Facts

Aware that declines in purchases of printed books threaten its long record of success, the publishing house Debussy Hastings & Co. ("DH") contracted with Scott Orrick, a well-known investigative journalist, to write innovative new book that would appeal to a broad range of ages. The book is to be titled Frenemies and tells the story of Facebook and its effect on relationships.

Trying to reach a broader audience age range through design as well as content, the book incorporates lots of photography, most of which Orrick took during the 6 months that he worked at Facebook (without revealing to Facebook that he intended to write book about the experience), either of the company's offices or from the lives of users he connected with for whom Facebook has been part of negative experiences in their lives. The book's chapters are titled using Facebook-related terms: "Friend me," "Like this post," "What's on your mind, Reader," "See your Memories >," and "Your best friend commented on this." Each chapter considers internal corporate and design practices at Facebook and connects those concepts to the lives of users (so the "Your best friend commented on this" chapter talks about the ways Facebook workers try to get political buy-in for new projects, while also relaying interviews with users who became obsessed with whether their friends were engaging with them online).

When Orrick had been working at Facebook for about 6 months as a courier, he heard from friends that management was upset that he'd been taking pictures at company headquarters and that he was going to be fired. That didn't upset Orrick, because he wasn't planning to work there much longer anyway, but he decided to have some fun during his last days. On a Tuesday morning, after he was asked to courier a set of set of sensitive hardware to the airport to be put on a plane to the company's offices in So Paulo, he drove his "facebook blue" truck to the San Francisco International Airport, drove over a curb near the departure gates, and left the car parked at a comical angle, blocking traffic. Airport police blamed Orrick's ridiculous parking job for causing two car accidents, including one in which a woman sustained head and neck injuries.

Your Response

DH is now starting to realize that they may have created some significant problems with this project. They've asked you for a memo outlining the following issues:

• Which, if any, intellectual property protections offer the best way for Facebook to stop us from using photos of their offices and the Facebook-related terms in chapter headings and the text of the book? Why is that the best approach?
• Orrick has a copy of Facebook's advertiser database and is planning to send everyone in the database an advertisement for the book. Is that OK?
• Did Orrick commit a tort when he parked oddly at the airport?
• Assuming for the sake of argument that Orrickdidcommit a tort when he parked at the airport, is Facebook responsible for it?