Use of another company’s logo or promotional materials. And although businesses or individuals can voluntarily register a work through the Copyright Office at any point, it’s not a prerequisite for protection. Songs, images, poems, articles, designs - literally anything demonstrating “some minimal degree of creativity” is protected upon its inception. Copyright laws ensure that all authors and artists have the exclusive right to all of their original works. (This is a variation of what happened to Gawker.) But posting someone’s private photos, videos, even private information imparted to you in confidence may land you in trouble - especially if the individual being depicted or quoted is not a public factor. If someone posts something to the web and you share it, that’s one thing. Yet a huge number of brands are doing things every bit as dangerous. True, very few small business owners are ever going to find themselves wondering whether they should be circulating a celebrity sex video on their company blogs or social media accounts. After a huge and costly legal battle, it was ultimately decided that publishing the clips without permission was a violation of Hogan’s privacy - and with no way to pay Hogan the damages to which he was owed, Gawker Media has since been forced to file for bankruptcy protection and auction off its various businesses.įrom a business perspective, there’s a clear lesson to be learned here. In March, a Florida jury awarded $115 million worth of damages to former wrestling star Hulk Hogan after Gawker published clips of a sex tape in which Hogan allegedly starred. In the end, it was simply a case of publishing the wrong type of content. Gawker Lawsuitīelieve it or not, it wasn’t reactionary management or bad accounting that brought the media behemoth to its knees. But that all changed in June, when the business was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Gawker, Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Jezebel were all a part of the company’s extraordinarily successful content stable. Until recently, Gawker Media was responsible for maintaining some of the web’s top blogs. When it comes to digital marketing, content will always be king - and when it comes to content, Gawker Media used to rule with an iron fist.
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