the phenomenon whereby attempts to carry out internet censorship are counterproductive – resulting in drawing more attention to the information. In 2003, Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman, who provided aerial pictures for scientists and researchers to use to study coastal erosion, for distributing aerial pictures of her mansion in Malibu. At the time Streisand sued Adelman for $50 million, the picture in question had been accessed a whopping total of six times—twice by Streisand’s lawyers. Of course, news outlets around the world reported on Streisand’s outrage, and before long, the photo on Adelman’s website (below) had received well over a million views. The photo was also picked up by the AP and was reprinted countless times.
The phrase was coined by Mike Masnick of Techdirt: “How long is it going to take before lawyers realize that the simple act of trying to repress something they don’t like online is likely to make it so that something that most people would never, ever see (like a photo of a urinal in some random beach resort) is now seen by many more people? Let’s call it the Streisand Effect.”
As if single-handedly causing the exact thing she didn’t want to happen wasn’t bad enough, Streisand also lost the lawsuit; the judge ordered her to cover the $155,567.04 Adelman incurred in legal fees.
Source: http://mentalfloss.com/article/67299/how-barbra-streisand-inspired-streisand-effect
