Catch-up (August): JK Rowling no Princess Caroline

In early August, Joanne Murray (aka JK Rowling) lost her case against a picture agency which had been aimed at protecting the privacy of her child. According to the Guardian, a picture showing Rowling, her husband, and their son appeared in the Sunday Express magazine to illustrate an article about her approach to motherhood and family life. While the newspaper settled the claim, the picture agency involved had contested it. Mr Justice Patten contended that a right to control the use of images taken in public places when not on 'public' business would amount to the accordance of a publicity right that was purportedly not recognised in English law. Of course, this is almost precisely what one might have thought has been bestowed by the Strasbourg jurisprudence. The case is to proceed to the Court of Appeal, where we might expect the next stage in the faltering development of the tort of misuse of private information - or at the very least a right good barney!!