LawFuel

Powering Lawyers

Login
Search

LawFuel

Powering Lawyers

  • LawFuel Posts
Search

Latest stories

  • Resolving Cross-Border IP Issues Via Arbitration

  • NY attorney tax prosecution

    Construction Executive Sentenced to 38 Months Prison For Tax Evasion

  • Brisbane Law Firm Accused Of Falsely Claiming Pay Reduction Was Due to COVID

  • Parlous Start to Parler Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon

The award of £14,600 damages on Friday to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas against Hello! magazine – for supposedly ruining their recollection of the celebrity wedding of 2000 by publishing unauthorised and rather poor-quality paparazzi photographs of their reception – may have come as a relief to some editors, media lawyers and paparazzi. The couple had been after £500,000 in commercial damages plus £50,000 each for the emotional hurt suffered. But it was not about privacy at all, writes media lawyer" data-bimber-post-url="https://www.lawfuel.com/blog/the-award-of-14600-damages-on-friday-to-catherine-zeta-jones-and-michael-douglas-against-hello-magazine-for-supposedly-ruining-their-recollection-of-the-celebrity-wedding-of-2000-by-publishing-una/">
in News

The award of £14,600 damages on Friday to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas against Hello! magazine – for supposedly ruining their recollection of the celebrity wedding of 2000 by publishing unauthorised and rather poor-quality paparazzi photographs of their reception – may have come as a relief to some editors, media lawyers and paparazzi. The couple had been after £500,000 in commercial damages plus £50,000 each for the emotional hurt suffered. But it was not about privacy at all, writes media lawyer

March 5, 2006, 9:39 pm 1.6k Views

  • 0share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestRedditEmail

But the real implications of the case are not about privacy (where the courts have not been prepared to create a new stand-alone tort) but in representing another step in the judicial march towards protecting celebrities (rather than the person in the street who might benefit from privacy) by the introduction of a distinct right to publicity in this increasing image- and brand-driven age.

Talk Radio was punished for using the image of a racing driver to promote its product and the taxman is allowing football clubs to make payments to soccer stars to take into account European-style image rights. These may, indirectly, impact on freedom of expression and make satire and doing impressions expensive. In time, Private Eye’s covers may come a cropper too.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Lindsay, took a dispassionate and judicial view of what he saw as a commercial row between magazines. The stars were the centre of the public interest, but they got only £3,750 each for their distress, plus a bit more to cover the cost of extra time spent with their photographers working on the pictures as a result of the Hello! scoop. For the judge, this was not about celebrity but commercial confidence.

Following on from this, the magazine was entitled to substantial damages because the unauthorised spoiler by Hello! had savaged the potential market, costing OK! more than £1m in lost sales. OK! was able to prove, through expert evidence, that it had lost income (not presumed but real, provable loss). Had it not been able to do this, the judge could have awarded it a notional licence fee, which would have been at least £125,000 (which is what Hello! was prepared to pay the paparazzi).

In this huge and complex litigation all the parties can claim and have claimed to be the real winner. But that is not the world of the reader. In the longer term, the real loser is more likely to be the public insofar as deprivation of celebrity life is actually a loss.

Any media relief that another celebrity claim for damages has not produced a goldmine for privacy lawyers to exploit is misplaced. These are real damages, not the relative pinpricks of about £25,000 paid for serious intrusions into privacy. The judicial thinking that went behind it should cause concern to media accountants. The £3,750 each for emotional hurt awarded to the film stars may not sound a lot, but the guesstimated costs of £3m plus £1,033,156 damages to OK! (and £1.75m had been claimed) is enough to make any newspaper or magazine think twice before attempting to spoil a rival’s story.

Journalists tend to see most of the newspapers or magazines but the public read only one or two so may miss out on the latest dress, diet or gossip and as a result buy less product, which even the courts have conceded is not good news for the free flow of information.

For as long as there have been tabloids, one newspaper’s expensive exclusive story is the subject of attack by its rivals through “cut and paste” spoilers thrown together from the archives or the purchase of other players in the story for a fraction of the cost.

The traditions of the spoiler came before the courts when the Sunday Times’s proposed serialisation of Margaret Thatcher’s memoirs was ruined by the publication by the Mirror of the most interesting extracts, just as the Tory party conference was beginning, in 1993. Former prime minister Lady Thatcher had granted an exclusive licence to the Sunday Times.

The Sunday Times was, understandably, furious and went to the courts, but the Mirror fought off an injunction to stop it publishing further material from the memoirs. The Sunday Times had planned to start serialising them at the end of the party conference. But the Mirror argued that its revelations were in the public interest and that the public were entitled to know more. The judges agreed.

