Legal
In December 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against Girls Gone Wild, on behalf of the FTC, alleging that the company failed to notify customers when they purchased subscriptions under a continuity program, rather than single DVDs. In July, 2004, the claim was settled for $1.1 million and agreed to disclose all terms and conditions and get written consent for recurring charges.
In September, 2006, MRA Holdings, a Girls Gone Wild marketer, pled guilty to federal charges for failing to record ages of women filmed in 2002 and 2003. The parties agreed to pay $2.1 million in restitution and fines.
In April 2008, Ashley Dupré filed against Joe Francis with other defendants, claiming that they filmed her without consent. Dupré dropped the suit after Francis released footage of her consent.
In 2008, a Missouri woman claimed that she was filmed without consent when a Girls Gone Wild contractor removed her halter top at a St. Louis bar. A jury found that she consented. On re-trial in 2012, a judge awarded the woman $5.77 million after the defense failed to show at court. Girls Gone Wild included this recording in one of the videos that it sold. On appeal, the judge upheld the verdict.
In March, 2008, four women claimed that they suffered emotional distress by being shown in Girls Gone Wild film. In April 2011, an all-female jury declined to award damages to the plaintiffs.
Read more about this topic: Girls Gone Wild (franchise)
Famous quotes containing the word legal:
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“Courage, then, for the end draws near! A few more years of persistent, faithful work and the women of the United States will be recognized as the legal equals of men.”
—Mary A. Livermore (1821–1905)