The result of a legal spat between Subway and Quiznos could have an impact on how much immunity advertisers have in regard to user-generated content.
It’s always good to see a fellow Lexingtonian featured in the New York Times – you know, since Kentucky still has some stereotypes to overcome. Bill Blackburn’s mug is the focus there after making a video advertisement for Quiznos. (Props to Louise Story on the title, too.)
He and about a hundred others answered Quiznos’ and partner iFilm’s call to create video ads depicting Quiznos’ sub sandwiches as superior to Subway’s. Meatnomeat.com would serve as the hub for submissions, which, assumedly due to legal pressures, no longer features the user-generated videos.
Subway wasn’t amused, and filed suit against Quiznos claiming the videos contained false statements and depicted Subway in a disparaging manner.
On the surface it seems like just another lawsuit between big companies over advertising, but the case could potentially open up hosts of user-generated content to liability for what they’re users post. Traditionally, interactive computer services are protected under the Communications Decency Act.
A major question here, though, is whether Quiznos and iFilm in this situation count as an interactive computer service – like a forum, or blog, or even YouTube – or if they would be outright facilitators of defamation. A secondary question is whether advertisers are covered on the act as well.
With any luck, another outcome will be Subway is found guilty of dumbing down the audience with yard sale everything’s $2.69 commercials – oh, and making us look at Jared for far too long.
