One of the strangest news stories I have seen in a while came to me today courtesy of pagesix.com. With the headline "Braces Girl Sues"; the story says actress Marisa Guterman (Braces Girl from "The 40 Year-Old Virgin) is suing web host Dreamhost for invasion of privacy. From the article:
In court documents obtained by PageSix.com, the actress alleges that DreamHost registered her name as a domain without her approval, using the site to direct browsers to Web pages about orthodontics and dentistry.
First off, Dreamhost doesn't own the site, they are its registrar. Under this logic, any domain registrar is opened to be sued since they handled the registration. The invasion of privacy, on the surface, looks silly. How exactly is her privacy invaded? From Legal Definitions, a definition of privacy law in the US:
Invasion of privacy is the intrusion into the personal life of another, without just cause, which can give the person whose privacy has been invaded a right to bring a lawsuit for damages against the person or entity that intruded. It encompasses workplace monitoring, Internet privacy, data collection, and other means of disseminating private information.
Celebrities are not protected in most situations, since they have voluntarily placed themselves already within the public eye, and their activities are considered newsworthy. However, an otherwise non-public individual has a right to privacy from: a) intrusion on one's solitude or into one's private affairs; b) public disclosure of embarrassing private information; c) publicity which puts him/her in a false light to the public; d) appropriation of one's name or picture for personal or commercial advantage.
I guess an argument can be made that Marisa Guterman is not a celebrity. I hadn't heard of her before today, although I'm one of about 17 people in the western world that hasn't seen "The 40 Year-Old Virgin". It looks like the argument will be based on "appropriation of one's name". This is just stupid. First, as stated above, Dreamhost does not own the site. A simple whois, that takes twenty seconds, shows that the domain is a Private Registration. Second, the legal argument for invasion of privacy is flimsy. IANAL, but still.I'm sorry to see Dreamhost's resources wasted on a frivolous lawsuit. There are other ways to handle this. If Ms. Guterman feels she has been wronged, she could have gone to ICANN and gone through the Uniform Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP) which is set up to handle situations like this. She could have also gone to the trouble to register her domain herself, instead of finding out it has been registered this late in the game. As far as the allegations the page in question directs browsers to pages about dentistry and orthodontics, that isn't the case as of this writing. It is a poorly designed fan page without any ads.
Frivolous lawsuits are... frivolous. It is a waste of time and money for everyone involved, particularly in this case. This is the a perfect example of the term "lolsuit", a lawsuit so ridiculous and idiotic it will make you laugh out loud, apparently. Good luck to Dreamhost in this. The stupidity must stop.
What do you think? Leave a comment, please.
Wed, 17 February 2010, 14:08
Thank you for sharing this insightful post. Privacy and "fame" are two subjects difficult to reconcile. I do hope though that this dispute be resolved properly so as to be an example should similar cases occur.
Tue, 1 April 2008, 01:32
Marisa guterman is the most beautiful person in the world according to me I am his number one fan, I liked his participation in shredderman and I think it is a great and beautiful actress although many characters to be iso ugly to me I was so beautiful that I iso enamore her she is the best actress I have seen and I hope some day to see it because I adore and is the best
Wed, 26 March 2008, 23:32
I have but one word to sum up what I think of that particular actress right now, "retarded".
Damn lolsuits.
Thu, 13 March 2008, 16:01
and "poorly designed"
ouch.... :)
Thu, 13 March 2008, 15:20
Thanks for the heads up, this is the first we heard of this.
We are all Paranoid now, but you've reassured us.
Mon, 10 March 2008, 12:06
eat shit Marisa Guterman!!! go back to the Gutter where you belong
Wed, 5 March 2008, 01:20
Hey! I only saw it as a last resort :)
I ran out of ideas a few weeks ago and grabbed the DVD.
I'm about 4 years behind the curve.
Tue, 4 March 2008, 23:05
I've not heard of her because I've not seen the movie beacause I have, y'know - taste?
As for getting thrown out of court - I doubt it'll get there unfortunately.
Tue, 4 March 2008, 23:38
Ditto on not having heard of her. She played a really small role in the movie -- a "friend" of the daughter, if I recall.
At any rate on a more serious note I would love to see the outcome of this case. I do hope it gets tossed out of court for being a complete and utterly waste of Dreamhost's time.
Tue, 4 March 2008, 22:12
In fact they should talk to the EFF before just giving in, they might be able to provide some help or at least some media attention.
Tue, 4 March 2008, 22:48
Never heard of her.
Hope somebody that knows where she lives shows her what invasion of privacy really looks like.
But frankly the whole thing is like suing the postal service because you got blackmailed, I just hope Dreamhost fight it and slap the bitch with a counter suit for malicious prosecution or something, but alas I know they won't :/
Tue, 4 March 2008, 22:06
I think it's absolutely insane, it's quite the "lolsuit". How do companies even begin to afford to defend against craptacular cases like this?
Here's her IMDB page:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0349184/