Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in California
I operate a website which since about 1994 has centered around a particular group of people stationed in a foreign country between 1949 and 1976. They write their true stories of their time there in the hopes that buddies from that time period will contact them. We have never had a problem, though I wonder if there is a law governing "fair use of peoples' names" that we should be concerned about. The stories are written and submitted by their authors and we have never asked them to use fake names or eliminate use of other peoples' names, as that would greatly affect the contacts they enjoy from people they were once stationed alongside overseas.
If a reader objected to the use of their name we would remove it immediately, however I am wondering if there is a requirement that we be "warned" or asked in advance to remove a name. I can readily see that if we DIDN'T take action, we might be in trouble, but if nobody has asked, and the mentioned names are in reference to their time decades ago overseas, and they appear in true stories which do not demean them in any way - far from it! - should we continue as we have been, or should I shut the site down?
Regards,
Jan Claire
California
1 Answer from Attorneys
Continue with the site. It is very nice of you to run it.
The people who submit articles to you clearly can not sue because they knew their name would be published. As to the names they mention, if nothing bad is said there are no damages so basis for a suit. Truth is also an absolute defense. If you have no way of knowing a negative story is false and a reasonable investigation of the story would not have revealed that, you probably also can not be sued successfully.
If you still are worried, you could consider setting up a corporation or LLC to avoid personal liability.
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