Ancestry.com Tells Court It Was Right To Dismiss Claims It Illegally Published Yearbook Photos

Ancestry.com Yearbook Photos Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: Ancestry.com filed a response brief to the Ninth Circuit over an appeal filed by Meredith Callahan and Lawrence Geoffrey Abraham.
• Why: Callahan and Abraham claim Ancestry.com broke the law by including school yearbook photos in their public database and in marketing emails. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit is currently in the Ninth Circuit court of Appeals.

Ancestry.com has told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court was right to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit claiming it published school yearbook photos without necessary consent. 

Plaintiffs Meredith Callahan and Lawrence Geoffrey Abraham are appealing the dismissal of their claims that Ancestry.com violated California’s right to publicity statute and Business and Professions Code by including yearbook photos in its public database and in promotional emails. 

Ancestry.com claims the allegations brought against them are “ill-founded,” however, while arguing that those behind the class action lawsuit “have no right to restrict access to this public information.” 

“Like all individuals pictured in yearbooks, plaintiffs long ago consented to public distribution of these photos without restriction or control,” Ancestry.com said in a response brief.

Callahan and Abraham have argued that yearbook photos can’t be published or shared without an individual’s consent.

Yearbook Photos Are ‘Public Information,’ Ancestry.com Argues

Further, Callahan and Abraham claim the yearbook photos became illegal to be used after Ancestry.com used them in marketing emails and on-site advertisements. 

Ancestry.com argues, however, that yearbook photos are public information and that there is no evidence they diminished any alleged economic value by using them. 

“That plaintiffs’ already public yearbook information merely exists in Ancestry’s database is the proverbial tree falling in the woods,” the company said, in its response. “Without further allegations of access, mere data storage cannot possibly have caused plaintiffs any injury.”

The class action lawsuit was dismissed for the final time back in June of last year. 

Callahan and Abraham filed a similar class action lawsuit in 2020 against a company they claimed put digital versions of yearbooks on Classmates.com without permission. 

Has a yearbook photo of yourself appeared on Ancestry.com without your consent? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Benjamin Ross Osborn.

The Ancestry.com Yearbook Photos Class Action Lawsuit is Callahan, et al. v. Ancestry.com Operations Inc., et al., Case No. 21-16161, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

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