Aaron J. Moss

Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP

Los Angeles

Media and entertainment litigation

An IP litigator working to protect companies in the entertainment and media industry, Moss has recently won actions on behalf of clients such as NBCUniversal, Discovery Communications, Costco Wholesale Corp. and Riot Games.

Among his most active clients of late is the sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sports Inc., which he has represented in various high-profile lawsuits alleging copyright and trademark infringement, right of publicity and defamation.

He's currently representing Barstool in a case brought by Michael Rapaport over allegedly defamatory remarks posted about the actor to the blog's Twitter page. Rapaport claimed being labeled as a "fraudulent sack of shit," among other insults, constituted what Rapaport called "libel by Twitter." Rapaport v. Barstool Sports Inc., 18-CV08783 (S.D. N.Y, filed Sept. 25, 2018).

The case could be among the first of its kind to reach the point of trial, following closely on the heels of a Twitter feud-fueled lawsuit against Elon Musk in which a jury dismissed the plaintiff's claims. Having paid close attention to that case as it progressed, Moss said there's an abundance of similarities between Musk and Rapaport's suits.

"It's going to be a matter of whether people are going to interpret [the insults] as statements of fact, or by its nature just some freewheeling trash talk," Moss said.

Moss said it's the latter, with the accusations flying amidst a heated back-and-forth between Barstool and Rapaport, who Moss said was no stranger to trash talk on social media.

The claims on which he's been called to defend Barstool have run the gamut, including the recently won dismissal of a state wiretapping lawsuit brought my Joseph Curtatone, mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts. Curtatone claims the blog recorded an interview with him without consent as one of its personalities impersonated a Boston Globe reporter.

Moss won dismissal of that case in January, with a state court judge finding that the recording itself wasn't actually a secret. The judge also agreed that the reporter's impersonation wasn't an issue because the reporter's identity was irrelevant.

-- Steven Crighton