Can someone publish a book on your life without your consent?
Full Question:
Answer:
The answer will depend on the facts and circumstances involved, such as whether the statements are true or not. Defamation is an act of communication that causes someone to be shamed, ridiculed, held in contempt, lowered in the estimation of the community, or to lose employment status or earnings or otherwise suffer a damaged reputation. The law of defamation protects a person's reputation and good name against communications that are false and derogatory. Defamation consists of both libel and slander. Libel is any defamation that can be seen, most typically in writing. Slander is an oral defamatory communication. Specific requirements that a plaintiff must prove in order to recover in a defamation action differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Generally, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant made a false and defamatory statement concerning the plaintiff, that the defendant made an unprivileged publication to a third party, and that the publisher acted at least negligently in publishing the communication. A plaintiff may also be required to prove special damages. Publication certainly includes traditional forms, such as communications included in books, newspapers, and magazines, but it also includes oral remarks. Courts may require that the defendant act with actual malice or act negligently in failing to ascertain whether a statement was false or defamatory.
Damages for libel may be limited to actual damages unless there is malicious intent. It does not have to be proven that actual harm to your reputation occurred to collect damages for libel if it is defamatory per se, such as:
* The communication affects your business, trade or profession (loss of business, discharge, demotion, etc.),
* Implies you committed a crime,
* Leads on that you have a loathsome disease,
* Or suggests that you are somehow sexually impure.
Defamation is a difficult wrong to prove, as there are various factors that are to be taken into consideration. The court must evaluate the defendant’s investigation, or lack there of, concerning the accuracy of the statement. How thoroughly the investigation was handled will reflect upon the nature and interest of the person who communicated the statement. Generally, defamation damages will not be awarded if the defendant had an honest but yet mistaken belief in the truth of the statement.
Invasion of privacy is the intrusion into the personal life of another, without just cause, which can give the person whose privacy has been invaded a right to bring a lawsuit for damages against the person or entity that intruded. It will be a matter of subjective determination for the court to determine whether information voluntarily offered led to intrusive means of gathering other information. Invasion of privacy encompasses workplace monitoring, Internet privacy, data collection, and other means of disseminating private information.
A non-public individual has a right to privacy from:
a) intrusion on one's solitude or into one's private affairs;
b) public disclosure of embarrassing private information;
c) publicity which puts him/her in a false light to the public;
d) appropriation of one's name or picture for personal or commercial advantage.
