New York City’s Conflicts of Interest Board has issued guidelines prohibiting elected officials from using official social media accounts for political purposes or having their staff draft content for their personal social...more
A federal district court judge refused to grant summary judgment to the copyright owners of the Star Trek franchise in the infringement suit they brought against the team behind a fan-made, crowdfunded prequel to the original...more
1/23/2017
/ Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
EU ,
Instagram ,
Internet ,
Mobile Apps ,
Personal Data ,
Snapchat ,
Sponsored Ads ,
Star Trek ,
Summary Judgment ,
Yelp
The California Supreme Court agreed to hear Yelp’s case arguing that requiring the company to remove a one-star review of a law firm “creates a gaping hole” in the immunity that shields internet service providers from suits...more
9/27/2016
/ Bots ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Driverless Cars ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Google ,
Hackers ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
LinkedIn ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Safety Precautions ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media ,
Transparency ,
Trolls ,
Twitter ,
Websites ,
Yelp
A recent California court decision involving Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) is creating considerable concern among social media companies and other website operators....more
8/25/2016
/ Communications Decency Act ,
Defamation ,
Internet ,
Online Reviews ,
Safe Harbors ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media ,
Takedown Notices ,
User-Generated Content ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites ,
Yelp
Instagram now allows celebrities to block trolls. The rest of us will have to continue trying to ignore Instagram trolls.
While Facebook reached new highs last quarter, Twitter continued to stumble. Will adding more live...more
8/1/2016
/ Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Defamation ,
Emoji ,
Facebook ,
Instagram ,
LinkedIn ,
Pinterest ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media ,
Trolls ,
Twitter ,
Yelp
Bad reviews. On September 30th, the soon-to-be-launched app Peeple was described by the app’s co-founder, Julia Cordray, as a “Yelp for people,” that is, a people-rating platform that would allow users to assign number...more
10/12/2015
/ Cyberbullying ,
Facebook ,
Marketing ,
Online Reputation ,
Online Reviews ,
Photographs ,
Political Candidates ,
Ratings ,
Social Media ,
Software ,
Twitter ,
Yelp
Cruel intentions. Laws seeking to regulate speech on the Internet must be narrowly drafted to avoid running afoul of the First Amendment, and limiting such a law’s applicability to intentional attempts to cause damage usually...more
8/28/2015
/ Communications Decency Act ,
Cyberbullying ,
Defamation ,
Facebook ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress ,
Marketing ,
Online Reviews ,
Revenge Porn ,
Social Media ,
Social Media Policy ,
Yelp
Welcome to the newest issue of Socially Aware, our Burton Award winning guide to the law and business of social media. In this edition, we present a “grand unifying theory” of today’s leading technologies and the legal...more
7/29/2015
/ Advertising ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Creditors ,
Data Collection ,
Data Storage Providers ,
Digital Assets ,
Discovery ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Evidence ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hashtags ,
HBO ,
Live Streaming ,
Marketing ,
Online Reviews ,
Retail Tracking ,
Sanctions ,
Showtime ,
Social Media ,
Spoliation ,
Trademarks ,
Twitter ,
Yelp
In This Issue:
- Court Protects Anonymity of Yelp Users
- FTC Issues Landmark Report on Internet of Things
- Who Will Update My Status When I’m Dead?: The Biggest Social Media Platforms’ Policies on...more
5/15/2015
/ Anonymity ,
Copyright ,
Digital Assets ,
DMCA ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Internet of Things ,
Mobile Devices ,
Online Reviews ,
Social Media ,
Social Networks ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Web Scraping ,
Web Tracking ,
Yelp
Lawsuit panned by Court. The popular ratings app Yelp has been cleared by a federal appeals court of allegations in a class action lawsuit that the company extorted advertising dollars from businesses by threatening to remove...more