Community Corner

Boyd's Suit Over 'Girls Gone Wild' Video Gets Court's OK

The Georgia Supreme Court's opinion clears the way for a federal lawsuit filed by Cartersville resident Lindsey Boyd over the image shot when she was 14 years old.

Cartersville resident Lindsey Boyd can sue two companies over the use ofΒ  images taken of her that were used in a Girls Gone Wild video, the Georgia Supreme Court said in an opinion issued March 28.

Boyd sued MRA Holding and MANTRA Films in federal court seeking damages against the companies she claims are responsible for those images, shot when she was 14 years old. Chief U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes sent questions to the Georgia Supreme Court on Sept. 27, saying that resolution on the defendants' motion for summary judgment depended on these unsettled questions of Georgia law.

After hearing arguments in November 2012, the Georgia Supreme Court settled those five questions with its March 28 ruling.

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Their opinion said, in part, "The facts as found by the District Court show that it was not possible for [Boyd] to have given MRA consent to use her image to endorse the College Girls Gone Wild video involved here."

Georgia laws control in this case since Boyd lived and attended school in the state, where she would have sustained any injury from distribution of her image, the justices said.

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Private citizens have the same rights as celebrities not to have their name and photographs used for financial gain without their consent, the court said. Having a lesser commercial value doesn't stop that person from pursuing a claim.

"Here, Bullard is a private citizen whose image was arguably used without her consent to endorse an MRA product for MRA’s own commercial gain," the court said.

The footage of a topless Boyd was sold to Girls Gone Wild, according to Business Insider. Her image appeared on the DVD cover of Girls Gone Wild, College Girls Exposed, Vol. 1 and 2 and in TV commercials aired across the country.


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