Legal Question in Technology Law in New Jersey
Hi I am not sure if you guys can help but here is the situation. My girlfriend and I live in NJ and we frequent a legal nude beach on Sandy Hook. On the beach, many guys sneak cameras and use cell phones to take pictures and post them on line. There is one website coccozella that posts the pictures without our permission. The rangers on the beach said it is a public beach and we choose to put ourselves here so people are free to take pictures even without permission- though it is very rude to do so.
Anyway, someone took a picture off of coccozella's website and added a funny caption to it and has spread it all over the internet. This picture includes myself nude, my topless girlfriend and our friend. We were curious to see if there is anything at all we can do. Yes we are angry at the guy who took the picture, but it is legal as the rangers said. Yes we do choose to put ourselves there. But coccozella charges a monthly fee and makes money off of our picture and also distributes that picture to whoever wants to take it and put it all over the internet.
We have asked coccozella to take the picture down and they angrily did so. But that picture was up for almost a year before my girlfriend's co worker saw the edited one passed around the internet.
Is there anything we can do at all?
Please Help!!
Thank you
2 Answers from Attorneys
I am NOT an expert in this area, but what you are describing does not sound right. Your privacy was ripped away in a completely inappropriate way. And someone made money off it.
I would like to research this, if you would like to hire me to go after this for you. You are not all that far away, so I could assist you. Give me a call, make an appointment to come see me, and let's get moving on this for you. I would not charge you for the initial consultation, and we could explore your legal options.
Robert Davies, Esq. 201-820-3460
My contact information can be obtained from the links below, just click on the Attorney Profile link. Let my secretary know you found me through LawGuru.
Please keep in mind that my response is just a general comment on your question, and not legal advice. Your question and any response does NOT create an attorney-client relationship between you and this law firm. The exact details of your situation and things that you have not mentioned in your question can completely change the answer to your question. You can not rely upon what I have written, because I do not have all of the information that I need to advise you, I only have the very small amount of information that you put into your question. For me to give you any legal advice, I would need for you to hire me to be your lawyer, and then we would need to discuss this in detail and go over the documents.
To get legal advice that you can rely on and use, please contact me directly. I would be happy to assist you.
Unless the content is newsworthy, it is an infringement of your privacy rights for anyone to make commercial use of a photograph of you without your permission. The fact that the photograph was made in a public place is not determinative of the matter. If this site charged for people to see these photographs, you have legal rights that can be enforced. Whether or not you want to go throught the effort and expense to do this is an issue that you will have to decide. I have helped clients with similar matters. If I can be of further help to you, call or email. /p/ See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm
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