![\"Suspect](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/GettyImages-2188645013-300x188.jpg?resize=300%2C188&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nWe KNOW Getty owns this picture though that might not stop UHC. (Photo by Jeff Swensen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Someone purporting to be United Healthcare is filing DMCA requests to scrub the internet of artists\u2019 depictions of the surveillance video of Luigi smiling, parody merchandise of \u201cDeny, Defend, Depose,\u201d and other merchandise showing the alleged shooter.<\/p>\n
If it is really the health insurer filing these notices, it wildly oversteps any legal rights the company might have, but if there\u2019s any company willing to preemptively breach the law and dare the other side to spend their limited resources trying to protect their rights it would be a health insurer.<\/p>\n
404 Media reports<\/a> that a number of DMCA takedown requests from \u201cUnited Healthcare\u201d have hit artists depicting the newsworthy event. The publication reached out to the company to confirm that it\u2019s behind the filings but didn\u2019t hear back.<\/p>\n For those keeping score at home, the DMCA provides that a copyright owner<\/em> must inform an internet entity that their intellectual property is being abused and the service provider then has an opportunity to expeditiously remove the material and avoid possible liability. That said, the DMCA only provides a shield against legal action and if the copyright claim is \u2014 to use the precise legal term \u2014 \u201cutter bullshit,\u201d they don\u2019t have to comply. Unfortunately, hosts routinely err on the side of caution and remove content when there\u2019s zero cognizable claim.<\/p>\n If this is someone acting on behalf of United Healthcare, what an irony to lodge a falsified claim without it getting denied.<\/p>\n From 404:<\/p>\n An entity claiming to be United Healthcare is sending bogus copyright claims to internet platforms to get Luigi Mangione fan art taken off the internet, according to the print-on-demand merch retailer TeePublic. An independent journalist was hit with a copyright takedown demand over an image of Luigi Mangione and his family she posted on Bluesky, and other DMCA takedown requests posted to an open database and viewed by 404 Media show copyright claims trying to get \u201cDeny, Defend, Depose\u201d and Luigi Mangione-related merch taken off the internet, though it is unclear who is filing them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s a bizarre and grimly ironic turn if United Healthcare wanted to own<\/em> the words \u201cDeny, Defend, Depose.\u201d The takedown request for that piece objects to the artist styling the \u201cD\u201d with elements of the United Healthcare logo\u2026 which would be the very definition of protected parody. The 404 story has images if you want to see what these all look like.<\/p>\n Beyond tying itself to the gunman\u2019s catchphrase, the idea of UHC trying to own any and all fixations of the alleged shooter\u2019s likeness would be a wild leap. An artists\u2019 depiction of Mangione could only<\/em> belong to the artist (Mangione might be able to assert some rights to his likeness \u2014 a dubious claim under the circumstances and in light of the First Amendment \u2014 but in no case would UHC have such a claim).<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is the circumstance under which United Healthcare might come to own the copyright to a watercolor painting of the guy who assassinated their CEO?\u201d tech rights expert and science fiction author Cory Doctorow told 404 Media in a phone call. \u201cIt\u2019s just like, it\u2019s hard to imagine\u201d a lawyer thinking that, he added, saying that it\u2019s an example of \u201ccopyfraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It is illegal to file DMCA notices if you don\u2019t own the copyright (or at least have a good faith belief that you do). The idea that UHC now owns every depiction of the guy accused of killing their employee is laughably frivolous and one hopes<\/em> that its legal department understands this and these requests are coming from a third party troll impersonating the carrier.<\/p>\n An independent journalist posting a photo of Mangione with his family also received a DMCA request \u2014 from a lawyer claiming to represent a family member holding the copyright \u2014 even though the image was \u201coriginally posted on the campaign website of Maryland assemblymember Nino Mangione.\u201d That site apparently deleted the image and turned around to threaten anyone using it now which is\u2026 not how fair use works. But at least this request can claim they have a \u201cgood faith\u201d claim, though the system probably shouldn\u2019t reward people for trying to retroactively claim rights after they try to memory-hole their internet history.<\/p>\n But the disturbing thread running through all these requests is how easy it\u2019s become for copyright trolls to leverage the DMCA to intimidate providers into accepting facially invalid requests. The statute has given way to a sort of asymmetrical warfare over IP where bad faith actors can pepper sites with ownership claims and trust that their targets will back down rather than deal with the litigation risk. As 404\u2019s coverage notes, this doesn\u2019t bode well in a country about to inaugurate an administration openly encouraging retribution against journalists in an effort to silence criticism.<\/p>\n This sure looks like a company (and a local politician) trying to use copyright law as a \u201csquare peg-round hole\u201d solution to erasing any humanizing or sympathetic depiction of Mangione. And unfortunately, everyone seems to be obeying in advance.<\/p>\n Copyright Abuse Is Getting Luigi Mangione Merch Removed From the Internet<\/a> [404 Media]<\/p>\n Because this isn’t how copyright law works. The post \u2018United Healthcare\u2019 Using DMCA Against Luigi Mangione Images Which Is Bizarre & Wildly Inappropriate appeared first on Above the Law. We KNOW Getty owns this picture though that might not stop UHC. (Photo by Jeff Swensen\/Getty Images) Someone purporting to be United Healthcare is filing DMCA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":98249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/GettyImages-2188645013-ZUFAVn.jpeg?fit=594%2C373&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"