Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Company

What is public information and what kinds of information are copyrighted? In the age of the Internet where literally millions of pages of documents are available through the use of a modem, a search engine, and a browser, this is a question that needs to be answered. Why? Because what may be legally defined as public information vis-ß-vis a database, might in some way be protected under the law. It might be convenient to be able access all the names and phone numbers of out-of-town relatives from a computer desktop. But by doing so, is the letter of the law being violated in reference to our right to privacy? What information is considered public access, and what information is protected under the law? The case of Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., 433 U.S. 562, 569 (1977), can be considered one jumping off point, where the courts of the United States began to more closely define what is, and what is not considered public information.

Privacy, in the parlance of common sense, is the expectation that confidential personal information disclosed in a private place will not be disclosed to third parties. Information is interpreted broadly to include facts, images, and opinions. The right of privacy, legally speaking, is restricted to individuals who are in a place that a person would reasonably expect to be private (e.g., ho

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ance) without person's consent, etc. 2. Appropriation of a person's name or likeness; successful assertions of this right commonly involve defendant's use of a person's name or likeness on a product label or in advertising a product or service. A similar concept is the "right of publicity" in Restatement (Third) Unfair Competition 46-47 (1995). The distinction is that privacy protects against "injury to personal feelings," while the right of publicity protects against unauthorized commercial exploitation of a person's name or face. As a practical matter, celebrities generally sue under the right of publicity, while ordinary citizens sue under privacy. 3. Publication of private facts, for example, income tax data, sexual relations, personal letters, family quarrels, medical treatment, photographs of person in his/her home. 4. Publication that places a person in a false light, which is similar to defamation. A successful defamation action requires that the information be false. In a privacy action the information is generally true, but the information created a false impression about the plaintiff. An outstanding Internet site to view privacy issues can be found at www.csun.edu/~hbact447/thesis/full_text.html (Right to p
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1416
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)