Slashdot Mirror
Oregon Woman Sues Yahoo for $3 Million
bigtallmofo writes "After notifying Yahoo that two member profiles about her were not authorized, Cecilia Barnes of Oregon is suing Yahoo for $3 million for failing to take down the profiles in a timely manner. The profiles allegedly set up by her ex-boyfriend contained nude photos of her along with her email address and work phone number. (Note: The member profiles have since been taken down by Yahoo)."
so let me get this straight ....if i put naked pics of my girlfriend on yahoo i get rich ? it's worth the risk, she won't be so mad at me when she gets $3 mil (i'll post the profile url soon)
Siropel
Share it if you got it!
Tibbon
tibbon.com
I agree, she definitely can't be the first. If you think about this before the internet, there have been cases where people have had naked or otherwise naughty pictures of themselves exposed in printed format before. You don't sue the copy store that allowed the person to make photocopies, do you? She should probably be suing the ex.
Of course, on the other hand, the part of her argument that does hold water is that she asked for the profiles to be taken down since they were fradulent. I do think it is reasonable to expect a reasonable turn around time from the company if you find something out there that you did not post. According to the article, she sent requests over three months, and received no response.
"A wolf's eyes can see into your soul"
My writing
"You don't sue the copy store that allowed the person to make photocopies, do you? She should probably be suing the ex."
No, you'd sue the store for letting the ex put piles of the printed pictures on their floor for anyone to take.
Only if they didn't remove them right away (hence the second part of my post).
"A wolf's eyes can see into your soul"
My writing
...something smells like a scam here.
BF: "How can we get rich, honey?"
GF: "Take nude photos of me, then we 'break up'."
BF: "...and..."
GF: "Then you post them at Yahoo membership profiles..."
BF: "...and then..."
GF: "And then I gently ask Yahoo to take them down - if they take too long, we sue for..."
BF: "$1000 ?"
GF: (in a Doctor Evil imitation) "Three mill-eeee-own dollarz!!!!"
BF: *scrambles for the digital camera*
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
You aint kidding. Take walk over to Empornium and check out the Homemade section. Revenge porn is a booming sector.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
They aren't responsible for what other people do with the web space any more then a Bar is responsible for drunk driving.
There is plenty of case law holds that bars and taverns are liable if they knowingly serve people who are visibly intoxicated who then drive and kill or injure someone on the road. If Yahoo was asked on more than one occasion to have the information removed, they could be held liable.
As I said, that is what the court will decide in this case.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Should yahoo have to take the profiles down?>
Yes.
The women does not legally own all nude pictures of herself. Her phone numbers do not legally receive any special priveledge either, or phone books would be outlawed.
Your points are well taken, but the problem with this case is that her ex- used the profile to solicit sex from strangers who showed up at her workplace. Posting the information and pretending to be her is fraud.
Posting nude pictures of her by itselfisn't something I would consider actionable, despite being an asshole-ish thing to do.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Yes, it is serious and possibly criminally creepy behavior by the ex. If I had to guess why Yahoo left the pictures up I'd say that it is a result of bureaucratic inertia and laziness.
But I do think that Yahoo should leave them up until it is proven that the boyfriend didn'thave the right to post the material. Being an asshole is not necessarily a crime. If Yahoo takes stuff down on demand, without any kind of proof at all, people will abuse the process for fun and profit.
Perhaps proof was offered, I don't know, but assertion doesn't equal proof. Yahoo is screwed either way.
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
My ex randomly contacts me form time to time for no better reason than to piss me off. If it happens to me on a bad day... I'll gladly offer my image collection as the first content for nudes.google.com
http://brandonbloom.name
The issues of who owns accounts, how they are handled when someone dies, and whether a host is responsible for verifying information in a public listing, have simply not yet been addressed, even though the web is 13 years old.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
People haven't understood the power of the internet yet though. Sure you could always take dirty photos and risk your ex showing them to everyone you know. But NOW, they can show them to everyone you know, and everyone you might meet.
People will come around tho.. either we'll stop feeding peoples' bad ethics (spreading gossip), or people will wise up.
I wouldn't hold my breath on the ethics issue.
You're nothing; like me.
The point of a lawsuit isn't always to get the money, it's to get the attention of the company in question. Since Yahoo ignored her for several months, and the lawsuit got the profiles pulled, I'd say 3 million is a great number.
Also, with a $$ driven corporation, the only way to effect change is to impact their profit margin. Asking for $1,000 wouldn't have been enough money to make Yahoo change any policies. But if she gets even a fraction of the three million, Yahoo will have to start taking removal requests a little more seriously.
Agile Artisans