DMCA takedown requests are being issued for images depicting the perpetrator of the United Health CEO shooting
On December 4, 2024, the CEO of UnitedHealth, a major American health insurance company, was shot and killed. The suspect has already been arrested and put on trial, but the defendant's image has been used as a meme on T-shirt designs, and it has been revealed that someone claiming to be from UnitedHealth has requested the deletion of the image using the DMCA.
Copyright Abuse Is Getting Luigi Mangione Merch Removed From the Internet
'United Healthcare' Using DMCA Against Luigi Mangione Images Which Is Bizarre & Wildly Inappropriate - Above the Law
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance division, was shot and killed in the street in front of the Hilton Midtown Hotel in New York on December 4, 2024, while visiting the hotel to attend the parent company's annual conference.
Police tracked down the masked man who fled the scene, and on December 9, following a tip from a restaurant in Pennsylvania, they arrested a man named Luigi Mangione. On December 17, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office indicted the defendant on charges of first-degree murder.
When questioned by police, Mangione reportedly visibly trembled when asked if he had been to New York recently, but it is unclear whether he has admitted to the crimes.
On the other hand, the act of shooting Thompson has not received much criticism from the American public due to the health insurance industry, including UnitedHealth, being unpopular among the American people due to issues such as the reluctance of the health insurance industry to pay premiums. Rather, there are sarcastic comments such as, 'The only thing I'm wondering is whether the CEO died immediately, or whether he died several months later after finding out whether treatment for a gunshot wound is covered by insurance.'
My only question is did the CEO of United Healthcare die quickly or over several months waiting to find out if his insurance would cover his treatment for the fatal gunshot wound?
— Ian MacAllen (@IanMacAllen) December 4, 2024
In addition, the hashtag '#FreeLuigi' calling for Mangione's release has had over 50,000 posts on X, and merchandise is also being developed.
Artist Rachel Kenaston is selling 'CEO Shooter T-shirts' featuring an illustration of Mangione.
CEO Shooter - CEO Shooter - T-Shirt | TeePublic
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/69398609-ceo-shooter?store_id=3160298
However, Kenaston received an email from the sales platform TeePublic stating that 'UnitedHealth Group Inc. has filed a complaint of intellectual property infringement.' Kenaston protested, arguing that the illustrations were his own creation and that UnitedHealth had no copyright to them, but TeePublic said, 'It is a valid takedown notice sent by a legitimate rights holder, so we cannot dispute it.'
Similarly, a DMCA takedown request was filed by a person named Samantha Montoya against eight sites selling merchandise that used a design that resembles a mashup of the UnitedHealth logo and the words 'Deny Defend Depose,' a play on the 'Delay Deny Depose' bullet cartridge used in the shooting.
Deny Defend Depose
https://deny-defend-depose.com/
In addition, journalist Marisa Cavas, who published photos of defendant Mangione and his family, revealed that her lawyer Desiree Moore, who she said was 'at the request of her client, the anonymous family,' asked her to remove the photos, saying that 'the use of the photos was not authorized by the copyright owner.'
According to 404media, a news site that reported on the case, UnitedHealth and sales platform TeePublic did not respond to requests for comment, so it is unclear whether it was actually UnitedHealth that asked for the items related to Mangione to be removed.
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in Note, Posted by logc_nt