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Cases of Note

By Samuel Fineman, Esq.
July 31, 2006

Eleventh Circuit Sides with Amazon.com in Right of Publicity Suit

The plaintiff, an individual whose mother granted permission for use of plaintiff's photograph when she was a child, sought review of summary judgment awarded in favor of the defendant, an Internet bookseller, in the plaintiff's action asserting claims under Florida's right of publicity and civil theft statutes, Fla. Stat. ”540.08, 772.11. The plaintiff also challenged the attorney fee award under Fla. Stat. '772.11. Almeida v. Amazon.com, Inc., Nos. 04-15341 & 04-15561 (11th Cir., filed 7/18/2006).

The plaintiff claimed that the defendant improperly displayed her photograph, which was on the cover of a book's second edition, when it displayed the book cover on its Web site in furtherance of its Internet sales. The plaintiff claimed that consent was given only for the book's first edition. Although the court agreed with the plaintiff that the district court should have addressed '230(e)(2) of the Com-munications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA), 47 U.S.C.S. '230, before invoking the CDA's grant of immunity, the court found it unnecessary to address the CDA's application under the facts of the plaintiff's case because the defendant could not be held liable under Fla. Stat. '540.08 for displaying a book's cover image in furtherance of the book's sale.

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