Streisand Targets Colo

Celebrity Barbra Streisand, aghast that aerial photos of her Malibu mansion appear on the Internet, has sued a Santa Clara, Calif. colocation provider along with the operators of the web site displaying the photos. In a civil lawsuit, Streisand accuses Layer 42 of Santa Clara, Calif. with invasion of privacy and violation of California's "anti-paparazzi act." Layer 42 hosts the California Coastal Records Project, an environmental group's online photo database of over 12,000 aerial photos of the California coast.

Streisand's lawsuit seeks $50 million in damages from the defendants, who also include site operator Kenneth Adelman and the Pictopia service, which allows visitors to purchase photos of the California Coastline. Layer 42 provides hosting for Adelman's web site.

Media reports suggest Streisand's suit faces an uphill battle. It appears the photos were taken legally, and the star apparently can't invoke the anti-paparazzi law to protect photos of her house. As Adelman's web site notes, similar photos are available elsewhere on the web. Just about anyone can use the Internet to view blurry satellite pictures of their house.

But Adelman might brace himself for calls from other lawyers. In an effort to publicize its intention to defend itself, it appears the California Coastline site has republished copyrighted news stories from the SFGate.com and LATimes.com web sites, apparently by copying the HTML source code and uploading it to their servers. They even cut-and-pasted the copyright symbols, which is a nice touch.