Local TV, LLC v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County

INTRODUCTION

Kurt Knutsson, a technology reporter who created Kurt the CyberGuy video segments for use on television news programs and station websites, brought the lawsuit that underlies this petition for writ of mandate (petition). Pursuant to a written agreement that Knutsson and his company, Woojivas, Inc. (plaintiffs), entered into with Los Angeles television station KTLA, Inc. (KTLA), website material Knutsson created was distributed to the websites of certain television stations in other cities, including those of stations owned and operated by Local TV, LLC, and Local TV Finance, LLC (LTV).

We address here the question of whether, for purposes of the common law tort of misappropriation of name and likeness, plaintiffs consented to LTV’s use of the CyberGuy material, including placing links to it on web pages along with links to material created by a reporter who was hired following the termination of Knutsson’s contract. We hold that based on the broad consent in the agreement, plaintiffs cannot prove lack of consent to the manner in which LTV used the CyberGuy material. This determination requires that plaintiffs also cannot prevail on the two other causes of…