Comments on: Grady Sizemore sics his lawyers on a blogger

By: Minnesota woman charged with stealing Grady Sizemore’s nude pictures | HardballTalk

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:16:12 +0000

[...] center fielder Grady Sizemore popped up on the internet, after which Sizemore’s lawyers sent cease-and-desist letters to various websites that posted [...]

By: Phebe Sampieri

Phebe Sampieri — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:11:22 +0000

you always know how to rock my world. Thank you.

By: Dominick Bohlen

Dominick Bohlen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:14:57 +0000

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By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:11:18 +0000

I have a hard time believing Grady himself would actually care overmuch. Maybe it’s just a concession to some of his sponsors — “See, we did everything we could…”

By: Jim Buzinski

Jim Buzinski — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:21:47 +0000

I run Outsports.com, a gay sports website and we also got the cease-and-desist:
http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2009/12/01/grady-sizemore-photos-focus-witch-hunt-on-outsports/
What’s ironic is that we got a lot of traffic today from everyone searching “Grady Sizemore” and winding up on the article about his legal attack against us and other bloggers. He would have been smarter to not say anything since pretty much everyone would have already forgotten about his pics. Other jocks have had similar pics and they came and went quickly.
As a PR move, why make a legal stink when the first reaction of women and gay men was: “Wow, is he hot!” He gained a lot of fans. Now, he’s lost those fans who say: What a jackass.

By: tiny dancer

tiny dancer — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:48:59 +0000

He’s going to waste so much money trying to fix this. What a shame. Even if they were stolen and the person who stole them is found, the damage has been done. No amount of money, apologizes, or jail time will fix that.

By: Moshe Mandel

Moshe Mandel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:05:06 +0000

I seriously doubt there is any leg to stand on if Sizemore were to say “I have a right to assume that my email will not be stolen, intercepted”
Not sure this is true. Pretty sure intercepting email or breaking into an email account is against the law. While you make a good point about the lack of security, there is a difference between assuming it will be secure and expecting that it will be stolen. I dont assume my car alarm makes my car impossible to break into, but I am still pretty shocked when it is stolen.

By: aleskel

aleskel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:20:24 +0000

And this brings the number of Bases posts with the “nude pictures” tag to … 1
God help us if it gets to 2.

By: ecp

ecp — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:28:43 +0000

I meant to also state that one doesn’t have to be a celebrity to have one’s supposed privacy invaded in this manner…or to have one’s identity stolen. I had hoped that most of us had learned by now that, when it comes to the Internet, that anything we send over it or post on it may be used in a manner we might not wish – and that none of us should assume we are safe.

By: ecp

ecp — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:24:41 +0000

I’m not trying to be insulting, but I really thought that most people are now aware that they cannot assume privacy or security when sending information over the Internet UNLESS they are certain that they are using SSL (secure socket layer) encryption. I’m not the lawyer, Craig is, but I seriously doubt there is any leg to stand on if Sizemore were to say “I have a right to assume that my email will not be stolen, intercepted, or used in a manner not approved by me.”

By: Joe Tetreault

Joe Tetreault — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:06:07 +0000

Saw this story earlier today. It reminded me of the story from a month or two ago, when some fashion house photoshopped a model’s head onto an emaciated body, then sent bloggers cease and desist letters when the bloggers rightly mocked the monster that Dr. Froederick Frankenstien (that’s Fronckensteen!) the Photoshop wiz created.
The bottom line is when you send it out, it ceases to be yours. Bullying bloggers doesn’t fill the colossal void between your ears that concluded snapping candids and emailing them was a fantastic plan.

By: Carroll

Carroll — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:55:31 +0000

This is exactly why I always lease pictures to my girlfriend with the option to buy.

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:27:57 +0000

Additionally…how do we know they were stolen and not just leaked by his girlfriend? I’m not trying to accuse her of anything, but it’s not like that’s never happened before, even accidentally.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:20:00 +0000

FTW!

By: Sean Salisbury

Sean Salisbury — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:18:23 +0000

Bad move Grady, I know a thing or two about risque pics showing up and ruining careers. I’d explain more but I’m too busy with deadspin’s lawyers about the idiotic stuff I’ve done, err they said I’ve done.

