Michelle McCliman Intellectual Property Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Facebook's "Sponsored Stories" Are Facing a Court Challenge

Friday, January 13, 2012 by Michelle McCliman

Photo of Michelle McCliman
Last year, Facebook began utilizing ads it called "Sponsored Stories." 
When a Facebook friend clicked "Like" on a product, page, or company,
Facebook automatically created an ad for that site including the
friend's name and photo.  Because California is one of the few states
that has a right of publicity law (i.e. making it illegal to use a
person's name, image, or likeness without consent), several Facebook
users sued Facebook claiming misappropriation of their name and image.



 Facebook argued that the ads fit within the "newsworthy" exception, and
therefore, Facebook did not require consent of the users.  The
exception applies to the use of another's name, image, or likeness
without consent if done "in connection with any news, public affairs, or
sports broadcast or account, or any political campaign."  Facebook's
argument was that the users were "public figures" to their Facebook
friends.  A thin argument, indeed.



The judge was not impressed and ruled against Facebook stating that the
exception did not apply to purely commercial uses of  newsworthy
actions.  Interestingly, the court appeared to not fully understand that
there are "Facebook friends," and then there are "Facebook friends."
There are those who are Facebook friends with people they barely know,
and therefore, it cannot be that the users are "public figures" to that
category of Facebook friends.



Nevertheless, an appeal is most likely imminent.  Stay tuned.
 
Posted at 15:09 PM
Topic: Intellectual Property
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