The Anchor Plate : December 2011

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The BrickHouse Law Group - Professional Corporation

An•chor Plate

(`aeŋ·ker `plāt)

a metal plate fastened to the exterior of a brick building with a washer or tie rod to reinforce structural support, usually decorative

The An•chor•Plate

(`thē•æŋ-ker-`plāt)

a virtual gathering place for dialogue about the nature of practicing intellectual property law, to increase knowledge and to amuse

Home > December 2011

Facebook Faceoff: What Makes a "Like" a Lawsuit?

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Michael A. Kahn

In January of 2011, Facebook launched its "Sponsored Stories" ad program. As Ad Age magazine explained back then: if Starbucks, for example, buys a Sponsored Story ad, then the next time you check in or "like" a Starbucks, your updated status will run twice for all your Facebook friends: once in your news feed and again as a paid ad for Starbucks. That second time will be on the right side of each of your friends' news feeds, complete with your name and photo, and marked with the words 'Sponsored Story.' (The image on the right is the example from the Ad Age story.)

In other words, you will have become an unpaid spokesperson in a Starbucks ad. And you will have also become a potential plaintiff in Fraley, et al. v. Facebook, Inc. one of the most fascinating right-of-publicity class actions in America.

Tags: Articles, Entertainment, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Media, Social Media

Can't Wait for the SOPA Debate in the House?

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Geoff Gerber

The House of Representatives is scheduled to debate SOPA (the "Stop Online Piracy Act") later this month. There has been a great deal of debate already about the potential impact of SOPA and its counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act ("Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act"), in the Senate. Stephen Colbert moderated a superficial, but entertaining debate on one of his episodes. The Hollywood Reporter is following the debate and analyzed some of the copyright secondary liability cases that might be used to argue for SOPA-like remedies even if SOPA does not pass.