J.K. Rowling Wins Privacy Case Blocking Publication of Photos Of Son

Posted by Eriq Gardner

While "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling awaits judgment in a copyright case that could make important fair use law here in the U.S., she's won a legal victory that her legal team has called a major development in British law.

A panel of judges at a British appeals court have ruled that publications can not publish photos of Rowling's son taken with a long-lens camera. Here's the ruling. The court found that such photos are out of the boundaries of the nation's privacy laws.

Keith Schilling of Schillings law firm, who represented Rowling, said the ruling could have a "profound effect ... on certain sections of the paparazzi." and that the case "establishes a law of privacy for children in those cases where, understandably, the parents wish to protect their children from intrusive photography by the paparazzi."