The Streisand Effect: How Censorship Backfires Spectacularly
In 2003, photographer Kenneth Adelman was documenting coastal erosion in California. He took 12,000 aerial photographs of the coastline for the California Coastal Records Project. One of those photos happened to capture Barbra Streisand’s Malibu mansion. The photo had been downloaded exactly six times. Two of those downloads were by Streisand’s lawyers. Then Streisand sued Adelman for $50 million, demanding the photo be removed from the public website. The Backfire The lawsuit made headlines. Suddenly, everyone wanted to see the photo that Barbra Streisand was trying to hide. ...