COMPANY, headed by executive producers Robin Benson and Richard Goldstein, has signed director Michael Shapiro for commercial representation. Shapiro’s storytelling has recently been highlighted in work for GAP, Goodyear, SIRIUS, JCPenney and Bank Of America….Venice, Calif.-based branded and immersive storytelling studio OffAbbot has been launched. The new venture is led by executive producers Justin Towery and Scott Flor, with Adam Cohen named to serve as head of VR production. OffAbbot opens with a directorial lineup which includes Brendan Beachman, Julian Whatley, Jason Z. Wong, Ryan Pesecky, Andrea Ball, Matt Celia, Ryan Turner and Sabyn Mayfield. Celia recently wrapped a couple of projects for OffAbbot, including Paranormal Activity Seance, a 360 VR narrative horror story created as a co-branded production for gaming network IGN.com and for the on demand/digital HD release of the latest feature in the horror series Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension….San Francisco-headquartered Wikia, which recently launched entertainment website Fandom, has now opened an office in Santa Monica, Calif., featuring a video production facility. Anthony Cava heads up the new content studio and will serve as head of video. Eric Moro, who currently serves as VP of content for Wikia, will be based in the new office and spearhead all editorial content. Before joining Wikia, Moro was the editor in chief of the movies, TV, Blu-ray and DVD channels for entertainment website IGN.com. Moro said that the Southern California office enables Wikia to be closer to leading entertainment industry entities, opening up opportunities to partner with them….
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More