The Streisand Effect is the phenomenon of significantly increasing public awareness of information when attempting to hide, remove, or censor that information.
The Streisand Effect is named after Barbra Streisand, an American actress and singer, who used lawyers to try to remove of a photo from the California Coastal Records Project’s website of her cliff-top residence in Malibu, California, which was taken to document Californian coastal erosion in 2003.
Barbra Streisand sued amateur photographer Kenneth Adelman for US$10 million for violation of privacy, California’s anti-paparazzi law, sought to profit from her name, and threatens her security.
“Image 3850” had been downloaded six times prior to Streisand’s lawsuit, two of those were by Streisand’s attorneys. Public awareness of the case led to more than 420,000 people visiting the site during the following month.
Streisand objected to the photo being posted online after a website viewer, using an interactive function, added the caption “Streisand Estate, Malibu.”
SLAPP suits, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation
SLAPP suits, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, have been recognized in California as lawsuits that are brought against individuals, corporations or organizations in an attempt to silence defendants who speak out on matters of public concern. In many instances, the case is without legal merit but the suit is filed to harass and intimidate the defendant into submission.
“We find it shocking that an environmentalist like Barbra Streisand would file a SLAPP suit against this project”
“This sort of activity against public participation is a tactic normally employed by polluters such as Shell Oil and Texaco. We are determined to fight to protect this website and to continue to make it available to the public.”
said Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman
Other defendants in the case are the Project’s Internet Service Provider, Layer42.NET, and Pictopia.COM, who provides finished prints of the photographs.
The lawsuit sought to remove “Image 3850”, an aerial photograph in which Streisand’s mansion was visible, from the publicly available California Coastal Records Project of 12,000 California coastline photographs, documenting coastal erosion and intended to influence government policymakers.
The lawsuit was dismissed and Streisand was ordered to pay Adelman’s $177,000 legal fees.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Attribution: Copyright (C) 2002 Kenneth & Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project, www.californiacoastline.org
California Coastal Records Project, an aerial photographic survey of the California Coastline
This photograph was made famous when singer Barbra Streisand sought to have its publication suppressed, on grounds of privacy. The “Streisand Effect” is a term that evolved from the controversy, referring to the unintentional consequence of increasing public awareness of something through seeking to suppress information.
Image description as given at California Coastal Records Project: Streisand Estate, Malibu. N34 00.65. W118 47.24. Image 3850. Mon Sep 23 13:30:47 2002.
See also Wikisource: Streisand v. Adelman, assessment by United States House Committee on the Judiciary, analysis by United States House Committee on the Judiciary.
A little bird
A little bird was flying during a cold snow storm. It was so cold that the bird couldn’t fly anymore and fell down and landed near some barn. While lying down helpless on the ground, a cow came by and dropped a big poop on him. The poop was so warm that the little freezing bird started warming up and feeling better. The bird was so happy to feel warm that he started to sing. A cat heard the bird singing, so he followed the voice until he found the bird, so he dug him out of the poop and ate him.
Morals of the story:
Not everybody who shits on you is your enemy.
Not everybody who digs you out of the shit is your friend.
When you’re in deep shit, keep quiet.
