Socially Aware

February 03, 2013 - Privacy, Employment Law, Litigation
Socially Aware Looks Back: The Social Media Law Year in Review
2012 was a momentous year for social media law. We’ve combed through the court decisions, the legislative initiatives, the regulatory actions and the corporate trends to identify what we believe to be the ten most significant social media law developments of the past year–here
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January 23, 2013 - Trademark, Privacy, Copyright, IP, Litigation
Be Wary of Sharing: Anonymous P2P User’s Motion to Quash Subpoena Denied
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing system that enables the quick downloading of large files, has sparked another novel controversy stemming from copyright-infringement claims brought against its users. Users take advantage of the BitTorrent sharing system to anonymously access popular media such as books and
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January 17, 2013 - Privacy, Litigation
Jailbreak: U.S. Google Executives’ Italian Convictions Overturned
On December 21, 2012, the third Milan appeals court acquitted three U.S.-based Google executives who had previously been convicted for breaches of Italian data protection law after Google failed to remove an abusive video from its Google Video site. The video, which showed schoolboys
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January 08, 2013 - Litigation
Facebook ’em, Danno: Federal Court May Decide Whether Citizens Have First Amendment Right to Use Social Media to Publicly Criticize the Hawaii 5-0
By: Jessica Kaufman
On top of a presidential election, protests over Instagram’s terms of use, and the invention of gloves that can translate sign language, 2012 also brought to light interesting constitutional issues involving public entities’ use of social media when a citizens’ group filed suit against
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December 16, 2012 - Trademark, Section 230 Safe Harbor, IP, Litigation
Google AdWords Decision Highlights Contours of the CDA Section 230 Safe Harbor
In a string of cases against Google, approximately 20 separate plaintiffs have claimed that, through advertisements on its AdWords service, Google engaged in trademark infringement. These claims have been based on Google allowing its advertisers to use their competitors’ trademarks in Google-generated online advertisements.
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December 09, 2012 - FCC, Litigation
FCC Rules That Opt-Out Confirmation Text Messages Do Not Violate the TCPA
By: Tiffany Cheung and Julie O'Neill
Waves of class actions have recently alleged that the delivery of an opt-out confirmation text message violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Thus, a Federal Communications Commission (“Commission”) Declaratory Ruling finding that a single opt-out confirmation text does not violate the TCPA comes
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December 05, 2012 - Litigation
PeopleBrowsr Wins Round One Against Twitter
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
The Superior Court of the State of California has entered a temporary restraining order requiring Twitter to continue to provide PeopleBrowsr with access to the Firehose, Twitter’s complete stream of all public tweets. Through the Firehose, Twitter provides third-party access to over 400 million
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December 03, 2012 - Litigation
Which Side Are You On? Employers and Employees Battle Over Ownership of Social Media Accounts
When an employee uses a social media account to promote his or her company, who keeps that account when the employee leaves? Perhaps more importantly, who keeps the friends, followers and connections associated with that account? Three lawsuits highlight the challenges an employer may
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November 01, 2012 - Terms of Use, Litigation
That’s a Wrap: Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble
Website operators often take for granted the enforceability of their websites’ terms of service. In a recent order issued in a case from the Central District of California, Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble, Inc. , Judge Josephine Tucker reminds us that such presumptions are
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October 26, 2012 - Trademark, DMCA, Copyright, IP, Litigation
Born to Mock: Trademark Holder’s Fight to Remove Mark on Kitsch Merchandise May Have Broad Legal Implications
By: Jessica Kaufman
Popular online marketplace CafePress.com suffered a legal setback recently when a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York denied CafePress’s motion for summary judgment against claims of trademark infringement. CafePress operates an online “print on demand” service that allows users to
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