Facebook: Your one stop shop for a class action lawsuit
So it seems that Facebook is being sued in Texas over the use of members pictures and names to sell merchandise in Beacon ads, specifically in Blockbuster movie rentals. While this might cause some problems for Beacon ads generally, this particular suit is based on a the Videotape Privacy Protection Act which prevents videostores from disclosing your rental history.
It’ll be interesting to see, where, if anywhere this lawsuit goes and if it raises other legal question (say right of publicity) about Beacon ads in general.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/17/first-facebook-beacon-lawsuit-hits-blockbuster/
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tsullivan
April 18, 2008 @ 10:34 am
I think the issue of non-web laws (like the Videotape Privacy Protection Act) being applied to online acts is an interesting issue. As the TechCrunch post points out, other privacy laws could also affect similar online acts. For example, its easy to imagine something could violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.