Maryland Lawyer Blog
The Maryland Daily Record published a story today about a St. Mary’s County, Maryland man who is suing adultfriendfinder.com and three anonymous users of the site for defamation and false light invasion of privacy over the posting of sexually explicit pictures of his wife.
I hope more information comes out about this story because I have a lot of questions. First, the man claims that his reputation as a monogamous spouse has been smeared because of the inference that he is a swinger. This is nonsense on several levels. As a service to you, the loyal Maryland Lawyer Blog reader, I went to this website. There is no presumption that everyone on the site is part of a swinging couple. In fact, I think the major purpose of the site is to give couples a chance to pick up a third if you will. This might cast some unfavorable impressions of his wife, who is notably not a plaintiff, but it says very little about him and whether he has been faithful to his wife.
I would also be curious to know exactly where sexually explicit pictures of his wife of 22 years came from in the first place. Three different users apparently have these pictures. There does not appear to be any suggestion that the pictures were stolen or unlawfully obtained.
I’m looking forward to seeing what develops from here. But I think this lawsuit is frivolous regardless of further facts, particularly against the website because of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 bars claims against the website as a publisher. More to the point, I think all of this probably could have been avoided if the plaintiff or his lawyer took the time to have a long heart-to-heart talk with this man’s wife.