Internet Divorce: I O YouTube
New York Supreme Court: Smith v. Walsh-Smith
It's a brave new world and YouTube is at the cutting edge. From the same computer you download directions or songs for your iPod, you can upload and stream videos to a worldwide audience. Now that's power! And possible trouble. Tricia Walsh-Smith is a case in point.
Tricia married Philip Smith, a man 25 years her senior. Philip started out as a theater usher and ended up president of the Shubert Organization, "the largest theater owner and operator in the United States." Notwithstanding his success, Mr. Smith is a very private man. Apparently, Mrs. Walsh-Smith had issues about the terms of their prenuptial agreement and about her husband's unwillingness to invest $250,000 in her theatrical production. Without his money, the show would not go on. These issues ripened into heated arguments, flying crockery and threats by the missus to malign Mr. Smith in the New York Post. True to her word, the Post got the dirt on Mr. S. As a result, he filed for divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment.
She sued him back. She also availed herself to some self-help. Not satisfied that she was mustering the necessary leverage to obtain a favorable outcome or an out-of-court settlement to her liking, the angry wife took her beef to the internet. Having come to appreciate the value of a good production, she brought a film crew into the marital apartment, added music and subtitles, and trashed her husband on video. She then posted it on YouTube, which turned out to be her big break. The video was an "overnight sensation" and has been viewed more than three million times.
Fame has its cost, however. It is no easy task to prove cruel and inhuman treatment in divorce court, but Mrs. Walsh-Smith's internet histrionics gave Mr. Smith all the proof he needed. As the court stated, "He has been publically humiliated and embarrassed to an unprecedented extent." Mrs. Walsh-Smith claimed "she had no other option" because of her finances. The judge was not moved, noting that other spouses have been similarly challenged without resorting to the internet, and concluded that "it is hard to say defendant had no other choice when no one else before her had ever exercised that choice." Accordingly, the court granted Mr. Smith his divorce. As for Mrs. Smith, she might have gone where no woman has gone before, but she owes YouTube the credit for the outcome in her divorce.
YouTube is power: Become famous (or infamous) overnight. Jump start a career. Or attack your enemies (or your spouse) on a global scale from the convenience of your home. It might seem like a handy tool to advance your interests, but we are learning it comes with responsibilities. You can't use the internet as a weapon to humiliate or embarrass people with impunity. (In an unrelated but similar case, a Florida judge required two teens who had thrown a large drink at the drive-thru cashier—an activity its purveyors call "fire in the hole"—to post a groveling apology on YouTube after they first posted their own home-made video of their mean-spirited carbonated assault.) We'll see what new and inspiring or insipid ways the internet will be used tomorrow, and just how creative the courts will have to become to deal with it.
Until then, post at your own risk.
