How can i file a lawsuit to get my picture off uglypeople.com?
Answers:
Whether or not you can sue at all depends on a few things. If you took the picture yourself and somebody copied it from, lets say, a personal homepage of yours (like a personal profile on Myspace.com) and then put it up on Uglypeople.com, then you have every right to tell the website owner to cease and desist and then sue him if he doesn't comply.
But if somebody else had a camera and took your photo somewhere (let's say, at a party), then your rights are much more limited. In the U.S., the legal owner and copyright holder of a picture is the person who took the photograph, not the subject who is being displayed IN the photograph. The only thing you could do then is find the guy who took the picture and convince him to make a complaint to the website owner that his picture is being illegally displayed without his permission. However, if the guy who took the photo is the one who uploaded it to the site, then you may be out of luck because it's totally up to him whether or not he wants to remove it.
The only other possibility is if the photo is being used to libel you, but merely claiming that a person is ugly is just an opinion and does not constitute libel in this country. Such an expression is considered satire and as such is protected under the 1st Amendment.
I can almost guarantee you that you won't need to go that far. Hire a lawyer and get him/her to write a letter warning uglypeople.com that you WILL sue if they don't take your picture down. It's almost always illegal to post a picture of someone that is not of public interest online if they don't want it posted, and that certainly applies here. If they are stupid enough to not take your picture down after you threaten to sue, then you've got a pretty easy lawsuit on your hands (and once you get that far, your lawyer will know how to do things like file the lawsuit and make all the necessary logistical arrangements).
I agree with Max, all you do is have to write a letter threatening to sue, and if you don't get a reply or your picture is not taken off, you can sue and the case is basically yours. just print out a picture of you on the website and show it to the judge. Hope this helps!
The answers post by the user, for information only, FreeLawAnswer.com does not guarantee the right.
Answer question:
More Law Questions and Answers: