Category: Social Media Law

Court Requires Yelp! to ID Negative Reviewers to Determine if They Are Real Customers

The Virginia Court of Appeals recently ruled that Yelp! is required to disclose the identities of 7 anonymous posters of reviews of a business. The Court reasoned that if the reviewers are customers of the business, their opinions are protected by the First Amendment, but if they are not real customers, their reviews are false…

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Private Facebook posts are protected by the SCA unless voluntarily provided by friends with access

There may be some notion of privacy in your private Facebook wall but it is at the whim of your 498 friends — is it really? A district court recently determined that Facebook wall posts are covered by the Stored Communications Act if the privacy settings are set to limit access to only friends. However,…

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Presentation slides for Parenting Paper<less Conference on Digital Information Law Issues

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at the Parenting Paper<less – Technology and Single Parenting Conference 2013 and all I can say is the audience was amazing. I discussed the digital information law issues including social media law and intellectual property law (with a dose of contract law!). The audience was so engaged, so…

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YES, IT IS! > Is a “Like” Protected Speech? Is It Different Than Giving “The Finger”?

To answer the question I asked in a blog post about a year ago, “yes, it is”! The First Amendment does protect a Facebook “Like” as free speech. Earlier today, the United States Fourth Circuit held that a Facebook “Like” is protected speech under the First Amendment. The case is Bland v. Roberts, No. 12-1671…

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“The Streisand Effect Gone Bonkers” – trying to use copyright to silence online reviews backfired

A New York dentist had her patients sign a “mutual” agreement that, among other things, had the patient agree to not make any negative reviews of the dentist and, if she did, assigned the copyright of those reviews to the dentist. The reason for this was so, if the patient violated the agreement and made…

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Deactivating Your Facebook While in Litigation May Be Destruction of Evidence

TAKEAWAY: Deactivating your Facebook account while in litigation may be destroying evidence that could be sanctioned by the court for spoliation of evidence. In Gatto v. United Air Lines, Inc., et al., 2:10-cv-01090 (D. NJ Mar. 25, 2013), the district court entered an order finding that the Defendants would be entitled to an instruction at trial…

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Listen to Shawn Tuma discuss social media law issues for business on PlayMakers Talk Show via podcast

UPDATE: here is the podcast Shawn Tuma is a featured guest on this week’s PlayMaker’s Talk Show on 570 KLIF in Dallas, Texas. Shawn will discuss several social media law issues that are important for businesses and business owners to consider when using social media. The show airs at 4:00 p.m. today – Sunday, March…

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Doing stupid (and illegal) things and posting videos of it on social media is, well, stupid.

Forrest Gump summed it up nicely: “stupid is as stupid does.” Thank you Forrest. It looks like these teenagers just may get a chance to learn about this from their “gallon smashing” antics. Read more and watch the video: Teens accused of ‘gallon smashing’ at local store. These teens are also about to learn one of…

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WARNING: Internet Pictures of You Hunting While on Medical Leave from Work Will Kill Your Retaliatory Discharge Claim

TAKEAWAY: If you are claiming you cannot work and are on medical leave, posting pictures on the Internet of you hunting during that same time will not help your case when (yes, i said WHEN) you get fired and make a claim under the Family and Medical Leave Act for retaliatory discharge. They will kill…

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