The case was unusual in that Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, was also a major investor in Ticketmaster, and thus was on both sides of the case. The case eventually settled without an opinion. The Curtis Management Group, the licensees of James Dean's rights of publicity, sued the owners of the American Legends Web site for creating links to the official James Dean Web page. The plaintiffs, whose lawsuit alleged copyright infringement, defamation, unfair competition and conversion, claimed that the material on the defendants' page was disparaging in nature. The defendants claimed that they were not disparaging the deceased actor on the site but were doing a favor to the official site by linking to it at all.
Many sites display copyrighted photos, scripts, soundbites or studio trademarks.
Some sites sell the unauthorized copyrighted material. Some sites display memorabilia legitimately purchased, or photos taken by the Web site owner. Angry letters sent to fans may backfire. Some fans with sophisticated Web sites are children. The James Dean case settled.