Back in January 2010, the 35-year old mother had agreed to participate in an instructional video about breastfeeding.
The video, produced by Meredith Corporation, an Iowa based media and marketing company, was part of an educational series on their Parents TV and Cable channel.
The video producer assured her that the material would only be used for the educational video, and that only her first name would be used, according to NBC News New York. But the company ended up posting the video on YouTube with her full name included. Someone then spliced the video clip into a pornographic film.
The Fair Lawn, N.J., mom filed a lawsuit against Meredith Corp, publisher of such magazines as Family Circle and Ladies Home Journal, in U.S. District Court in Newark, alleging, among other things, that the company breached its “duty of reasonable care to protect [Sahoury and her daughter] from careless exposure on the Internet.” Last week, Judge Katherine S. Hayden overruled Meredith Corp’s motion to dismiss and let the case proceed.
“I didn’t get paid to do this. I didn’t want to be some sort of celebrity,” Sahoury told the Associated Press.
Breastfeeding didn’t come easy for her. When her daughter was born in December 2009, Sahoury had trouble nursing and went to a lactation consultant, who later asked Sahoury if she wanted to appear in an instructional video to demonstrate nursing techniques for other mothers.
“Breastfeeding for me was the most rewarding thing I had ever done in my life,” She told NBC 4 New York. “I wanted to share that with people. I really wanted to give back.”
Sahoury’s full name was used in the video, the lawsuit states, yielding the Google results. The lawsuit also claims the video was placed on YouTube, when Sahoury was told it would appear only on Parents TV and cable television. Her lawsuit is seeking an order prohibiting the defendants from using the video featuring her and her daughter for any purpose; it also seeks attorney fees, the AP reported.
“It was terrifying,” Sahoury said to the Associated Press. “It was like I can’t even control my life and it was spiraling out of control.”
Art Slusark, a Meredith spokesperson, responded about Sahoury’s lawsuit to TODAY.com via email.
“Meredith took immediate and substantial action when made aware of the situation, and we have gone above and beyond any contractual responsibilities, expending a substantial amount of time and money. We have hired leading law firms to file take-down demands and retained top Internet specialists to both clear online caches and create positive references. We are confident that the steps we have taken are helping to mitigate the issue. We are continuing these good-faith efforts even after Ms. Sahoury filed her lawsuit.”
