The star uses her Web site to counter what her representatives say is false information circulated by the photographer who is being sued by Streisand for violating her privacy.
By Massiel Ladron De Guevara/Staff Writer
Malibu resident, singer and actress Barbara Streisand is adding to her legal fight against an amateur photographer who posted a photo of her home on his Web site by posting her own messages on the Internet.
Streisand recently filed a $10 million dollar lawsuit in the Santa Monica Superior Court against amateur photographer Kenneth Adelman for posting the photo, which she claims is a violation of her privacy. The lawsuit asks Adelman to remove the image he took by helicopter of her bluff-top Malibu estate from the 12,000 photos posted on his Web site, www.californiacoastline.org, for safety and privacy issues. Adelman and wife Gabrielle, two retired dot-com millionaires, refuse to remove the photograph from the Web site they created, claiming people have a right to view the entire Pacific coastline.
“The single goal of the Web site is to advance the cause of costal protection by enabling the public to access the truth in pictures,” Adelman said in a press release. “We are profoundly disappointed that Ms. Streisand chose to attack such an important public resource over one of 12,000 images of the California Coast.”
Streisand claims in her lawsuit, however, that Adelman acted with malice when publishing the photo of her home, not for coastal protection.
In what Streisand calls “Truth Alerts,” posted online at www.barbrastreisand.com, it is claimed that the “Software tycoon uses Streisand’s name to promote his Web site despite his granting tens of thousands of other home owners anonymity.”
Furthermore, the alert reads, “his Web site does not attempt to explain how depicting Ms. Streisand’s home together with her name serves any environmental purpose.”
Streisand painstakingly searched for years to find a property that would provide both a beautiful view and unsurpassed privacy, only to have Adelman publish clear roadmaps to her home, states the lawsuit, which, in addition, argues Adelman’s photograph violates a state law that targets the telephoto lenses of paparazzi. Adelman claims, however, that he broke no aviation laws while taking photographs of the coast because he maintained an altitude between 150 to 2,000 feet above his targets. Land and air surveyor Mark Sandestrom, who conducts surveys for the Malibu Bay Company, agrees.
“Privacy issues, I have no clue, but from what I can tell, Mr. Adelman did not break any aviation rules,” Sandestrom said. “You can even fly 500 feet directly over someone’s home, provided you are able to auto rotate out of the way in the event anything goes wrong with the aircraft so that nobody on land gets injured.”
The lawsuit, which was filed under seal and has since been published on Adelman’s Web site, also claims the high resolution of the photographs, taken at six megapixels, allows Web browsers to click on the photo of Streisand’s home until a poster sized image appears on screen.
Comments by Seton Hall Law School Professor Daniel J. Solove, a consultant to Streisand’s lawyers, regarding the privacy issue, are also posted on Streisand’s Web site.
“The case against the Web site owner involves a privacy issue with very important implications-the ability of people to protect the privacy of their homes and the locations in which they live,” writes Solove. “The law has provided very strong protection to the privacy of the home.
“Some might question whether we can maintain any privacy in today’s age where surveillance cameras are proliferating, satellites can capture detailed images from above and photographic equipment increasingly becomes more sophisticated,” Solove continues. “But these are reasons why protecting privacy is all the more important … “
Referring to his Web site as a public service because of the numerous federal, state and local agencies that have received permission to use his photos of the coast for reports and scientific research, Adelman claims he will continue to photograph the Pacific Coast every few years with higher resolution so that historical data is available for research and enforcement purposes.
A status conference on the case against Adelman is set for Aug. 28 before Superior Court Judge Allan J. Goodman.