ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses four areas of common law and statutory privacy that affect the media. One is the publication of intimate private facts, a concern of Warren and Brandeis. A second is intrusion, a physical or technological invasion of a person's privacy. A third is "false light", which is the public portrayal of someone in a distorted or fictionalized way. The fourth is appropriation, the unauthorized commercial exploitation of someone's identity. In common law, courts refused the claims of private-fact plaintiffs whose "private" information appeared on public records, thus placing the information in the public domain. Intrusion is an information gathering tort, not a tort of disseminating information by publishing, broadcasting or tweeting. A journalist who intrudes into private places may also physically trespass on property. The ancient law of trespass prohibits entering onto another's land without consent. The media are protected in false-light suits by First Amendment fault requirement imported by the Supreme Court from the law of libel.
