As a general rule, I agree celebrities should have some right, but not an unlimited right, not to have their sex tapes published. There are a couple complicating factors that make Hogan's situation not very clear cut. First of all, in a separate part of the tape, which Gawker did NOT publish, Hogan says a lot of racist shit. Other media outlets published the transcripts or audio, not sure which, and that was extremely damaging to Hogan's career. To the extent that the video relates to the audio, by serving to give some context or to verify the authenticity of the latter, it can be argued that the video is newsworthy and that Hogan should not be able to sue over it (revealing that a celebrity is a big-time racist is unquestionably newsworthy). That would be a more clear-cut argument if Gawker had published that part of it, and it is truly ironic that he is suing Gawker, which did less damage to his reputation than the outlets that put the racism stuff out there. Second, Gawker wanted to argue (but was not allowed to present evidence on this point for some reason) that Hogan knew that the sex was being recorded, which would severely damage his claim that the publishing of the tape was an invasion of privacy. Gawker not being allowed to make that argument is their basis for appeal. There, again, the fact that he settled for a pittance with the guy who presumably leaked the recording is eyebrow-raising to say the least.
