Sex and the Watershed: Max Mosley's Privacy Legacy

Max Mosley had a very colourful life.

The youngest son of the UK's most notorious fascist, he was a barrister and amateur racing driver before arguably rising to his greatest professional position of influence, as President of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body for Formula One and other motorsports.

However, it's fair to say that his most enduring legacy will be far from the high-tech and glamour of the world's racetracks.

In 2008, Mr Mosley took on and defeated a Sunday tabloid newspaper, the News of the World, in a landmark privacy case.

Earlier that year, the 'paper had featured a front-page 'splash' regarding a sex party involving Mosley and five dominatrices which had been secretly filmed.

It also alleged that the orgy had distinctly "Nazi" themes which, in view of his parentage and his position, added another dimension to the kind of story involving a celebrity caught in a compromising position which had earned the 'paper the Fleet Street nickname of 'News of the Screws'.

Mr Mosley's argument was that the coverage breached his right to respect for his private life, as set out within Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Up until his case was resolved, the most notable privacy matter before the English courts had concerned the Daily Mirror's revelation that the model Naomi Campbell was attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings, a breach for which she was awarded just £3,500 in damages.

Mr Mosley, though, secured a payout of £60,000 - a sum which not only raised the bar in terms of privacy law awards but which remained the benchmark until subsequent phone-hacking awards.

Privacy damages have increased, as reflected in the £210,000 award made to Cliff Richard after he sued the BBC following its coverage of a police investigation and raid on his home.

Even more significant than the financial implications of the award was the impact which it had on the 'kiss and tell' tales which had been many a tabloid's stock in trade for decades.

In delivering the High Court judgment, the judge was clear that an S&M party was no reason to intrude into someone's private life, stating that "it is not for journalists to undermine human rights, or for judges to refuse to enforce them, merely on grounds of taste or moral disapproval".

Mr Mosley's triumph was followed by successes in separate proceedings in various countries against Google to ensure that the covert video which was the basis of the News of the World's scoop wasn't available online.

We shouldn't overlook his part in helping bring the 'phone hacking scandal to light either, leading to the Leveson inquiry into press conduct.

That it led to the demise of the News of the World - the very newspaper which had breached his privacy - and the jailing of the reporter responsible for the story would perhaps be considered as mere footnotes in an account of the fallout of Mr Mosley's exposure.

Some of the cases which stemmed from the discovery of mass hacking by newspapers are still not concluded. One account has suggested that the total bill incurred by publishers in settling the matters might exceed £1 billion.

There have possibly been bigger household names 'outed' by red top sex scandals than Max Mosley but his story has significantly influenced the course and development of privacy law in this country.

Relatively liberal content is now a regular feature of social media, meaning that the Sunday morning sexual revelations of old might not carry quite the same shock factor.

Yet Max Mosley's case and personal predicament was responsible for clarifying a very important boundary around our personal privacy and there are probably many individuals - be they celebrities, powerful or not - for whom Mosley was effectively a legal trailblazer.