Cases

Douglas v Hello! Ltd (No 8) (CA)

Held

(1) Privacy rights in photographic images of a private occasion can survive commercial sale of controlled and authorised photographs. (2) Privacy rights are capable of exploitation by the subject as a commercial confidence. (3) Whether commercial confidence rights are transferred to a publication on sale, so as to enable the publisher to sue, depends on the nature and terms of the contract. In this case, no such right was acquired by OK! (4) Hello! jumped the gun by publishing unauthorised pictures. The authorised images were not truly in the public domain when they published. (5) Economic torts require that the conduct which causes the harm be aimed and directed at the Claimant, and the purpose or object of the conduct must be to cause the Claimant economic loss. (6) Hello! would, had liability been established, have been responsible for republication (7) Notional licence fee was not appropriate.

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