Privacy Law Commons^™

The Newsman's Privilege: Protection Of Confidential Associations And Private Communications, Wayne C. Dabb Jr., Peter A. Kelly

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this comment is to determine whether the confidential associations and-or private communications of a newsman are privileged.

Personal Privacy In The Computer Age: The Challenge Of A New Technology In An Information-Oriented Society, Arthur R. Miller

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to survey the new technology's implications for personal privacy and to evaluate the contemporary common-law and statutory pattern relating to data-handling. In the course of this examination, it will appraise the existing framework's capacity to deal with the problems created by society's growing awareness of the primordial character of information. The Article is intended to be suggestive; any attempt at definitiveness would be premature. Avowedly, it was written with the bias of one who believes that the new information technology has enormous long-range societal implications and who is concerned about the consequences of the …

Westin: Privacy And Freedom, Stanley K. Laughlin Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Privacy and Freedom by Alan F. Westin

Banking-Disclosure Of Records-The Duty Of A Bank As To Customer Information, Robert B. Wessling S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this comment, therefore, is to describe the scope of the banker's duty as to customer information as best it can be discerned in light of the increasing exchange of credit information and increasing resort to such information by government agencies-particularly the Internal Revenue Service. In the process, it is hoped that attention will be drawn to the uncertainty which exists in this area, perhaps prompting action by the states or the banks themselves to clarify the scope of the duty and to encourage uniform treatment of customer information in a manner consistent with this duty.

Group For The Advancement Of Psychiatry: Confidentiality And Privileged Communication In The Practice Of Psychiatry, Henry Weihofen

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Confidentiality and Privileged Communication in the Practice of Psychiatry. Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.

Torts - Invasion Of Privacy - Conduct Of A Debt Collector, Russel A. Mcnair Jr.

Michigan Law Review

In an action for the balance due on account for merchandise purchased defendants counterclaimed for damages alleging that an agent of the plaintiff, on three separate days, went to the restaurant where the defendant-wife worked as a waitress and in a loud and degrading manner made demands that defendants pay the account. On each occasion many customers were present. Plaintiff's agent accused the defendants of being "dead beats" and of never intending to pay for the merchandise when it was purchased. The trial court sustained plaintiff's demurrer to this counterclaim. On appeal, held, reversed and remanded. Conduct of a …

Torts - Privacy - Collection Method, Frederic Brace S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff disputed the debt which the defendant corporation asserted against her. Defendant made no attempt to recover this asserted debt by legal action but instead sent a letter to the personnel director of plaintiff's employer. This letter stated that plaintiff had refused to cooperate in reaching an amicable settlement and requested the assistance of the personnel director in collecting this "honest debt." Plaintiff was then summoned to the office of her superior and informed that the letter would be placed in her file and remain there until the asserted indebtedness had been settled. Plaintiff sought damages for an invasion of …

Constitutional Law-Due Process-Use Of Television At Congressional Hearings, S. I. Shuman

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, not claiming constitutional protection against self-incrimination, refused to testify before a Senate committee on grounds that his "constitutional rights" would be violated if compelled to give testimony while being televised, photographed, etc. Cited for willfully and without justification refusing to testify on matters pertinent to the purpose of the inquiry, defendant was tried for contempt of Congress. Held, not guilty; defendant's refusal was justified. The court, after stating that there were no precedents, and that no constitutional issue was involved, seemed to rest its decision on the fact that the atmosphere of the forum did not lend itself …

Freedom Of Silence: Constitutional Protection Against Governmental Intrusions In Political Affairs, Charles B. Nutting

Michigan Law Review

Paradoxically enough, the "right" to be silent has been vociferously asserted by some of our most loquacious citizens. The current activities of Congressional investigating committees and the possible enactment of laws regulating participation in certain political affairs make timely a consideration of the basis for the assertion of the "right" and an attempt to determine the extent to which it may be said truly to be protected against intrusions by the state or national governments. It is proposed first to consider the question of secrecy in connection with the elective process itself and later to extend the inquiry into problems …

Torts-Right Of Privacy-Invasion Of Privacy Through Fictional Works, Ira M. Price, Ii

Michigan Law Review

The New York Civil Rights Law prohibits the use of a person's name, portrait, or picture without his consent in writing, for advertising or trade purposes, under penalty of civil and criminal liability. Plaintiff, senior civil affairs officer of the American Military Government in the town of Licata, Sicily, during its occupation by Allied Armies of World War II, brought suit under the statute against the author of the book "A Bell for Adana," and others, alleging that he occupied the position of the book's and play's principal character, "Major Victor Jappolo" in the fictitiously named town of Adano; and …

The Right Of Privacy, Louis Nizer

Michigan Law Review

It is only during the last half-century that the law has recognized the "right to be let alone"-the right under certain circumstances to protect one's name and physiognomy from becoming public property.

