We'll always have Paris
For those who haven't heard, the biggest victim of a privacy violation of the year is...PARIS HILTON.
Seriously, it's Paris Hilton. A new website is full of things Paris that were apparently kept at a storage facilty. When Paris was long-term deficient in paying the couple of hundred dollar bill, the company auctioned off the contents. The buyers for $2775, Nabil and Nabila Haniss, realized what they had gotten and had a new auction where they sold off the goodies for $10 million to Bardia Persa, who promptly put up the parisexposed website.
For $39.97 (where did they get that number from?) you get one month access to Paris's things. They apparently include several new sex videos, some featuring her sometime boyfriend, Joe Francis, the brainboy behind the Girls Gone Wild video series (I met him years ago in an elevator in New Orleans where he explained his technique to get amateurs in his videos, including the use of fishing poles, big plush teddy bears and nice looking shills in the crowd). The stash also includes letters, diaries, nudie pictures and what appears to be a prescription in Hilton's name for Valtrex, a drug commonly used to treat herpes. There are also videos where she's clearly smoking pot. Less interesting, but more invasive are copies of her passport and credit card receipts.
Hilton filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that her privacy had been violated and interestingly enough, that she had copyright ownership of the material. Several news stories reported that the site had already been shut down, but as of this morning it's still up.
If privacy is based on expectations, it's hard to imagine how the 25 year old could have any. She's probably the most famous exhibitionist since Lady Godiva. Yet, the financial information could certainly be problematic and although I'm too discerning (and cheap) to spring for the site, something tells me that many other celebrities are mentioned in that box somewhere and they don't deserve to be privacy outed along with Hilton.
After some soul-searching, I believe that I hope that she wins, because legalized public exposure of someone's garbage is an ugly principle to establish.
Posted on January 31, 2007
