Personal ill-will is not an ingredient of the offence, any more than in
an ordinary case of trespass to person or to property. Such malice is
never necessary to be shown in an action for libel or slander at common
law, except in rebuttal of some defence, _e.g._, that the occasion
rendered the communication privileged, or, under the statutes in this
State and elsewhere, that the statement complained of was true. The
invasion of the privacy that is to be protected is equally complete and
equally injurious, whether the motives by which the speaker or writer
was actuated are, taken by themselves, culpable or not; just as the
damage to character, and to some extent the tendency to provoke a breach
of the peace, is equally the result of defamation without regard to the
motives leading to its publication. Viewed as a wrong to the individual,
this rule is the same pervading the whole law of torts, by which one is
held responsible for his intentional acts, even though they are
committed with no sinister intent; and viewed as a wrong to society, it
is the same principle adopted in a large category of statutory offences.
* * * * *
The remedies for an invasion of the right of privacy are also suggested
by those administered in the law of defamation, and in the law of
literary and artistic property, namely:--
1. An action of tort for damages in all cases.[51] Even in the absence
of special damages, substantial compensation could be allowed for injury
to feelings as in the action of slander and libel.