Meghan Markle taking Mail On Sunday to Court *MNHQ tweaked title for accuracy*

[TheMustressMhor]

And about time, too. They never stop castigating her.

Prince Harry has said that he's worried that she'll end up being the same kind of victim that his mother was with regard to the Press.

I hope she wins her case.

“Eh, you are celebrities who court attention (editing Vogue!) so you need to decide which side you are on”
Does the same apply to other royals who have guest edited publications?

In what other ways does Meghan “court attention”? What do you mean, “woke causes”?

"People on this thread seem to suggest that the writer owns it, perhaps they say this with authority."

This is an analysis by a lawyer:

“A letter is a copyright work as it is a literary work,” said Alex Newman, the national head of intellectual property law at solicitors Irwin Mitchell. “As soon as you create a copyright work, you will own the copyright until it expires automatically. This gives you the right to prevent anyone else copying, or issuing to the public, the whole or a substantial part of your copyrighted work.”

The Mail on Sunday printed nine separate extracts from the five-page handwritten letter, which were promoted on the front page as a world exclusive.

Newman said there were exceptions from copyright law for “fair dealing” when reporting current events and reviews, meaning it was possible to publish extracts without the approval of the creator in certain circumstances.

He said the newspaper’s legal justification for publishing could rest on whether it published a “substantial part” of the letter, taking into account both the proportion of the letter that was printed and the importance of the sections that were used.

So MM winning is not necessarily certain if the paper can defend it's publication as fair usage. I think going to war against the media will not achieve kinder or friendlier coverage in the long run but they are clearly frustrated and want to do something. I think they'd be better off focusing on how they present themselves to the public, apparently Harry was advised directly to not fly privately yo the Google conference but he ignored the palace PR advisers.

It's not fair usage, though, is it? And it's not in the public interest. (The public may be pruriently interestED, but that is a quite different matter).

The issue of the wider monarchy's right to exist is quite separate from the issue of whether or not the tabloid media in this country should be allowed to behave in the way that they do. We are currently in a right political mess, largely because the tabloid media was allowed to lie and lie and lie to people for years. It's time something was done.

As for anyone who works for the tabloids - they should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

@Winterlife I never heard one good thing about her, which is unusual. Those people also knew her father and said very good things about him, in general.

Well I'm very much a take those as you find them person and don't pay much heed to heresay to be honest. I'm always very dubious about 'he said, she said' stuff.

As for her dad, well he sold a letter from his daughter to the press (that's a fact rather than heresay) so I wouldn't hold anyone who did something like this in high regard. And we never know what goes on in family dynamics. My ex father in law was a pillar of the community who no one had a bad word to say about. Life and soul of the party and devoted to his family. Apparently. In reality, he was a bully and violent towards his wife and children. Sometimes we really don't know people at all do we.

Bertrand I think guest editing vogue a few months after your marriage into the Royal family is attracting attention. Its not some low key publication like farming weekly etc. Its high profile, glamorous etc.

By woke causes vs the more mundane dull royal events I mean - spend a couple of around the UK opening community centres, local theatres etc. Dont just jump into lecturing people on climate change and then acting in a way that is the total opposite to the principles you are espousing. All of this rubs the media up the wrong way.

Personally I have nothing against her - she seems well meaning and kind and I feel dreadfully sorry for her having to deal with that toxic nightmare of a father, but they have played the last few years all wrong. Harry is probably more to blame though, he should know the ropes.

The vitriol levelled against her is not much different than that directed towards Kate and her family (Uncle Gary anyone)

I did read some of the online abuse she received and it was horrific. Saying she had faked her pregnancy to get attention. Awful stuff
.
These were online comments by readers of the Mail they weren't journalists writing it.

They havent played anything anything.

They've done what they thought was right at the time. If you disagree, then, after you've given your head a wobble and told yourself not to care so much about someone you will never know in RL, try and deal with it and move on with your life.

(re: Diana)
There is no doubt that she was hounded but she played a dangerous game and had she opted for a genuinely more low key life , they would have eventually backed off.

Absolutely. We can forgive him for not grasping this, he was just a boy who lost his mother, but he really can't be forgiven for being so obtuse as to fly on a PJ to a climate change conference while persuading us all to reduce our footprint.

I think generally with the RF, least said soonest mended is the best approach and bringing this to attention only adds fuel to the fires.

Operative word being IF. Thomas Markle is a proven habitual liar who even faked heart surgery.

Yes, one would have to question the integrity of someone who would do this.

I don't give a rat's ass about the royals but I agree with what Harry and Meghan are doing. Publishing private material and manipulating it is not on, whoever you are.

Who originally said MM was 'straight outta Compton'?

Was this a comment or a piece of ahem, journalism?

Diana used the media to her advantage. She was an expert in it. I expect some posters here were not born when Diana was alive and in the news. I am old enough to have lived through it all. she was scheming and manipulative. In the end she was killed by a drunken driver and she didn't wear a seatbelt. You cannot keep blaming the papparazi for that and she used the media for her own ends for much of her life.

I don't know whether it's fair usage or not but that's the likely defense the papers will use.

Whether it's in the "public interest" or not isn't the specific test here though, the fair dealing defense covers the reporting of current events and arguably the ongoing drama between MM (a public figure) and her father over his no show at her wedding could be classified as current events even though it's hardly serious news.

What may be the determinative issue is how much of her letter they published, the letter was five pages long and they printed nine excerpts from it (perhaps their own lawyers weighed in on how much content to print).

I really don't care who wins tbh.

People are really awful hypocrites.

