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18/02/17/0030249 story

Judge Dismisses Playboy's Copyright Lawsuit Against BoingBoing

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:58PM   
from the picture-this dept.

canopic jug writes:

Recently, Playboy sued BoingBoing about hyperlinking. The court has made the decision to dismiss the case.

TechDirt has written about the decision:

Well, that was incredibly quick. The district court judge hearing the case that Playboy filed against BoingBoing back in November has already dismissed it, though without prejudice, leaving it open for Playboy to try again. The judge noted that, given the facts before the court so far, it wasn't even necessary to hold a hearing, since BoingBoing was so clearly in the right and Playboy so clearly had no case. While the ruling does note that Playboy and its legal team can try again, it warns them that it's hard to see how there's a case here [...]

TorrentFreak also covers the decision:

A California district court has dismissed Playboy's copyright infringement complaint against Boing Boing. Playboy's allegations that the popular blog induced or contributed to copyright infringement by publishing hyperlinks are not strong enough, Judge Olguin writes. The complaint is dismissed with leave, allowing the magazine publisher to file an improved version within two weeks.

Sources:
Judge Dismisses Playboy's Dumb Copyright Lawsuit Against BoingBoing
Court Dismisses Playboy's Copyright Claims Against Boing Boing

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Original Submission

• Context Context (Score: 3, Funny) by fishybell on Saturday February 17 2018, @03:52PM (1 child)

  by fishybell (3156) on Saturday February 17 2018, @03:52PM (#639356)

  Yeah, um, I'm going to need that link. Without it, how can we know the context of the suit?

  • Re:Context (Score: 2) by chromas on Saturday February 17 2018, @06:55PM

    by chromas (34) on Saturday February 17 2018, @06:55PM (#639405) Journal

    The album [imgur.com] exists but it looks empty. Unsurprising since Imgur mods masturbate to deletionism.

    Parent

• What everybody already knows (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2018, @12:50AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2018, @12:50AM (#639541)

  Well, everybody who's not brain-dead.

  Linking isn't infringement.

  ...and if you do find folks deep-linking to your content without visiting your pages (and seeing your ads--heh) and you don't like that, then serve a 403 page that identifies what they're doing and that says what they need to do instead.

  Gawd, fossil media outlets that don't grok the 21st Century.
  Just laughable.

  -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

• Update - Playboy Drops Misguided Copyright Case (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:47AM

  by canopic jug (3949) on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:47AM (#645622) Journal

  According to the EFF, Playboy has actually dropped their stupid case against Boing Boing [eff.org].

  In a victory for journalism and fair use, Playboy Entertainment has given up on its lawsuit against Happy Mutants, LLC, the company behind Boing Boing. Earlier this month, a federal court dismissed Playboy’s claims but gave Playboy permission to try again with a new complaint, if it could dig up some new facts. The deadline for filing that new complaint passed this week, and today Playboy released a statement suggesting that it is standing down. That means both Boing Boing and Playboy can go back to doing what they do best: producing and reporting on culture and technology.

  --
  Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.