Hart v. Electronic Arts, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
717 F.3d 141 (2013)
- Written by Carolyn Strutton, JD
Facts
Hart (plaintiff) was a successful quarterback for the Rutgers University National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I football team. Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) (defendant) was a videogame company that created the videogame NCAA Football. The game included avatars for actual NCAA football players that closely resembled their real-life counterparts and included their actual statistic and biographical information. The 2004–2006 versions of NCAA Football included an avatar for Hart that matched Hart’s physical and biographical characteristics. Although players of the game had the option of altering certain characteristics of the Hart avatar, the closely matched avatar is the default offering. Hart sued EA, claiming a violation of his right to publicity. The district court granted EA summary judgement on the ground that the First Amendment protected EA’s use. Hart appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Greenaway, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 804,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