By: John_Michael

John_Michael — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:16:54 +0000

Craig, the Feds were going to go after who hacked the computer in the first place, but Marlo’s people stole their camera and all they see now is a fuzzy image of a few pigeons.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:48:00 +0000

I can’t speak for NaturalMevs, but my view is that this isn’t a celebrity/non-celebrity issue. Any person who sends out an email with a nude picture of themselves cannot reasonably expect that the only person on the planet who is going to see it is the intended recipient. The world, sadly, just doesn’t work like that. Maybe it’s not right, but it’s reality, and when act X causes logical result Y to happen, the proper response is not send out cease and desist letters that have no legal basis.

By: Moshe Mandel

Moshe Mandel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:43:18 +0000

As I said above, he clearly has no legal remedy. I just really do not get the sentiment that becoming a professional baseball player means you should expect to have your privacy or the privacy of those close to you invaded in an illegal manner, and that you should just apologize or something for being wronged. The idea that he committed some sort of wrong, as The NaturalMevs suggests, or even that he showed bad judgment here seems to be holding him to a ridiculous standard. Celebrities send emails that they intend to be private all the time, and have not done anything wrong by sending those emails, nor should they expect for those contents to be released.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:35:56 +0000

He shouldn’t be held as a matter of law to have anticipated their theft, but from a purely rational standpoint, he can’t really be surprised that these got out.
None of which matters for any potential causes of action. The fact is that, (a) the copy of the file that was hacked did not belong to him; and (b) at the time the images were posted by the second or third website, they were anything but “private” and thus he had nothing to invade.

By: Moshe Mandel

Moshe Mandel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:33:18 +0000

There are repercussions should any of those admins release the contents of an email. The contents here were stolen. Should he really anticipate theft of the photos?

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:21:30 +0000

“And what exactly shows poor judgment in sending some risque pictures to a girlfriend over a secure connection?”
And what makes you think email is a secure connection? Every server in the path from sender to receiver will have a copy of that email. Each server has admins with the authority to look through the contents of those servers at any time for any reason they choose. There’s nothing “secure” about email.

By: Lawrence From Plattekill

Lawrence From Plattekill — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:14:59 +0000

Well, OK…but I’ve been to parties where nude pictures of Grady Sizemore would have pepped things up.

By: Beanster

Beanster — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:11:59 +0000

“I saw the pics and there’s nothing serious about them. They’re absolutely hilarious.”
One of the best lines you’ve written, Craig. Keep telling it like it is!

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:58:13 +0000

Lawrence — The link was to a NSFW website, and the pics are arguably NSFW. We have an internal policy against linking to such sites, which I — on my first damn day as a full timer! — broke. I think it’s a good policy though, so I took the link off without a fight. I probably could have linked one of the cleaner ones on a different website, but it really didn’t add anything to the party.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:55:39 +0000

D’oh. Thanks Gator. I made the change.

By: Lawrence From Plattekill

Lawrence From Plattekill — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:55:19 +0000

Great post, but can I ask why Circling the Bases removed the link to the photos that you posted previously?

By: TheNaturalMevs

TheNaturalMevs — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:55:16 +0000

I lost a lot of respect for Grady through this situation. Before the letter from his lawyer, the pictures were odd enough. I can deal with a vouyerish ballplayer if I have to, I guess.
But how many athletes have had photos get into the wrong hands and on the internet? I’m the same age as Grady. Own up to your mistake and learn from it. Trying to make a team of lawyers erase the situation from the history of the interwebs is no way to go about righting a wrong.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:49:58 +0000

PS – oh, and Craig, you “sic” a lawyer (or a pit bull, or even a chihuahua if you have a small target) on someone. You don’t “sick” him on someone – unless your attack dog is trained to throw up on its victims.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:47:41 +0000

Sizemore clearly has the wrong agent. He ought to be in touch with whomever is representing John Bobbit. There's big money in them Playgirl center spreads.

By: Moshe Mandel

Moshe Mandel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:38:44 +0000

I have to disagree with the idea that this should be a learning experience and that release to the public was “inevitable.” Sizemore is a star to baseball fans, but outside Cleveland I bet he is pretty anonymous. I have absolutely no reason to think that emails exchanged between two people should be anything but private. And what exactly shows poor judgment in sending some risque pictures to a girlfriend over a secure connection? Sizemore may not actually have a legal leg to stand on, but he is without a doubt the victim here, and the idea that he should just take it as a lesson and move on seems ridiculous to me.