WallStreetBets Founder Loses Trademark Suit Against Reddit
Welcome to Socially Aware
Socially Aware is devoted to the law and business of social media, proactively addressing emerging issues and keeping our clients informed of new developments. We cover fields such as artificial intelligence, privacy and data security, Section 230, intellectual property, and much more.
- In Jaime Rogozinski v. Reddit Inc , U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney for the Northern District of California dismissed WALLSTREETBETS Reddit community founder Jamie Rogozinski’s claims against Reddit for trademark infringement and dilution as well as various state law claims. Rogozinski established WALLSTREETBETS... ›
Be Careful What You Click for: A Canadian Court Rules that a Thumbs-Up Emoji Indicates a Binding Contractual Agreement
By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Julie O'Neill
In this age of social media and texting, we use a plethora of shorthand visual and typographic icons to express a range of responses or reactions to posts or texts: a heart to indicate love, a laughing face or an “LOL” to indicate humor,... ›AI Leaders Commit to White House Supported Guidelines
By: Tessa Schwartz
In coordination with the White House , several leaders in the artificial intelligence (AI) space have publicly committed to a voluntary set of guidelines relating to responsible development and deployment of AI. Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI made immediate public commitments... ›PART 1 - Section 230: 27 Years Old and Still in the Spotlight
By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Julie O'Neill
Here at Socially Aware we talk a lot about Section 230, the section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) that immunizes social media platforms and other online service providers from liability stemming from content created by their users or other third parties. Sometimes... ›In the Crosshairs: The Legal Industry Grapples with the Application and Ethics of AI
By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Julie O'Neill
In May 2023, Steven Schwartz of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman admitted that he used a generative AI (GAI) platform to produce six non-existent court decisions as citations during his representation in a personal injury case against Avianca Airlines. He has since issued regrets and... ›Social Links: Social Media Account Ownership Once Again in the Spotlight
By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Julie O'Neill
Social media continues to dominate the headlines this spring, with several high-profile events capturing the media’s, regulators’, and lawmakers’ attention. Jack Owoc, founder and former CEO of Bang Energy (“Bang,” a performance energy beverage), claimed that he retained the rights to control Bang’s social... ›Key Issues in Generative AI Transactions
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Over the past year, we have seen a dramatic increase in the adoption of AI technologies across industries. Because transactions involving AI technologies can resemble those involving traditional software, like SaaS agreements, parties often assume that their expectations from those standard agreements about what... ›Social Links: Section 230 Under Scrutiny (Again) From Lawmakers
By: Aaron P. Rubin, Julie O'Neill and Anthony M. Ramirez
Section 23o, the “ 26 words that changed the Internet ,” is once again under scrutiny from lawmakers. At the federal level, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary panel’s subcommittee on privacy, technology, and the law found common ground in their calls to... ›Copyright Office Denies Claim to Copyright in Generative AI Images
By: Joseph C. Gratz
The U.S. Copyright Office has denied an attempt to register copyright in images created using the Midjourney generative AI tool. The reasoning of its decision sharply limits the potential paths to receiving copyright in images created using generative AI tools, even where that output... ›Court Holds That Section 230’s Carve Out for “intellectual Property” Does Not Apply to Publicity Rights Claim in New York
By: Aaron P. Rubin and J. Alexander Lawrence
Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act provides broad immunity to online platforms for claims arising from hosting third-party content (though just how broad is a hot issue that the Supreme Court may decide this term in Gonzalez v. Google LLC ). But... ›