Taken from NBC online news:
The legislation says anyone who "photographs, videotapes or electronically surveils" another person's sexual or intimate parts without that person's consent would face a misdemeanor charge and a maximum penalty of two-and-a-half years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
The crime becomes a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for photographs or recordings of a child under 18. Distributing such photos would carry a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Murray said those who take such photos sometimes post them on pornographic websites.
I'm sorry but this new legislation seems like a typical knee-jerk reaction by politicians and I would expect that the supreme court of Mass. might have a different view of this new law. First of all does "sexual parts" include a woman's clothed breasts? Since the state already defines the intentional unwanted touching of a woman's breasts as a "sexual battery", does that mean that the unwanted viewing and photographing of a woman's clothed breasts, rear-end and crotch now become an assault too, even when the "sexual parts" are photographed? How would this jibe with a photographer's first amendment rights under the US Constitution? How do you prove that a man taking photographs at the beach (without a telephoto lens or other technology) isn't in violation of this law? Like I said before, in a public place (a place where you have no reasonable expectation of privacy), if you can see it clearly without using extra means to see it, you should be allowed to photograph it. If a woman wears a low top or a short skirt and a guy can see over or under her clothes, that is on her. Are we really wanting to make photography without consent a crime?
Maybe the law should include having a man's eyes put out with hot irons... or forcing women to wear burkas in public? Is that where we are heading in this country?