The court of appeal doubted whether confidence could be said to attach to memoirs that are about to be published anyway; but there has been criticism of that decision, and the green light that it was felt it gave to spoilers may have just become a red one, as the Sunday Times had a commercial interest in exclusivity which might now find judicial favour and a different result a decade later.

There is, of course, a huge difference between information (or photographs) concerning a former prime minister – clearly a matter of legitimate public interest – and a private wedding reception in a top hotel in New York involving film stars who, no matter how glamorous, are not elected and do not run the country.

Spoilers have largely been justified on the basis that there is no copyright in the news and a defence of fair dealing which allows the reproduction of a few choice quotes as long as these do not amount to a substantial reproduction. But fair dealing is a defence to copyright. Commercial confidence – obviously – is a part of the separate tort of breach of confidentiality (and beyond that defence, which has just been restricted by statute anyway). That there is a public interest can be raised in commercial confidence cases to come (this is new law) but the courts are likely to be more restrictive. Unless a celebrity is committing a crime or involved in serious antisocial behaviour, what public interest can there be in a wedding, particularly as so many celebrities seem to have so many weddings? A newspaper may be able to describe a wedding dress in words but not reproduce it as a picture (or even as an accurate drawing). Judges see no public interest in tittle-tattle, even if it sells.

The trial judge dealt with a very specific set of facts but legal history shows us that cases can develop a life of their own with unexpected ramifications. In the 19th century, employers sued employees for damage to machinery when a clumsy employee managed to crush an arm in the mill, stopping production. Now passive smokers have their eyes on the rich tobacco companies.

You May Also Like

  • 162 Views

    in Arbitration, Briefings, Briefs, Intellectual Property

    Resolving Cross-Border IP Issues Via Arbitration

  • 310 Views

    in Lawyer of the Year, New Zealand, NZ Featured Posts

    Placing Her ‘Neck On The Line’ In Samoa Didn’t Prevent Recognition In Samoa For Tiana Epati

  • Trending

    426 Views

    in Headlining NZ, LawFuel, New Zealand

    Legal Disrupter Arrives In New Zealand to ‘Democratise’ Legal Access

  • 397 Views

    in Press Releases

    Construction Executive Sentenced to 38 Months Prison For Tax Evasion

  • 354 Views

    in Australia Law News, Law Firms

    Brisbane Law Firm Accused Of Falsely Claiming Pay Reduction Was Due to COVID

  • 467 Views

    in NZ Press Releases, Power Law Firms - New Zealand

    DLA Piper Wellington Office Moves

  • 0share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

See more

  • Previous article British MP George Galloway and his opponent the Daily Telegraph will leave no stone unturned to sort out what could be a spectacular libel case.
  • Next article One of the authors claiming Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code copied his ideas has admitted he exaggerated his case in an interview with a journalist.

More From: News

  • in News

    Bob Jones’ Latest Book – Here!

    October 11, 2020, 5:16 am

  • in featured, Headlining, Law Firms, News, US Law

    Why Are Former Partner ‘SEALS’ Jumping From Pierce Bainbridge Law Firm?

    October 21, 2019, 9:46 am

  • Caplan US college scandal
    in Big Law, Law Firms, News, Top in LawFuel

    US College Bribery Scandal Sees One Big Law Firm Score A ‘D’ For Crisis Management

    March 18, 2019, 8:57 am

  • in Artificial Intelligence, Briefings, Briefs, News, Technology

    Ghosts in the Machine: Revisited: Survey sees Artificial Intelligence as an opportunity and threat by financial services sector

    November 21, 2018, 1:20 am

  • in Briefings, Briefs, Environment and Climate, News

    The Growth of ‘Climate Change Litigation’

    November 19, 2018, 8:02 am

  • in Health Issues, Lifestyle & Travel, News, Sidebar

    How Getting Up From Your Desk Can Lose You Weight & Keep You Healthy

    November 11, 2018, 9:08 am

Next post

British MP George Galloway and his opponent the Daily Telegraph will leave no stone unturned to sort out what could be a spectacular libel case.

One of the authors claiming Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code copied his ideas has admitted he exaggerated his case in an interview with a journalist.

Search LawFuel

Leading Law News: US Lawyer Arrested Under New Hong Kong Security Law

human rights lawyer arrested

Pumping News

1. NY Bar Look To Dump Giuliani

2. How Law Directories Can Help Drive Diversity

3. Russian Billionaire Seeks LawFuel Emails

4. Deloittes Push Further Into Legal Space

5.  Lawyers’ Definative Guide To Local SEO

Try This Free Marketing Tool

Try the World’s No.1 Marketing Tool Free!

