Miami Student

Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: OpEd Page

However, the courts put a great deal of emphasis on freedom of speech and press. Because protecting privacy can mean restricting these freedoms, some requirements must be met to earn this indirect constitutional protection.

Back to Tessa's case. Intrusion lawsuits protect people from physical or intangible (such as long-range cameras or hidden recording devices) intrusion upon their seclusion or solitude. This aspect of law deals with how information is collected.

The main point for the plaintiff Steckle to prove is that she was in a place with an expectation of privacy when the photograph was taken. The judge would most likely rule that she expected no privacy because she was at a public place with many people who all had the same right to be there. The cameraman was simply a member of the public with the same view as anyone else, preserving the moment for others not lucky enough to be there at the time.

Tessa has a better chance at winning the appropriation lawsuit. This type of suit protects people from having their name or image used by someone else for trade purposes, advertising or commercial gain without permission.

The reasoning behind this type of law is that the overall look of an individual is unique to that person and can be considered their property. Another person should not be able to utilize this property for their own gain without consent.

Cases similar to Tessa's have been decided, such as when a teenage girl posed for the generally wholesome Young and Modern magazine. Her pictures were later published with a column titled "I got trashed and had sex with three guys." She lost her appropriation suit because the judge said the article was newsworthy and the photos were not advertising the magazine but were used simply to illustrate the article.

This rationale could apply to Tessa's case. The article was interesting to anyone who has a spring break. The pictures were contained only in the article and related directly to its content. They were neither used to snag people's attention and make them want to buy the magazine, nor were they suggesting that she endorses the magazine. On these grounds Tessa would not win her case. Her only hope would rest in the fact that the girl in the previous case initiated the photo session, while Tessa did not.

Please do not let this hypothetical situation discourage you from having fun on your spring break or any other time. Hopefully, it will make you more aware of when you should expect privacy. What you do in your home is almost always considered private, some of what you do at work or in buildings that require appointments is private, but almost nothing you do in places like restaurants, the street or any place for the public has any degree of privacy protection.

Parts of the Constitution could not exist without a fundamental idea of privacy, but other parts of it give people the right to share things about you. A general rule to consider is "if anyone can experience it, they can share the experience with anyone."

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