This article poses a question to which I honestly don’t know the answer: is it good public policy to say that being physically attractive is all someone needs to have an enforceable right of publicity? On one hand, defining the right of publicity in that way empowers attractive people (almost always young women) to stop[...]
Bodies as IP: Does the Right of Publicity Objectify Women?
Filed Under: Augmented Reality, IP, Social Media Tagged With: Catherine Bosley, Diamalynn Arnold, facebook, Fraley, like, Natalie Dylan, Right of Publicity, sex, Topheavy
Is a Facebook “Like” First Amendment-Protected Speech? It’s Complicated.
When is a “like” not an expression of liking something? And does it, like, matter? In an April 24, 2012 opinion in the case Bland v. Roberts, Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia sparked an online firestorm by ruling that “merely ‘liking’ a Facebook page is insufficient[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Ballast Collective, Bland v. Roberts, facebook, First Amendment, Fraley v. Facebook, free speech, Igor Goldenshtein, Judge Raymond A. Jackson, like, probable cause, SEC
Socializing Over State Lines: Social Media as a Basis for Personal Jurisdiction
When can using social media get you sued in a state that you don’t live in, and may never even have visited? The “Minimum Contacts” Standard for Personal Jurisdiction That’s a question of “personal jurisdiction,” the legal term of art for a court’s right to exercise its judicial power over a specific person. Whether or[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: due process, facebook, Hale v. Richey, Maersk, minimum contacts, personal jurisdiction, Texas, twitter, Waterman Steamship Co. v. Ruiz, Wilkerson v. RSL Funding, Yahoo!, Yelp!, Zippo sliding scale
High School Ok’d to Suspend Student for Rapping About “Dirty” Coaches
To the surprise of exactly no one, kids are continuing to post material online that adults find inappropriate. Schools keep punishing them for it, and several parents are continuing to sue in response. The most recent example comes to us from Itawamba County, Mississippi. On March 15, 2012, in Bell v. Itawamba County School Board,[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: facebook, First Amendment, Itawamba County, matters of public concern, Mississippi, public high school, public school, rap, school violence, social media, suspension, Taylor Bell, Tinker v. Des Moines, YouTube
Report: Jurors’ Misuse of Social Media Is a Real, but Addressable, Problem
How serious of a problem is the use of social media by jurors? Intense reporting by news outlets and commentators (including me) could give the impression that it is a widespread phenomenon plaguing every court in the nation, and threatening to unravel the reliability of the entire jury system. Or is it just hype? That’s[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: facebook, Federal Judicial Center, FJC, jurors, litigation expense
Feb.15 Webinar: Social Media Legal Implications for Health Care Providers
On Wednesday, February 15, my colleagues Linda Ross and Mary Pate and I will be presenting on this topic in a webinar sponsored by the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA). More information and a registration form are available here. This is our second time presenting to the MHA’s constituency, but the substance of our[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: facebook, health care, Linda Ross, LinkedIn, Mary Pate, MHA, Michigan Health & Hospital Association, social media law, twitter, YouTube
New Year Bring New Guidance from NLRB on Employees and Social Media
The National Labor Relations Board is at it again. In August 2011, its Acting General Counsel, Lafe E. Solomon, issued a report summarizing several of its then-pending enforcement actions dealing with social media. These are disputes in which an employee was disciplined or terminated for something he or she posted online. In many of these[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: employment, facebook, Lafe Solomon, NLRB, protected concerted activity, social media policies
Would SOPA & PIPA Violate the First Amendment?
Today, thousands of sites across the internet have voluntarily blacked themselves out in protest of two bills pending before Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives, and its Senate version, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Although intended to serve the laudable goal of combating online piracy of copyrighted works ,[...]
Filed Under: IP, Social Media Tagged With: facebook, First Amendment, Laurence Tribe, PIPA, SOPA
The First Three Social Media Cases of 2012
At least three different courts released opinions dealing with social media during the first week of January 2012. The variety of these opinions demonstrates that social media will continue to influence every facet of law in the coming year. Evidence Law State v. Altajir, 2012 Conn. Lexis 2 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, Jan. 3, 2012). [...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Doe v. Sex Offender Registry, evidence, facebook, pedophiles, probation, recusal, sex crimes, State v. Altajir, US v. Anderson
This Week in Social Media Law: Dec. 23, 2011
Freedom of Speech: Indian Court Tells Social Networking Sites To Remove Anti-Religious Content: bit.ly/vujBhy — Brian Wassom (@bdwassom) December 22, 2011 Does using Facebook make you ‘famous’ for First Amendment/Right of Publicity purposes? shar.es/W3GQu #fb — Brian Wassom (@bdwassom) December 21, 2011 Law Enforcement: Man Charged After Photo of Girl Bound by[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: child abuse, criminal, cyberstalking, facebook, First Amendment, free speech, twitter
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