Twenty Years Ago Today: Barbra Streisand Sued A Photographer And The Streisand Effect Was Born
from the happy-birthday-streisand-effect dept
Normally on Saturday we have our “this week in history” posts, highlighting Techdirt stories from many years ago. But this week I wanted to highlight a story that didn’t happen on Techdirt, but turned into a Techdirt thing. Twenty years ago today, actress/singer Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman for daring to photograph her coastal mansion as part of his (fascinating) project to photograph the entire west coast of the US from a helicopter to track erosion over time.
In 2002 this was an incredibly ambitious project by Adelman. It was before we all had widespread access to satellite imagery, and before the web worked the way it does today. Adelman set up a pretty incredible website which is still up today in all its 2002-era glory (though he has, as was part of the original plan, updated it with more modern photographs over time).
Either way, one of the thousands of photographs of the coastline include Barbara Streisand’s compound:
And so, she sued on this day in 2003:
You can see the five different claims, all variations on privacy or publicity rights violations (all of which were obviously ridiculous), and yet she demanded $10 million in damages for each claim, for a grand total of $50 million. For an aerial photograph of her home.
The rest, as they say, is history. Streisand sued, and in Adelman’s anti-SLAPP motion to try to get the case dismissed, he revealed that the photo of Streisand’s house had been viewed a grand total of six times, two of which were from Streisand’s own lawyers, and most of the rest appeared to be by Streisand herself and some neighbors:
However, after the lawsuit was filed and the story hit the news, the photo received nearly half a million views. Oops.
One thing I learned in reviewing the details of this now, however, is that Streisand had tried to file the lawsuit under seal (which should not have been allowed anyway), but apparently her lawyers screwed up, and therefore it was unsealed, leading to the publicity.
We first wrote about Streisand suing on June 1st of 2003. On June 24th we wrote about how the photo of her house had become “an internet hit” because of the lawsuit. The whole thing became something of a joke that we and many in the Techdirt community would refer to often. Though, it was actually a year and a half later, on January 5th, 2005, that I named the concept the Streisand Effect in response to another silly legal threat (over a photograph of a urinal in a beach resort).
And then it kinda took off on its own. We mentioned it sometimes on Techdirt, and in 2007, Andy Greenberg (now at Wired, then at Forbes) wrote about it. In 2008, I got to go on NPR’s All Things Considered to talk to Robert Siegel about the concept.
So, while “The Streisand Effect” didn’t really go mainstream for about five years, it was 20 years ago today that Streisand took the fateful step that resulted in “The Streisand Effect” becoming a thing with an increasingly massive Wikipedia page (that I’ve never had anything to do with at all). There have been tons of articles on it. It even got me mentioned by the Merriam-Webster people which is truly a highlight of my life.
As for the case against Adelman, he didn’t just prevail: he won his anti-SLAPP motion, and Streisand had to pay his legal fees, which she eventually did:
Filed Under: barbra streisand, kenneth adelman, streisand effect, the streisand effect
Comments on “Twenty Years Ago Today: Barbra Streisand Sued A Photographer And The Streisand Effect Was Born”
Silicon Valley Mogul
See: https://www.californiacoastline.org/ for a lot of details including court docs, actual filings, and things not covered in this story.
Ken Adelman owns a Robinson R44-II amongst other aircraft. He and his wife Gabby are awesome people who put help, support, and philanthropy above their own needs and wants.
They did the coastline (beach) photos to document rich scumbags like Barbra building up their coastline (beaches) because they can. The stories have been aired for decades… celebs bringing in sand and rock… closing off public beaches with signs indicating trespass which unlawfully limit public access… etc.
Ken put his own money into this. You and I, we read TechDirt, and it costs nothing. (But we do contribute because of Mike and Tim and Tim, and everyone else, and the occasional EFF or ACLU or other valuable input.) Ken spends $500-$1000/hr flying. The time spent documenting the California Coast line MANY TIMES and the post time and all that is in the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars.
In return for his and Gab’s work they were handed a lawsuit, and didn’t back down and thus we have not only documentation of this effort, but The Streissand Effect.
E P.S. Ken and Gab have also transported endangered animals from continents not friendly to such… to save and prevent the animals from coming to harm.
There are 9 billion people on earth. Some make no contribution (President NASCAR for example). Some contribute cash (Bill/Melinda Gates Foundation). Some contribute their own time, effort, resources, finances, and they make this a better earth. I’d not say this to Ken or Gab… they don’t seek praise. It’s true.
OB DISCL: I have flown Ken and Gab on their helicopter, and Ken on his jet. They are always generous and conscious and this anniversary of them teaching Barbra she’s out of her league was magnificent.
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And one thing I learned (from the SJMN article) was that “the photographer” Kenneth Adelman was also “the millionaire” and “the Silicon Valley mogul” Kenneth Adelman.
Which isn’t significant, but is interesting.
Re:
Well, you can’t pay for a helicopter to fly along the complete California coast if you’re on minimum wage, now can you? Much less pay for all the photographs to be digitised and put up on a website for decades.
Oh my god…
She didn’t just suffer the Streisand effect, it’s much worse. whenever anyone makes the same mistake her name is mentioned: the Meta Streisand Effect!
Re:
I suppose that’s still better than the Mecha Streisand Effect…
Re: Re:
… which is a vocal register few singers can hit.
