FatWallet To Sue Best Buy Over DMCA Threat

jkeyes writes "Online deal site FatWallet announced today that they will be suing Best Buy and other companies that sent them DMCA takedown notices. They are seeking a declaration from the court stating that Best Buy and other companies' demands were an abuse of the DMCA, and also violate the 1st Amendment." We covered Best Buy's original DMCA invocation a few days back.

Comments

Not the first time!

[anaphora]

This isn't the first time FatWallet.com has stood up to DCMA-pushers.

It's fair use

[tepples]

Since when is posting an ad flyer online illegal?

Ad flyers are copyrighted. However, posting excerpts therefrom should count as news reporting, giving it a boost under the fair use criteria (17 USC 107). Heck, I'd guess that the prices themselves are facts or ideas and therefore subject to the exclusion of copyright on ideas (17 USC 102). You're right as far as I can tell.

Re:Thank WallMart et al.

[Slack3r78]

I've never cared for Fat Wallet's layout, and as such, spend a lot of time lurking in Anandtech's Hot Deals forum. Basically, if there's a deal on anything computer-related going down, you can probably find it there, and most of the better deals from FW manage to drift there fairly quickly as well. =)

Not Pro Bono, and no hand out

[Chief Mucky Muck]

I can assure you that the legal fees are being paid 100% out of pocket. There is no pro bono representation this year, although we did use pro bono counsel last year.

Many folks on FatWallet have offered financial assistance, but we are not accepting any of it. If the time were to come where additional funds would be required, we would first look to other businesses that would be benefited by the suit, and as a last resort to consumers themselves.