Lawsuit Seeks $4 Billion From Yahoo

Universal Image Inc., a maker of educational videos, amended its lawsuit against Yahoo Inc. to seek up to $4 billion in damages, including $3 billion in punitive damages. The suit, initially filed in June, claims that the No. 1 Web search company violated a contract to provide information about users of Yahoo’s video and audio programming. Universal Image, which does business on the Web as Chalkboardtalk.com, held the contract with Broadcast.com, which Yahoo acquired in July. After the acquisition, Broadcast.com stopped sharing information about its registered users with Universal Image, the suit alleges. “The contract requires Yahoo/Broadcast to share the data with Chalkboard,” said Larry Friedman, a lawyer for Universal. “The [Yahoo] privacy policy violates the contract with Chalkboard.” Yahoo has a policy posted on its Web sites saying that it generally does not share personal information with its partners unless it has the user’s permission. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company declined to comment on the lawsuit. Friedman is a well-known Dallas litigator who last year won a $108.8-million judgment in a legal malpractice case, according to the newspaper Texas Lawyer. Friedman sued Dallas attorney Robert Goldstein, claiming Goldstein botched the divorce case of Lynne Ginsburg, ex-wife of former Chancellor Media Corp. President Scott Ginsburg. Yahoo closed off $16.69 at $402.63 on Nasdaq.