Activision quietly and permanently drops entire legal case against TikTok meme maker it previously alleged had tried to shake it down for an 'extortionate' fee

pcgamer.com:

 Activision—the Call of Duty company and one half of the largest acquisition in videogame history—has dropped its lawsuit against Anthony Fantano—online music critic and pizza meme guy—mere weeks after launching it, Axios reports.

Activision originally sued Fantano to stop him suing it first. Fantano is the creator of the "Enough slices!" meme, an audio clip of the critic becoming increasingly alarmed as a pizza is cut into infinitesimally smaller portions that you've almost definitely encountered in a TikTok somewhere. Activision used the meme itself in a short TikTok video about (stay with me here) Crash Bandicoot-themed sneakers, and Fantano apparently took exception.

According to Activision's original court filings, Fantano «suddenly decided that Activision’s video infringed his publicity rights and constituted a false endorsement» despite his meme featuring in other TikTok videos without issue, and demanded «that Activision either immediately pay him substantial monetary damages or be prepared to defend a lawsuit» even after the company took the offending video down.

Describing itself as «the latest target of Fantano's scheme» to «selectively [threaten] to sue certain users of the Slices Audio unless they pay him extortionate amounts of money,» Activision decided to take him to court instead, hoping to get a judge to declare its behaviour was all kosher within the terms of TikTok's terms of service.

But that's all in the past, in the mist-shrouded and halcyon days of July this year. As of last Thursday, Activision has dismissed its «entire action» against Fantano, «including, without limitation, all claims alleged therein, with prejudice.» For those of you who haven't ever been taken to court by a multi-billion