Instagram Beats Revived Copyright Lawsuit Over Embedding Tools

Instagram LLC cannot be held liable for third party websites’ use of embedded posts, because the original photos and videos aren’t being stored on a separate server, a federal court in California said Tuesday.

Alexis Hunley sued Instagram in May 2021, alleging its corporate parent Facebook Inc. created an embedding tool to expand Instagram’s presence on third-party websites and get revenue. Instagram is secondarily liable for copyright infringement on platforms like Buzzfeed and Mashable, which display content posted by Instagram users without paying them, Hunley said.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California first dismissed the proposed ...