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ARTICLE · 20 MAY 2003

Douglas v Hello!

United KingdomMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Maddie Mogford
Maddie Mogford

This article was first published in April 2003

Who did win the war? Both sides are claiming victory. But is the winner of 9 out of 13 battles really the loser?

Where does this leave the law?The exciting vision of a new and free standing tort of privacy raised by Sedley LJ in the Court of Appeal in the first Douglas v Hello!appeal has evaporated following Mr Justice Lindsay's decision;instead the old fashioned the law of confidence the kind that was developed to protect trade secrets has sprung a new head..It can now be used by celebrities to control their image,and to protect commercial deals to publicise themselves.

Background

Catherine Zeta Jones,Michael Douglas and Northern &Shell,the publishers of OK!, sued Hello!over the publication of six unauthorised photographs of the couple's wedding at the New York Plaza Hotel on 18 November 2000.After a bidding war between OK!and Hello!the couple had given OK!the exclusive rights to cover the wedding.In return,they received £1 million and

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