Legal Question in Technology Law in Massachusetts

Can I sue site?

A site has pictures of me they took from facebook w/o consent & posted on the site. The site based on poking fun of people. There's death threats in the comments of my photo by random people. There been message sent to me via facebook that says ''I know where you live'' & has my address up on there. On site also, in comments under my pic there's a link to police log that lists my address. So these people know the exact street and apartment of where I live (MA),they have death threats on there, and they poke fun of the way I look and dress. The site owner making money off his book on there and advertisement on site.The owner of site published a book that is based on making fun of people with their pics in there (I'm not there) that's sold on his site as well as amazon and borders. I'm bit paranoid now when I go outside cause I don't know if people from site watching me. Also, for a few weeks I was depressed due to all neg comments on there.A friend told me I've been on site since Feb and it's beginning to make sense why people at college were giving me looks and made fun of me. At time I thought it was random.Now I'm beginning to see it was linked to site, since I found out they knew about it. Can I sue the site for any of the above?


Asked on 8/07/08, 2:46 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Graves Coolidge & Graves PLLC

Re: Can I sue site?

The answer to that question is almost always "Yes," but that does not take us very far. Your claim may even have merit, but litigation is really a last resort, as you, being a college student, probably cannot afford the substantial legal fees and costs (unless independently wealthy) required to take a case to trial. The best approach is to send a demand letter to the site owner requiring that your image and data be removed. If the site owner fails to comply, you then have the rather difficult task of finding a lawyer willing to take the case on a "contingency" fee basis (meaning that you pay no fees unless you win), but even then there are substantial costs that you would have to pay -- read any fee agreement carefully as those "costs" can run into thousands of dollars.

Best wishes,

LDWG

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Answered on 8/07/08, 6:22 am


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