Federal Lawsuit Alleges Infringement of Minors’ New York Right of Publicity by Facebook “Like” and “Friend Finder” Features
5 06 2012May 19, 2011 [and below, March 16, 2012]
In what may represent a new wave in an interesting challenge to the viral nature of social media marketing, a recently filed putative class action asserts a right of publicity claim against Facebook in connection with the service’s “Like” and “Friend Finder” features.
J.N. v. Facebook, Inc., No. 11-cv-2128 (E.D.N.Y.) (complaint) is an action brought by the parent of a minor user of the Facebook social networking site, alleging that the minor’s name and likeness was appropriated for commercial advantage without the consent of his parents, as required by New York Civil Rights Law § 50. Section 50 provides that a living person’s name, portrait or picture may not be used for advertising purposes without the person’s written consent, “or if a minor of his parent or guardian.”
Facebook’s “Browsewrap” Enforced Against Kids–EKD v. Facebook
By Eric Goldman
E.K.D. v. Facebook, Inc., 3:12-cv-01216-JCS (S.D. Ill. March 8, 2012). The complaint.
This opinion reaches two interesting conclusions. First, it says children-users can’t disaffirm Facebook’s terms of service (TOS) so long as they keep using the site. Second, it says the children-users are bound to Facebook’s TOS even though the court thinks it’s a browsewrap. Neither ruling is unprecedented, but both rulings represent a very favorable bounce for Facebook. Yet, for reasons I’ll address in a moment, I’m not 100% clear why Facebook wanted this outcome.
The content in this post was found at http://newmedialaw.proskauer.com/2011/05/19/federal-lawsuit-alleges-infringement-of-minors-new-york-right-of-publicity-by-facebook-like-and-friend-finder-features/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20NewMediaAndTechnologyLaw%20%28New%20Media%20and%20Technology%20Law%29 and http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2012/03/facebooks_brows.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
