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Lawsuit Over User-Posted Celebrity Photos Survives Dismissal–BWP v. Hollywood Fan Sites

27 11 2014

I’m not much of a gossip site reader, especially when I can’t get the damn page to load properly and there’s a painful “your” typo on the front screen

The plaintiffs own copyrights in celebrity photos. The defendants run the Hollywood.com “fan site network” with 1,500+ websites dedicated to celebrities, TV shows, etc. The complaint alleges that the entire fan site network is predicated on republishing stolen photos, and that the fan sites are run by “dummy webmasters” who do so without pay but under the network operator’s strict controls. The most recent ruling addresses the defendants’ motion to dismiss.

It’s almost 2015, and yes, we still struggle with explaining why web hosts aren’t directly liable for user-caused infringement. The plaintiffs’ core allegations in their complaint:

The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2014/11/lawsuit-over-user-posted-celebrity-photos-survives-dismissal-bwp-v-hollywood-fan-sites.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.