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Another Times Square Billboard Lawsuit
Posted by Raul Ruiz on Friday, April 12 @ 12:24:16 EDT
Contributed by kevvyc
News
kevvyc writes "From the Washington Post: Spider-Man Caught in Legal Web "The owners of several Times Square buildings have filed a lawsuit against the makers of the upcoming "Spider-Man" movie for digitally altering a sign appearing in the motion picture. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the owners of 2 Times Square allege that Columbia Pictures digitally replaced a Samsung advertisement on the side of the building with one for USA Today. The sign appears three times in the film, according to court papers."

A related article from Yahoo! notes that "The lawsuit echoes a similar petition filed two years ago by Sherwood against CBS, after the network opted to blot out rival NBC's sign during its New Year's Eve broadcast. " where CBS settled out of court. Unlike the CBS case (where CBS obviously had a monetary incentive to replace the NBC logo), USA Today did not pay to have its logo replace the Samsung logo.

UPDATE 1438 ET - Ernest Miller adds:
Findlaw has the complaint (Plaintiff's Complaint: Sherwood 48 Associates v. Sony [PDF])."

 
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Re: Another Times Square Billboard Lawsuit (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, April 15 @ 21:59:24 EDT
So where in the law is it written that I have to advertise your product in my fictional work?

USA Today is advertised just as realistically as the spider man flying through the skies in New York City on a daily basis.

So if I describe 2 Times Square in my novel, does it have to be accurate?

Do they own the rights to the photons impinging on my eyes?

Geez. If they don't want pictures of their building taken, edited and distributed, they shouldn't let people see it.



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