The law school blues

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/10/23/law-graduates-settle-suit/

This case is between two law school students, Brittan Heller and Heide Iravani, studying at Yale, and a group of posters who defamed them on the internet. A bunch of photos of these two law students leaked on the internet and were eventually posted on a law school forum, which their lawyers claim to be the most prostigious law school forum on the internet that is frequented by both law students and law firms looking to hire students. Both girls claim to have lost job and internship opportunities because of the things posted, and fear that it will affect their future career.

I think that it depends on how these pictures found their way to the forum that would determine whether it is defamation. If the girls had posted them in a public place, such as facebook or myspace, then it would have been reposting, and if anything, they had defamed themselves. Despite this, the judge sided with the two girls, even though it was noted that this case was subject to the "Streisand Effect", where a relatively minor instance on the internet tries to get covered up by the embarrassed party through legal means, and as a result, it erupts into the news and on all sorts of websites, making it more public and embarrassing in the end.