No mention of such a right will be found in the works of the great political philosophers and tract-writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Spencer, Paine. In discoursing on "natural rights," "the state of nature," "social contract," and "the inalienable rights of man," they were concerned only with the power of the state to abridge the liberties of the people. Society had not yet …

Libel And Slander - Implied Representation That Plaintiff Consented To Write Her Love Story As Libel Per Se, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought an action for libel against defendant for publishing in its magazine a story, which it represented as being written by plaintiff, purporting to relate indiscreet intimacies between plaintiff and a certain man. Defendant admitted the false representation of authorship, but requested a directed verdict after submitting in evidence testimony given by plaintiff in a prior law suit, in which she was said to have admitted intimacies fully as capable of bringing her into disrepute as were those published by defendant. On refusal by the court to direct a verdict, defendant excepted and appealed on the ground that the …

Torts - Right Of Privacy - Matters Of General Or Public Interest, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff had been a famous child prodigy in 1910. For twenty-five years he had lived a secluded life. Then in a recent article in the "New Yorker" magazine his private life was completely exposed. Plaintiff sued, alleging a violation of his common-law right of privacy. Held, that the complaint should be dismissed on the ground that the public has a legitimate interest in "any person who has achieved, or has had thrust upon him, the questionable and indefinite status of a 'public figure.'" Sidis v. F-R Publishing Corp., (C. C. A. 2d, 1940) 113 F. (2d) 806.

Torts - Right Of Privacy - Radio Broadcasting, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a chauffeur, had been the victim of a hold-up and shooting, suffering serious injury. Defendant sponsored a radio broadcast in which plaintiff's name was used dramatizing the affair. On hearing the broadcast, plaintiff sued in tort alleging that he suffered mental anguish and physical shock which resulted in impairing his ability to drive and caused him to be discharged from his job. Held, defendant's motion to dismiss denied, as plaintiff had stated a cause of action for invasion of a right of privacy. Mau v. Rio Grande Oil, Inc., (D. C. Cal. 1939) 28 F. Supp. 845.

Torts - Unauthorized Publication Of Photograph - Invasion Of Right Of Privacy, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

Defendant newspaper published an advertisement containing a picture of plaintiff, a radio artist, in a bathing suit, under the mistaken belief that it was a picture of a member of a vaudeville troupe whose name appeared in the advertisement, and who was described as an "exotic red-haired Venus" who endorsed a certain brand of whole-wheat bread as a means of "keeping that sylph-like figure." Plaintiff alleged that the vaudeville act was a "sensual performance or sex parade" and was composed of the "cheapest class of chorus girls." Held, that the advertisement was an invasion of plaintiff's right of privacy …

Libel - Right Of Privacy -Auction Sale Of Debts, Gerald M. Stevens

Michigan Law Review

A creditor put his claim into the hands of one Power, who held himself out as an advertiser of accounts for sale. Power threatened several times by letter to advertise the debtor's account for sale at auction unless it was paid immediately. No payment was made; and a "flaming orange handbill" was printed and circulated about the debtor's neighborhood. It offered for sale to the highest bidder the debtor's and twenty-three other accounts. It contained, further, the statement that all accounts were guaranteed correct and undisputed and a solicitation for merchants' accounts to be similarly disposed of. Thereupon the debtor …

Torts - Right Of Privacy - Newsreel As Violation Of, Royal E. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

Section 51 of the New York Civil Rights Law provides that: "Any person whose name, portrait or picture is used . . . for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained . . . may maintain an equitable action . . . to prevent and restrain the use thereof; and may also sue and recover damages for any injuries sustained by reason of such use . . . . " Held, publication by defendant of a newsreel showing plaintiff and other stout women exercising in a gymnasium with the aid of unique …

Searches And Seizures - Right Of An Individual To Force The Return Of Goods Seized And Held By Police Officials, David Dow

Michigan Law Review

One of the most vexing problems which confronts a police officer investigating a crime is to determine how far he may go in seizing goods from the possession either of the person accused of the crime or of some other person. To him it is important not only as it may affect law suits against him for invasion of possessory rights, but also to make the goods thus seized admissible in evidence. To the individual this problem is important in securing full protection against unwarranted invasions of his possession. It is elementary in our legal system that the possessory rights …

Unfair Trade-Right Of Privacy-Right Of Manufacturer Who Has Contracted For Use Of Celebrity's Name To Injunction Against Competitor Using Such Name

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a baseball bat manufacturer, had obtained by contract with famous ball players a grant of the exclusive right to use their autographs on the style bats which the plaintiff company had developed for them. Defendant, a competing bat manufacturer, made bats in these same unpatented shapes and to designate the style of the bats placed the respective players' surnames on them in block letters. Plaintiff seeks to enjoin this practice of the defendant on the theory: (1) of unfair competition, and (2) of protection of the property right which the ball players had in the use of their names. …

Torts - Libel - Photographs - Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

Defendant in its newspaper published a photograph of plaintiff and her husband's chauffeur standing in front of an airplane at an airport. The picture was captioned "Principals in Local Divorce Scandal," and the accompanying news story stated that plaintiff had sued her husband for divorce, the husband had filed a cross bill, and he had sued the chauffeur for alienation of affections. Plaintiff's declaration alleged that the picture had been cut from a larger one in which her husband had appeared, that the airplane was her husband's, and that the picture was believed to have been taken under a contract …

Torts-Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

Petition by the plaintiffs alleging an invasion of their right of privacy by an unauthorized publication of a picture of their malformed child, taken without their consent after its death, held, on demurrer, to state a cause of action. Bazemore v. Savannah Hospital et al. (Ga. 1930). 155 S.E. 194.

The Criminal's Right Of Privacy

Michigan Law Review

The dissent of Mr. Justice Brandeis in the famed wire tapping case has been of especial interest to those who are acquainted with his article in the Harvard Law Review in 1890 on "The Right of Privacy." The law has witnessed few more fascinating developments than the engrafting of this latter concept into the formula of justice, few more conspicuous examples of creative juristic effort. Concerning it Dean Pound has said: "What may almost be called the classical example (of creative activity) is the paper on the Right of Privacy in which Mr. Justice Brandeis, then at the bar, was …