The maker of a YouTube quiz that includes a photo and question about Adolf Hitler is suing Michigan State University after the trivia was broadcast on football stadium screens.
The federal suit, filed by Floris van Pallandt, operator of The Quiz Channel on YouTube, claims that the school streamed the company’s unfiltered channel without permission — and in a forum that it was never meant to be seen in.
The quiz “was not created for a mass-market use at an American college football game,” van Pallandt said, alleging both copyright infringement and inappropriate use.
The quiz was broadcast as pregame entertainment at Spartans Stadium ahead of a match-up between MSU and the University of Michigan on Oct. 21. One question in particular asked where Adolf Hitler had been born, briefly flashing a photo of the Nazi leader on the big screens before revealing the answer.
The incident happened just two weeks after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking nearly 250 hostage.
In the aftermath, the employee who broadcast the quiz was suspended, the university publicly apologized, and athletic director Alan Haller took responsibility, saying his department was accountable for anything that was posted to its videoboards.
But van Pallandt said that labeling the quiz as “inappropriate content by a third-party source,” as an athletic department spokesperson said at the time, subjected his business to disparagement and ridicule.
“Plaintiff does not believe [the quiz] should have been used at such a time or at such an event, especially in light of current events,” the lawsuit says, adding that van Pallandt would have created a customized quiz that was appropriate for the venue if requested.
The federal lawsuit against the school’s Board of Regents was filed last week and demands $150,000 in damages plus legal fees.
With News Wire Services