"Poor Harry look isnt he cute poor little mite, losing his mum, terrible bla bla"

"Fuck Harry he should be better at playing the press and who does he think he is getting cross on his wife's behalf, she's not fit to lick Diana's boots"

Listen to yourselves.

There is no doubt that she was hounded but she played a dangerous game and had she opted for a genuinely more low key life , they would have eventually backed off.

I don't know that they would, it was relentless. You couldn't pick up a newspaper or turn on the news without her being on there and she was huge fodder for the press, I doubt they would have let her alone, though we'll never know. I shudder to think what her life would be like if the internet had been readily used and social media had been around then.

I think Harry is a bit up himself tbh and is unable to see how he both encourages the press and then complains about it at the same time, and he sees himself as more important than he is and considers that he should be exempt from the normal bitchy British press. The British public absolutely are conditioned to adore the RF unquestionably, and there are still many who would hear no wrong about them. There are plenty of people who get a hard time from the British press but I have never heard Harry show any concern for them.

I also think they are being badly advised. Just when the drama around the wedding and the will-he-wont-he over the father turning up had died down, and they are on a nice calm trip overseas, their new PR company allows this to break. The letter was published months ago, most people had forgotten about it and the new PR company has only recently been appointed, so it makes sense that this is their idea - to crack down hard on the press to teach them a lesson maybe. Generally that doesn't go well with any press in any country and usually results in worse adverse publicity, but this is the strangely popular amongst movers and shakers PR company which has generally been a bit of a disaster for those concerned. Strange world, PR.

It always seems to be a drama with Harry, always complaining about press intrusion and linking it back to his mother, and now making his wife into a victim of the same. Its a very recognisable pattern of behaviour, but he is what, 6th in line to the throne and without any recognisable role other than the one he has chosen to carve out for himself and his wife of a globe trotting eco-warrior, dependent on good publicity.

I think this is a bad PR move, because MM was beginning to seem quite likable when compared to Prince Andrew but this is dragging up the rather unpalatable situation with her father again, rather than focussing on the good stuff. And it looks bad that she can take legal action over a letter written to her father, but not visit him before the wedding or make the effort to see him to set things straight after the wedding. He has really been a victim of the press, rightly or wrongly, but the man clearly isn't the healthiest and is in his seventies, so its rather sad that no sympathy is being shown for him. He's still a human being.

It also makes me wonder whether the father has been silenced recently due to legal threats or perhaps legal action such as an injunction.

Re the “straight outta Compton” piece - the comments on it are overwhelmingly positive and supportive of MM, mostly saying to back off her / that what they’ve reported is lies

She could have maintained her royal security detail but chose to dispense with it as a two finger salute to the royal family.

She was no longer an HRH. I doubt she would have been entitled to much, if any, security detail.

Joyfull Yes its racist, the criticism of the Middletons was classist (headlines about gum chewing air stewards, coal miners etc) and criticism of Sarah Ferguson was fatist (princess porky) - they will always, always find something. The key is to give them as little ammunition as possible.
I actually dont think the Royal family is a good fit for someone as bright and apparently purposeful as meghan.

MM was beginning to seem quite likable when compared to Prince Andrew but this is dragging up the rather unpalatable situation with her father again, rather than focussing on the good stuff

Are you seriously suggesting a woman who writes a letter to her father trying to make peace is now less 'likeable' than a suspected pedophile?

I've never wanted to leave the country more.

When did England become so awful?

The papers won’t give a shit, they face threats of legal action on a regular basis.

M&H won’t give a shit either, they’ll still be appearing on Oprah, Vogue, instagramming away whilst bleating on about privacy.

It’s so incredibly dull I wish we could opt out of both supporting and hearing about the RF.

I cannot figure, for the life of me, why anyone thinks they know anyone or can speak of them with authority, making random assertions without actually knowing them.

Even then, there are many 'pillars of communities' who are utter abusive arseholes with their charity work and charm.

There are also pariahs of society, bullied and picked apart who are actually decent people.

The gutter press facilitate all this, and worse, make vast profits on it.

It undoubtedly true that that Harry as a child when he lost his dm so tragically and publicly will have been so traumatised.

The press were right in the thick of that, and cannit be blameless, atall. A drunk driver is also complicit, as are those who don't protect their own safety in such a situation by flouting seatbelt use.

The drunk driver being sober could have wrought a different outcome, wearing seatbelts may have saved lives, however the press pursued this, drove this tragedy, and its unthinkable how anyone can justify themselves doing this to other human beings, no matter who they are.

I dont agree with those saying there are rules.

Noone should be forced, post partum, to give photos to anyone, ever. I can't believe the 'entitled' who believe anyone has to forego their own privacy and wellbeing so other entitled sorts assert their 'right' to be shown, have access, criticise, complain, pass comment, negatively judge, etc. Who should have to face that?

All in the public eye have to face that every time they appear anywhere doing anything, and its wrong.

There's nothing wrong with wrongs being exposed by the press, but here the wrong-doing is the press'.

I can only imagine how awful this particular circumstance is for Harry, and far too close for comfort; from the public speaking he has done on the subject he'd not really dealt with it, and could be feeling very threatened under the currently unfolding scene.

The press, and a lot of the general public and internet posters, can be hideously cruel, judgemental and crass.

Pp said about the demise of the royals after their grandmother has gone, and I think similar. Its a dying age surely?

All the while there's people out there greedy for shit there'll be shit published, and money made from it.

I don't see anything wrong in people presenting themselves well, or in being seen in reality for who you are, but twisting and manipulation of people and situations should not be making anyone money, and those misrepresented absolutely should be recompensed. Even if mostly, currently, they're not.