The Streisand Effect

The California Coastal Records Project aimed to post
Some photographs to document erosion on the coast.
One pic by Kenneth Adelman included the estate
Of singer Barbra Streisand, which he recognized too late.

Both Adelman and photo host Pictopia.com
Discovered in 2003 they’d lit the Streisand bomb.
She sued for fifty million (that’s like eighty mil today)
For violating privacy, but whew, they didn’t pay.

The lawsuit was dismissed, and Streisand paid the legal fees.
Considering her net worth, that was certainly a breeze.
What galled her more, undoubtedly: A month beyond that news,
The pic had garnered upwards of four hundred thousand views.

Mike Masnick of the Techdirt blog proceeded to select
The Streisand name to label the eponymous effect.
(This hardly was the first ironic effort to preempt
Attention; past millennia saw similar attempts.)