3 Count: High Nerds

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1: Delta-8 THC: At The Nexus Of Legality, Lawsuits

First off today, Steve Ellwanger at MediaPost reports that a ruling on a trademark and copyright infringement case before the 9th Circuit may have helped confirm the legality of several THC-based products.

The lawsuit was filed by AK Futures LLC, which distributes THC-Delta 8 e-cigarette and vaping products. They targeted Boyd Street Distro LLC, alleging that the company created knock offs of their “Cake” line of products and sold them in California dispensaries.

Delta 8 products have been in something of a legal limbo since the passing of the 2018 Farm Act, which legalized hemp-derived CBD products so long as they had less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC, which is more potent than Delta-8. However, manufacturers quickly seized the opportunity to produce Delta-8 products for sale. In their defense, Boyd Street Distro argued that AK’s trademark was invalid since the products were illegal. However, the Ninth Circuit disagreed, ruling that Delta-8 products are legal under the plain language of the bill.

2: Fox Copyright Claims Terminate YouTube Account Vital to College Sports Reporters

Next up today, Kevin Harrish at Awful Announcing reports that the popular YouTube channel Matthew Loves Ball has announced that it will be shuttering in approximately a week following a series of copyright strikes filed against it by Fox.

The channel, which had over 180,000 subscribers, featured highlights from various college athletic events. The channel was heavily used by reporters, who found it to be a convenient one-stop location to find such highlight videos. However, Fox Sports recently filed a series of takedown notices against the channel for games that aired on its channels, causing the channel to get shuttered.

The operator of the channel appears to have created a new one entitled “Matthew Highlights #2”, which features similar sports highlights but omits games that air on Fox channels. This has led to criticism of Fox and other sports channels for not providing the highlights themselves but targeting YouTube channels that do it for them.

3: Google’s PMAX Has Run Brands’ Search Ads on Porn and Piracy, claims New Adalytics Report

Finally today, Tim Cross at VideoWeek reports that the advertising analytics company Adalytics has released a report that found many of the sites where Google “Search Partner Network” ads appear include both pornographic and pirate websites.

According to the report, major brands such as Apple and Amazon had ads they purchased through Google appear on pirate websites. This in addition to allegations that other brands had their ads appear alongside pornography and some adult-targeted brands, such as alcohol companies, had their ads appear on websites aimed at children.

According to Google, the number of ads that this represents is “negligible” and that the presence of an ad does not mean that revenue was shared with that site. The report highlights that many of the ads from a Google’s Programmable Search Engine, which provides a free, but ad-supported search engine to websites. In those cases, the site did not receive money, but did benefit from the use of Google’s search tools.

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