Michigan State University has settled a lawsuit over a video quiz question about Adolf Hitler that was displayed on a Spartan Stadium scoreboard before an October 2023 football game against the University of Michigan.
The video quiz included an image of Hitler and a question about his birthplace. MSU quickly apologized for displaying the image. The university said it would stop using a “third-party source,” which it said was responsible for the image.
That source was The Quiz Channel, on YouTube. The Quiz Channel sued the university last year for $150,000 dollars, claiming that MSU used its material without permission.
It also said the quiz video wasn’t intended for a mass market audience at a college football game, especially in light of current events at the time. The Hitler scoreboard display came just weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas War.
Now, The Quiz Channel’s owner, Floris van Pallandt, has settled with the university for $30,000.
“My client and I are both happy with the result,” said Jeremy Kennedy, an Ann Arbor-based attorney who represents van Pallandt. “We’re happy with the settlement. He sees this as vindication at the end of the day.”
Kennedy said his client did not know that the university planned to use The Quiz Channel’s trivia question on the scoreboard.
“He found himself and his company thrust into the public light when the controversy started with Michigan State by them taking his quiz, that he created, and putting it on their Jumbotron without asking for permission,” Kennedy said.
An MSU spokesperson said the school has no comment on the settlement.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.