Send Me Power Law Updates

​

    We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

    Powered By ConvertKit

    Check The Legal Competition

    Explore the Competitive Landscape of Your Industry

    Post Your Job On LawFuel

    Reach The LawFuel Audience Here With a Featured Job

    Celeb Lawyer List

    The Big Law Salary Scale

    Trending Now

    • 354 Views

      Brisbane Law Firm Accused Of Falsely Claiming Pay Reduction Was Due to COVID

    • Parlous Start to Parler Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon

    • Maori law, LawFuel

      The Twin Lawyers With Equal Passion For Maori Legal Issues

    • law firm mergers

      Pandemic Drives Law Firm Mergers Down in 2020

    Jerry Seinfeld’s 2 Success Tools

    The Top Law Movies

    Legal Careers


    How to Optimize Your Law Career For Change
       


    Trending Now

    • 162 Views

      Resolving Cross-Border IP Issues Via Arbitration

      January 21, 2021, 9:35 am

    • 310 Views

      Placing Her ‘Neck On The Line’ In Samoa Didn’t Prevent Recognition In Samoa For Tiana Epati

      January 20, 2021, 5:37 am

    • 426 Views

      Legal Disrupter Arrives In New Zealand to ‘Democratise’ Legal Access

      January 19, 2021, 11:39 pm

    • 397 Views

      Construction Executive Sentenced to 38 Months Prison For Tax Evasion

      January 19, 2021, 10:59 pm

    • 354 Views

      Brisbane Law Firm Accused Of Falsely Claiming Pay Reduction Was Due to COVID

      January 19, 2021, 6:30 am

    • 467 Views

      DLA Piper Wellington Office Moves

      January 18, 2021, 11:48 pm

    • 390 Views

      Parlous Start to Parler Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon

      January 18, 2021, 2:33 am

    • 505 Views

      Jailhouse Lawyer Taylor To Take ‘Gangland’ Book Censorship Case To Court

      January 18, 2021, 1:10 am

    • 830 Views

      The BigLaw TikTok Lawyer Who Has Become A Major Legal Jobs Influencer

      January 17, 2021, 9:30 am

    • 687 Views

      Clifford Chance Advise Lloyds on Insurance-Linked Securities Platform

      January 16, 2021, 9:33 pm

    Categories

    RSS LawFuel Law Jobs Blog

    • Law Job Priorities Change With COVID Pandemic - UK Law Job Survey
      It doesn't take a genius to understand that the COVID pandemic shook up the legal market - including in the UK, where a recent review provided a detailed overview of the impact of the pandemic. The monthly average number of jobs posted to law jobs site Simply Law Jobs in 2020 was 5,328, a 60 […]
    • Are Women Lawyers Fundamentally Different From Male Lawyers?
      The setting up of women-only networks and reverse mentoring programmes may be unwittingly undermining gender diversity within law firms, according to new research. A report by Thomson Reuters that measures the effectiveness of common diversity initiatives warns against programmes that support the ‘erroneous perception that female lawyers are fundamentally different than male lawyers and therefore […]
    • The Law Career Continues to Attract People Even After A Tough 2020. Will 2021 Be Better?
      The legal industry globally has taken a significant hit with the Coronavirus pandemic but continues to show some resilience as job recruitment continues, according to international reports. The jobs market in most jurisdictions has been moderately weak. In the US, for instance, the industry lost 68,000 jobs in April, but regains ground as 5,000 more […]
    • Kiwi Celebs with Law Degrees
      We all know it's not necessary to be a lawyer if you have a law degree - obviously - but did you know these kiwi celebrities who do have law degrees and some have practised law for some time as well. We listed the 'lawyer-celebs' to check right here
    • Newly Qualified Lawyers in London Earning Less
      The pay rates made by the Magic Circle law firms in London have been rising steadily, lead by US law firms who have pushed the rates for newly qualified (NQ) lawyers way up. However that is coming to a grinding halt as LInklaters announce a 10 per cent reduction in rates for their NQs, following […]
    Activate the G1 Socials plugin to use the Instagram module.

    About LawFuel

    • LegalTech: Practice Management
    • LegalTech: Legal Documentation Automation
    • Advertise

    Legal Pages

    • Privacy Policy

    LawFuel News Sources

    ABA Journal

    AboveTheLaw

    BBC

    Bloomberg Law

    CNN Law

    Legal Business

    Legal Intelligencer

    NY Times

    The Guardian

    The Lawyer

    Slate

    The Times

    Washington Post

     

    © 2021 LawFuel Media

    Back to Top
    Close
    • LawFuel Posts
    • 0share
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • LinkedIn

    Privacy Policy