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NJ Mom Sues After Educational Breastfeeding Video Is Posted On Porn Sites
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 9, 2012
Modified Aug 9, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 9, 2012
Modified Aug 9, 2012
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Breastfeeding, which is riding a wave of more mainstream and government support, is as old as time. And there's something else that's nearly as old as time: People who will distort beautiful things for the sake of porn—which is what a NJ mother found out. Because footage of her breastfeeding in an educational video was uploaded to porn sites.
In 2010, MaryAnn Sahoury agreed to be filmed for a video for Parents magazine's website. Sahoury told NBC New York, "Breastfeeding for me was the most rewarding thing I had ever done in my life. I wanted to share that with people. I wanted to really give back."
However, after the video was uploaded to the Parents website and its YouTube channel, things went horribly wrong. WCBS 2 reports, "The video was pirated and spliced into pornography, with Sahoury’s name and her daughter’s name in it. 'It went from me talking, to a woman who looked like me having sex. It was just a full porn video, maybe six or seven minutes long,' she said."
Sahoury discovered this after Googling her name in July 2010. She told Best for Babes:
[The Google search results] revealed a link which included my full name attached to a pornography site. When I clicked on the link there was the breastfeeding video I had taped with the TV show, spliced in with vile disgusting porn clips of a woman who had similar features as me. It wasn’t one video, it was multiple videos; among dozens and dozens of links all over the internet that now flooded my name and great reputation with this association to pornography. If that wasn’t bad enough, I then find that my daughter, who was only 6 months old at the time, was also connected to pornography as well! I came to find out that the breastfeeding episode that I thought would air on cable TV and their website had actually been actually posted on YouTube, and they were the ones who put my full name in writing which scrolled across the bottom of the screen during that show.
Now Sahoury is suing Parents' parent company, Meredith, for breach of contract. Meredith claims, "Meredith was appalled to learn someone misused a video meant to help new mothers. We took immediate action, hiring leading law firms and online specialists to file take-down demands, clear online caches and create positive references. We took these actions even though Ms. Sahoury signed a release authorizing use of the video across all media platforms, and holding Meredith harmless for any potential misuse of the video by a third party."
However, Sahoury says she was told her last name would not be used in the video (it was) and a judge recently said the lawsuit could go forward.
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
Sahoury also told Best for Babes, "It took [Meredith] well over a year to have all of the YouTube videos removed as a violation and infringement of copyright since other users had stolen the video from their channel. We began working together on destroying links and at first they seemed to be helping me. I spent countless, days, hours, minutes, and seconds trying to get mine and my baby’s life back. I sent in requests to have videos and links removed."
She added that Meredith also seemed responsive to really helping her after she hired an attorney. But it doesn't change how she feels about breastfeeding, "I don’t feel embarrassed about breastfeeding at all, it is natural, beautiful, and the most wonderful gift you can give your child. I highly encourage and support all mothers to breastfeed wherever and whenever they want."
Tagged
breastfeeding
lawsuit
Porn
terrible
youtube
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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