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.

December 18, 2014 - Online Promotions
What Are the Rules of the Advergame in the UK?
Advergames are online video games that are created in order to promote a brand, product or organization by immersing a marketing message within the game. They are typically accessed via an organization’s website or app, or via a social media platform. Advergames are not
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December 18, 2014 - Cloud Computing
Negotiating Cloud Contracts
By: Alistair Maughan
The cloud computing market is evolving rapidly. New as a service (aaS) platforms are appearing and the dichotomy between public and private cloud domains has been fractured into many different shades of hybrid cloud alternatives. And while many of the key issues – privacy
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December 03, 2014 - FTC
FTC Enforcement Action Confirms That Ad Disclosure Obligations Extend to Endorsements Made in Social Media
By: Julie O'Neill
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has once again made good on its promise to enforce against deceptive advertising under Section 5 of the FTC Act, regardless of the media in which the advertising appears : Its recently announced proposed complaint and draft settlement with
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November 25, 2014 - Online Promotions, IP
Mark Your Calendar: Dec. 4th Digital Media Bootcamp for NYC Area Lawyers & Artists
The Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts will be presenting an all-day “bootcamp” covering digital media and related legal issues on Thursday, December 4, 2014, at Morrison & Foerster LLP’s New York office. The courses will be directed to both attorneys and artists, and will
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November 24, 2014 - Terms of Use, Litigation
Forced to Cyber-Spy: Court Rules Parents Can Be Held Negligent for Child’s Facebook Activity
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Are parents now liable for what their kids post to Facebook? According to a recent decision in the Georgia Court of Appeals, they are. The Georgia Court of Appeals held that the parents of a seventh-grade student could be found negligent for failing to
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November 24, 2014 - Terms of Use
Facebook Dislikes Fake Likes
Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it can buy phony Facebook “likes.” And those can go a long way toward making a small business owner’s dreams come true, right? Wrong, explains Facebook site integrity engineer Matt Jones in a recent post
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November 19, 2014 - Privacy
Big Data: Big Business, Big Privacy Issues
Big data is now big business. In recent years, due to the exponential growth of databases (spurred at least in part by social media and cloud storage) and of the capability of technology to undertake data analytics on a massive scale, organisations have started
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November 18, 2014 - Trademark
Monkey Selfie Redux
When we last examined the intellectual property issues raised by a self-portrait taken by a talented female Indonesian crested black macaque—popularly known as the “Monkey Selfie”—we concluded that there was unlikely to be any copyright protection in the work, under either U.S. law or
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November 17, 2014 - Online Promotions
R.I.P.: The Facebook “Like” Gate
By: Anthony M. Ramirez
Do you still “like” me? Companies with Facebook Pages will find themselves asking that question of their followers over the next few weeks, as Facebook brings an end to the popular practice of offering discounts, exclusive content and other incentives in exchange for liking a Page.
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November 13, 2014 - Copyright
Ninth Circuit to Reconsider the Curious Copyright Case Requiring YouTube to Take Down All Copies of Anti-Islamic Film
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
Earlier this year, Socially Aware noted a peculiar decision out of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that an actress owns a copyright interest in her five-second performance in a film and thus could demand the removal of all copies of the film
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