p2pnet.net news:- When you keyed Shannon Stovall into the Yahoo news search this morning, the first two entries you saw were, “Woman accuses Yahoo of stealing her image,” and, “Woman Sues Yahoo for Using Her Photo Without Permission.”

The first links to a CNET News story which leads off, “According to a court complaint filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Shannon Stovall, a resident of Ohio’s Cuyahoga County, discovered upon signing up for Yahoo’s Web-based e-mail service last October that a picture taken of her appeared in a note sent to new users.

“The message, according to a printout attached to the court complaint, leads off with the headline ‘Hooray! Your first e-mail’ and a photograph containing two women, one of which is purported to be Stovall.”

The second goes back to the CNET post, which states, “According to a court complaint filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Shannon Stovall, a resident of Ohio’s Cuyahoga County, discovered upon signing up for Yahoo’s Web-based e-mail service last October that a picture taken of her appeared in a note sent to new users.

“The message, according to a printout attached to the court complaint, leads off with the headline ‘Hooray! Your first e-mail’ and a photograph containing two women, one of which is purported to be Stovall. It goes on to give Yahoo Mail users tips on how to transfer address book contacts and customize the look of their messages.

“The complaint charges that the image has been sent to millions of users around the world without Stovall’s authorization, violating her right to privacy and right to publicity – that is, to control the commercial use of her identity.”

“Stovall is represented by attorneys from three firms, “read: not a pro se lawsuit,” is alleging Yahoo, “violated her right to publicity and right to privacy,” says Steve Bryant on Google Watch, featuring the pic on the right which is also posted on Softpedia. Neither says whether it’s a bad screen shot of the pic in question, or an example of a generic smiling blond.

Meanwhile, she wants $20 million for compensatory and punitive damages and a portion of whatever profits were generated through Yahoo’s use of her picture, and to cover her legal fees, says Bryant.

“I’m positively puzzled,” posts Jaynie.K on Beyond Madison Avenue.

“Why wouldn’t Yahoo just pay a piddly stock photo fee and get some other peppy blond to smile alongside their Mail page? I feel like we may not be getting the whole story, unless someone at Yahoo seriously dropped the ball.”

Slashdot it!

Also See:
CNET News – Woman accuses Yahoo of stealing her image, March 2, 2007
Google Watch – Yahoo Sued for $20M for Illegal Image Use, March 1, 2007
Beyond Madison Avenue – How much does a stock photo cost of Random Blond 56? 3 Bucks?, March 2, 2007

If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.

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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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