Copyright Law

TechCrunch Sues Facebook for $25 Million!!

By Sam Bayard

Breaking news -- TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is suing Facebook for unauthorized use of his name and likeness. In apparent disregard of the tech blogger's publicity rights, the social networking giant has been allowing advertisers to post ads on user profiles using Arrington's picture and name to endorse their products without permission. Specifically, Arrington alleges that his image appeared in connection with ads for Blockbuster's new "Movie Clique" application and the movie Jackass 2.5.

From TechCrunch:

I am sad that this had to blow up to the point where we are publicly suing Facebook over the matter. We?ll be filing the lawsuit tomorrow along with a related civil case for assault and battery and infliction of emotional distress. In a round of negotiations over the lawsuit with Facebook led by Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, things got out of hand. When our team of lawyers offered to settle for a mere $50 million, Kelly told me Facebook would ?bury you and bury your crappy blog? if we filed the suit. He then threw his steaming hot triple soy latte espresso at me, which caused extensive second degree burns over the top half of my body. Later on, he also unfriended me.

Yep, you guessed it. April fools :) Sorry I didn't take the time to fabricate something out of whole cloth myself, but this was ready-made and too good to pass up.

Full post as published by Citizen Media Law Project on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).