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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)."
I think that portal-based adult groups will probably go "bye-bye" if they are viewed as a financial risk to the hosting site. Yahoo puts all of this webspace up without asking questions about the veracity of the information and then doesn't have the resources to properly police it. I'm sure MSN will drop theirs as well if this case goes against Yahoo.
I'm sure that this woman is not the first person who has had an ex-boyfriend/husband/lover post nude pictures of them on the net.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Enter somebody's name, find all known nude photographs of that person. Needn't even be celebrities.
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
Someone doesn't have a very high opinion of /.ers!
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
I can understand she is upset and wants some compensation for the "emotional stress" such an incident might have caused, but... $3 million...are you serious?
I tried it, They don't have either profile. No google cache either. :(
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
This might become the newest husband-wife scam to extort money out of large companies.
If he'd posted them there, they would still be circulating. See, a distributed, redundant architecture protects you from a single point of failure.
Deleted
"This thread is useless without pics."
Big fucking deal. You don't need to be of high moral virtue (whatever that might mean) to deserve sufficient privacy to keep private information off the net.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
... is she hot?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I think she will have a hard time with this case, proving that she didn't do exactly that.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
From the article:
Barnes sent Yahoo a letter in January saying she did not create the profiles and wanted them removed. Additional attempts to get Yahoo to remove them in February and March did not get a response, the lawsuit claims.
So, basically, she's suing because Yahoo left the images up for three months after being contacted and asked to take them down. Considering her personal information went along the photos, not acting on the information in a timely fashion is pretty serious, because it helped prolong her harassment.
As for the boyfriend, he should probably be brought up on criminal charges.
...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.
Nothing comes up.
WAIT! Let me rephrase that!
(accidently clicks submit)
damn.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
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!"
She should have invoked the DMCA to have them removed.
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.
Everyone suggesting that anyone who got to these pictures share them is getting modded "Troll" but seriously now, how many people in here went straight for those pages and wanted to see them? People are (generally) hypocritical about things like this. They wouldn't want it to happen to them but they want to see it when it's someone else.
Asking for the pictures isn't being a Troll. It's being pretty much human. We're a species of voyuers for the most part.
And yes, I replied to this particular article just to make sure I could find the URL that the AC responding to it posted when I get home.
But at least I'm honest about it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
That is the most self-serving bunch of tripe I've read this year.
McFact: 185 degrees is the proper temperature for coffee, not a problem to be solved.
McFact: Some other restaraunts had it 20 degrees lower out of fear of lawsuits and at the expense of the coffee's taste.
McFact: McDonalds refused her original claim not because they were being jerks but because if they admitted fault, they would be open for even more lawsuits.
McFact: Lack of personal resposibility is ruining many of life's experiences for everyone.
-Ryan C.
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.
http://forumpics.info/Yahoo-pics/
:)
Didn't get but the thumbnails, but they are good enought o see what's going on.
Pretty Pictures!
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
Does not matter. The rights belong to the photographer.
Only the ownership of the video or photo, which doesn't mean they have the right to publish it.
That is why people who film complete strangers and win on shows like America's Funniest Home Videos cannot be sued for the prize money by those strangers. It has been tried probably, but I have been unable to find any case where the videographer has not prevailed.
Maybe becasue of this little requirement for submissions to AFHV:
Entrants whose clips are chosen for inclusion in a program must sign a Release and Indemnity in the form presented attesting, among other things, to the fact that they are the rightful owners of the submitted clips and that the clip may be submitted and broadcast without obtaining permission from or making any payment to any third party. All persons appearing in the clips must sign consent forms and/or releases (which shall grant to Producer the right to use such person's name, voice and likeness) before the submission can be eligible for prize awards. Parent or guardian must sign the consent/release form for minors. Failure to provide requested releases and/or consents will result in disqualification of entrant. These release and/or consent forms will be provided by the Producer. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the submission of a videotape constitutes the submitter's permission to use the videotape (and the name, voice and likeness of the submitter) in and in connection with the program and all exploitations thereof, including, without limitation, advertising and promotion and, further, constitutes the submitter's representation that all necessary consents and permissions therefor have been obtained.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
People are (generally) hypocritical about things like this. They wouldn't want it to happen to them but they want to see it when it's someone else.
Yeah, the Germans have a word for it, too: schadenfreude.
Literal translation: Damage joy.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Heck, if she'd posted this to /. in the first place, we could have taken down Yahoo all by ourselves.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
your grandmother??... holy crap.
./R My blog
If the photos don't exist in the first place, then they cannot be put on the internet.
This is common sense and worked well into the middle 1990s.
McFact: 185 degrees is the proper temperature for coffee, not a problem to be solved.
McFact: McDonalds made it a choice to brew, store, and serve their coffee beyond the normal 185F. The manual in the 80s listed 195F. Rather than using thermometers they turned up the heat to boiling and turned it down a notch resulting in a pour temp of over 195F, into sealed styrofoam mugs.
McFact: 185F coffee does not cause 3rd degree burns. 2nd degree burns are possible. Surgery and skin grafts are not required for normal coffee spills.
McFact: They were aware of the problem but refused to turn down their pots just a notch.
McFact: A reasonable restaurant, whether big chain or small fry has insurance, and so long as you provide photographs will pay for reasonable damages and even offer a small amount of pain and suffering.
Best example. I had deep fried oysters at Ivers... and broke a tooth on a pearl. I spit out the pearl and tooth fragments and filed an accident report. They agreed to pay the dental bill and offered a small amount for suffering. McDonalds refused to pay medical expences and got sued.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Get your facts from the court documents and findings. There was clear evidence of contributory negligence on the part of McDonald's, and the court punished them for it. Note also that the court found both parties responsible (that is, both Stella Liebeck and McDonald's), so your "no personal responsibility" spiel can go suck it, as far as this case is concerned.
From your source, the woman was seeking $20,000 to cover her medical bills, but McD only offered her a measly $800.
And, the woman received $160,000 in compensatory damages plus $480,000 (i.e. 3x compensatory) in punitive damages.
The ideal temperature for brewing coffee is just under the boiling point, you want it as hot as possible without "burning" it, something unfortunately not possible at home given the low power of most of our coffee makers, unless you buy a pretty exotic one. It shouldn't be left sitting around long before serving, either.
I realize that it's a false dichotomy since we're talking about McDonald's coffee, but still, there is a tension between having good, fresh coffee on the one hand, and accomodating the amazingly stupid people who can't be expected to hold a cup properly on the other. Most places accomodate the stupid people, since they're obviously a pretty big chunk of the population. But still, it's a shame.
The fallacy here is that you're going to transfer the heat to flesh at all efficiently by splashing the liquid over it, such that the flesh will reach the same temperature as the fluid. Hopefully the average Slashdot reader sees the BS here.
It is really just a shame that our society is being shaped to accomodate the stupid, boring people in so many areas and so many ways. They ought to stay at home where they won't get hurt, eat their TV dinners and avoid sharp objects and dangerous ideas.
We've really dumbed down the definition of "hazardous", haven't we? Stay off those stairs! They are hazardous!
Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
I'm quite sure that these fine upstanding "Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, medical malpractice, wrongful death, auto accident and personal injury attorneys and lawyers dedicated to vigorously representing the injured" don't have an axe to grind.