Radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger has dropped her copyright infringement and privacy invasion lawsuit against the online porn site that published nude photos of her in October.
Schlessinger and her lawyers were unavailable for comment, but Internet Entertainment Group (IEG) staff counsel Derek Newman said Tuesday he was surprised that she had dropped her case.
"She dropped the lawsuit against us with no money paid to either side, without giving any reason for it," Newman said.
Newman added that IEG was confident it had published the pictures legally. The Seattle-based firm said that it bought the photos from Bill Ballance, a retired radio personality. Ballance told IEG he photographed Schlessinger in 1978, while he was having an affair with her during her first marriage.
IEG is best known as the site that was to have hosted the bogus "Our First Time" site (which was to have featured two teenagers losing their virginity online). The company posted the so-called "dirty dozen" explicit photographs of Schlessinger on 23 October. More than 70 other adult Web sites ran copies of the photos soon after.
Schlessinger obtained a temporary injunction from a US District Court in Los Angeles that forced IEG to remove the photos. But on 2 November, federal judge Dean Pregerson lifted the injunction and IEG reposted the photos.
IEG announced on 20 November it was suing one of the 70 adult sites for copyright infringement. Schlessinger named a similar charge in her suit against IEG, in addition to invasion of privacy. Schlessinger argued that because the photographs were of her, she owned their copyright.
Schlessinger's attorneys did not return phone calls seeking comment.
"The copyright claim was bogus," Newman said. "The owner of copyright is the photographer, and [Schlessinger] knew that. She brought the claim in bad faith."
IEG defends its publication of the photos. The company said the images are "a matter of legitimate public concern," since Schlessinger is a public figure. In her syndicated radio program, Schlessinger offers relationship and dating advice to millions of listeners nationwide.
"She makes her living telling people what to do in their private life," Newman said. "In the United States, public figures don't go unchecked. The public has a right to know what Dr. Laura does in her private life."
IEG also confirmed Tuesday that it was filing another lawsuit against Vancouver, British Columbia-based Starnet Communications, for posting photos of Dr. Laura on its site.
Starnet has since removed the photos, but kept the URL loveclub.com, which Newman said could easily be confused with its clublove.com.
