The British royal family won a legal victory today when a French court ruled in their favor and ordered the French branch of the magazine “Closer” to hand over all digital photos of a topless Kate Middleton sunbathing at a private chateau in southern France to the court or pay a heavy fine. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge brought legal charges of invasion of privacy against the French magazine after photographs of the Duchess topless appeared on its pages. After noon tomorrow the magazine will be fined $12,000 per copy if it chooses to ignore the court and continue publishing the photos. The court ruling only applies to Closer, and not to the two other magazines, the Irish Daily Star and the Italian Chi, that have published the photos, as they are in different countries. Chi is the same magazine that published a photo of Princess Diana dying in a car crash caused by a paparazzi high speed car chase. The Italian publication’s editor defiantly stated not even a “direct call from the queen” would stop him from publishing the photos. On the other hand, the Irish Minister of Justice has stated that the country plans to introduce new privacy laws in the wake of the photos appearing in the Daily Star. In addition to their case against the French magazine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge allegedly intend to bring criminal charges against the photographer, or photographers, responsible for taking the photos.
