positive body images for women and especially teenage girls, at best this label will quickly degrade into meaningless noise when all images in a magazine carry it.

In California, Proposition 65 requires all consumer products containing substances that could possibly cause cancer be labeled as such. If you've ever been to California, you will see everything labeled - I remember seeing signs saying breathing air at a gas station could be hazardous (duh). The result of this over labeling is you start to ignore the warning after a while.

While this bill seeks to note images that have been digitally manipulated, it doesn't cover images that have been skillfully photographed. Lighting placement, camera angle, make up, and many other methods can be used to change a model's appearance before an image is turned into pixels.

Please France, join the 21st century and stop trying to legislate advertising and art.

Source - AFP article translated by Google