Re: Re: Re: Mecha-Streisand..
No, that will be her next song release, using auto-tune.
You can also call it the Client 0310 effect.
This calls for a celebration!
Barbra Streisand
…and four cents? That, to me, is the funniest part of this whole article!
Twenty years ago a celebrity did something stupid, an observer leveraged that to coin a term, and said observer has thus cemented his existence in the modern lexicon and remains a thorn in the side of copyright maximalists to this very day.
Happy 20th anniversary of the Streisand Effect, Mike!
Re:
I still remember the times of the Shiva Ayyadurai lawsuit, where the usual detractors and the one Ayyadurai simp in the audience were gleefully gloating about how Masnick’s only contribution was making a meme at Barbra Streisand’s expense. Of course, that was mostly because they intentionally ignored Mike’s greater contribution: an increased awareness of copyright abuse that led to the death of SOPA, the pain of which lingers among the copyright community like a canker sore on the lip. A nagging, persistent pain and indisputably visible source of embarrassment.
Unluckily for them, reason prevailed.
Re: Re: Evil will always prevail...
That’s the problem with Good vs Evil. When the Good Guy wins he and the girl ride off into the sunset and that’s the end of the story.
However, the Bad Guy has friends and they are on a neverending quest.
There’s the TL;DR.
E
If TL;DR is not enough… you may think you won something in 1973, but look, Evil elected President NASCAR and he put up some evil people who lied to all of us and Congress and then made that 1973 “Good won” thing go away.
The same is true of copyright maximalism, and yes, TD and Mike have done a lot to make people aware of it, fight against it, and each victory is only temporary because the maximalists continue.
The same is true of duopolist telcos. Hat tip to KB who has been loudly ringing that bell and warning people. Finally President Biden has found someone else to fill the missing seat at the FCC, but don’t expect Good to win there, and if it does, Evil will be along in 4-8 years to undo it all.
American Exceptionalism is a purposeful self-blinding that leads to equivocations about our industry (weaker in goods, weaker in novelty), our communication infrastructure (more expensive than all other modern nations), our healthcare (more expensive, harder to access, and shamelessly pursuing profit over healthcare while pretending oppositely) than any other modern nation.
Our unhomed masses, our mass shootings, our police brutality, our prison system are all WORSE than the exceptionalism-thought that there are worse places. Britney Griner is lucky she spent time in a Russian prison instead of a US Federal Maximum Security facility. She didn’t get Epstein’d. (NOTE: I’m not saying she’s luck to GO TO PRISON, just that the conditions in the US prison system are worse than those “horrible” other countries.)
Finally elections. We go to other countries, let the CIA overthrow prime ministers (various like Iran), install dictators (various, like Noriega), and then tell them we’re there to OVERSEE FAIR DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS. However, we seem unable to have those FAIR DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS here in the exceptional US of A. (2000 Gore, 2020 Trump, Kari Lake, etc.)
Good on Mike and TechDirt for bringing many of these actions to our attention, allowing response and discourse, and perhaps change. Sadly though, Evil will win. Nobody will be riding off into the sunset here.
Lame Claim to Fame:
I once explained the Streisand Effect to legendary Disney Duck cartoonist Don Rosa. I met him at a convention which can no longer be legally referred to as a comic-con and brought up his essay, Why I Quit, which he wrote for a book collection that would have been published in Finland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. The essay is not complimentary to Disney, so they vetoed it, and he published it online instead.
In our brief chat, Mr. Rosa once again noted that practically nobody would have even seen that essay, but Disney called attention to it by refusing to let their licensee publish it. I said “Yeah, the Streisand Effect.” He wasn’t familiar with the term so I explained it to him.
I also bought a print of Uncle Scrooge diving into his money bin. I’m sure there’s a metaphor in there somewhere.
Silicon Valley Mogul
See: https://www.californiacoastline.org/ for a lot of details including court docs, actual filings, and things not covered in this story.
Ken Adelman owns a Robinson R44-II amongst other aircraft. He and his wife Gabby are awesome people who put help, support, and philanthropy above their own needs and wants.
They did the coastline (beach) photos to document rich scumbags like Barbra building up their coastline (beaches) because they can. The stories have been aired for decades… celebs bringing in sand and rock… closing off public beaches with signs indicating trespass which unlawfully limit public access… etc.
Ken put his own money into this. You and I, we read TechDirt, and it costs nothing. (But we do contribute because of Mike and Tim and Tim, and everyone else, and the occasional EFF or ACLU or other valuable input.) Ken spends $500-$1000/hr flying. The time spent documenting the California Coast line MANY TIMES and the post time and all that is in the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars.
In return for his and Gab’s work they were handed a lawsuit, and didn’t back down and thus we have not only documentation of this effort, but The Streissand Effect.
E
P.S. Ken and Gab have also transported endangered animals from continents not friendly to such… to save and prevent the animals from coming to harm.
There are 9 billion people on earth. Some make no contribution (President NASCAR for example). Some contribute cash (Bill/Melinda Gates Foundation). Some contribute their own time, effort, resources, finances, and they make this a better earth. I’d not say this to Ken or Gab… they don’t seek praise. It’s true.
OB DISCL: I have flown Ken and Gab on their helicopter, and Ken on his jet. They are always generous and conscious and this anniversary of them teaching Barbra she’s out of her league was magnificent.