Do you use social media sites? How does that effect your privacy rights?
The question is: Do individuals who post personal information on publicly available Web sites have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their identity? This same question was asked earlier this year in Sandler v. Calcagni, a case out of the District Court of Maine.
The facts condensed
Two high school friends/cheerleaders have a falling out that turns nasty. Their bickering leads to school suspensions, criminal mischief conviction, and eventually Calcagni enters a consent degree for a civil hate crime prosecution.
Calcagni’s parents believe their daughter was wronged so they launch a media campaign, which involved writing and publishing the book through Booksurge, to try and right the wrong. The book contained private information about Sandler.
Sandler sues Calcagni and a few others including Booksurge for defamation, privacy invasion, etc.
–Today I will only address Booksurge’s motion for summary judgment, which is simply their effort to get out of the lawsuit before it goes to trial–
