Ex-Formula One Boss To Expand Legal Action Over Access To Pictures Of His Sadomasochistic Orgy

We previously discussed the case of Max Mosley, the ex-Formula One boss, who became infamous on the Internet after the posting of a video showing him in a sadomasochistic orgy. The story broke in the now defunct News of the World tabloid and reported the scene as a five-hour orgy with five prostitutes dressed as Nazi guards — a particularly embarrassing performance given the fact that Mosley’s father, Oswald, was the pre-war leader of Britain’s fascist “blackshirts” and even invited Adolf Hitler to his wedding. Mosley, 73, prevailed in a court action in showing that the party did not have a Nazi theme and that his privacy was violated. Now he is continuing what can only be described as a scorched Earth campaign against everyone who has carried the photos and announced a new lawsuit against Google. In a move that raises concerns over the censorship of the Internet, German court ordered the Internet giant to block photos of him at his sadomasochistic orgy.

Mosley has secured rulings in his favor in Germany and France which has starkly different approaches to free speech and media rights on such issues. He is now planning to file in California and Britain. The latter is considered a favorable jurisdiction for such restraints but California will test these claims in the most speech-protective jurisdiction. Ironically, Mosley’s global campaign has only further spread word of the orgy but he is on a tear that seems only to be growing.

Mosley has objected that Google is “arrogant” and “doing whatever it wants.” He is further quoted as saying that “its ‘management is simply immature'”. It is a bit of a neck snapping act of transference for the guy caught in the sadomasochistic orgy with the bevy of prostitutes.

Mosley is upset that Google’s search engines “auto-complete” function that suggests strings such as “Mosley prostitute video” when his name is entered. That is hardly going to be helped by his global filing of lawsuit over the Mosely prostitute video.

The courts hammering Google has dismissed that fact that Mosley is a public figure and Google cannot stop people from continually reposting the video. The privacy governing an orgy with a group of prostitutes presents an interesting issue under American law. Under the Second Restatement, citizens may sue for violations of the intrusion upon seclusion:

652B Intrusion Upon Seclusion
One who intentionally intrudes, physically or otherwise, upon the solitude or seclusion of another or his private affairs or concerns, is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy, if the intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.

Notably, unlike other privacy torts like Publication of Embarrassing Private Facts, intrusion upon seclusion does not include exceptions for newsworthy stories. Is an orgy with a group of prostitutes a “private affair or concern.” The answer is probably yes, particularly in countries where such sex for hire is decriminalized.

He could add a defamation claim but it would seem only to involve the description of the orgy as Nazi themed, which he denies. That is not much of a difference for the purposes of defamation since a sadomasochistic orgy is pretty damaging to most reputations.

The Hamburg court ordered the company to prevent any pictures, links or even thumbnails images from the orgy to show up on the google.de site. Google’s attorney Daphne Keller objects that “while about a single person and particular content, sets a disturbing precedent that could require Internet services to monitor every bit of content they transmit or store for their users.”

The implications of the case are enormous for Internet users and free speech. There is a full court press on Internet speech from countries trying to block access to new laws and rulings imposing liability for content. Mosley’s little orgy could prove a costly tryst for hundreds of millions of users in the long run.