Privacy

Question 1

PF case for PDPF

Answer 1

 PF case
• (1) ∆ publicly disclosed
• (2) a private fact
• (3) the disclosure is highly offensive to a person of reasonable sensibilities, and
• (4) is of no legitimate public concern (i.e. not “newsworthy” based on contemporary mores)

Question 2

key distinction btw PDPF and defamation

Answer 2

 PDPF creates liability for truthful revelations under certain circumstances (so it’s a good alternative to a defamation charge that only protects against false facts)

Question 3

Haynes rule regarding newsworthiness vs offensiveness

Answer 3

 rule: people who do not desire the limelight and do not deliberately choose a way of life/course of conduct calculated to thrust them into it nevertheless have no legal right to extinguish it if the experience that has befallen them are newsworthy, even if they would prefer that those experiences be kept quiet (Haynes)

Question 4

constitutional limitations on PDPF

Answer 4

 courts weigh personal privacy rights against the critical importance to our type of govt that citizens be informed of events of legitimate public concern and act as the final judge of the proper conduct of public business (Cohn)
 rule: only where a newspaper publishes truthful info which it has lawfully obtained, punishment may lawfully be imposed, if at all, only when narrowly tailored to a stated interest of the highest order (Florida Star) - **follows Daily Mail Principle
• in this case, news coverage of a rape incident was made possible by public police records (victim sued the paper)

Question 5

premise of false light

Answer 5

o premise: protects ’s right to put forth an accurate image of themselves before the public and to not have the image sullied by falsehoods that would be offensive to a reasonable person
 protects right to inviolate personality, even if  is portrayed positively

Question 6

false light PF case

Answer 6

o PF case
 (1) plaintiff must prove that ∆ has given publicity to a matter concerning another that places the other before the public in a “false light,” and
 (2) the “false light” in which the other was placed would be highly offensive to a reasonable person
 **distinguish “false” from “offensive” (the latter, on its own, is not protected here)

Question 7

premise of appropriation

Answer 7

o Appropriation
 involves attempts by people to control the exploitation of names/likenesses/fame/and any pecuniary value attached to them
 premise: protects one’s concern for the uses to which his name, personality, and image are put
 gives even public figures who might otherwise embrace publicity a right to control their images
 the media is rarely sued for appropriation
 **unlike intrusion, disclosure, or false light, appropriation does not require the invasion of something secret/private pertaining to , nor does it involve falsity
• the interest protected is a proprietary one in the exclusive use of ’s name and likeness as an aspect of his identity

Question 8

“real relationship/incidental use” test for appropriation

Answer 8

 real relationship/incidental use test: if a publisher uses an image of an individual to entice the reader into buying a magazine or to illustrate a new story, that image must have a real relationship to the text within the publication – if it does, the use of the image is likely to be protected as “incidental” to the publication’s commercial status
• this test is easily met, especially w regard to mainstream news publishers