Media Law

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  • Locking Up Reporters at the DOL

    Media and Communications Policy
    Patrick Maines
    7 May 2012 | 7:55 am
    If, like many people, you’re an investor, you are already familiar with the market-moving impact of government data, like the Department of Labor’s monthly payrolls and unemployment figures.  What you probably don’t know are the ways in which the DOL has for decades arranged for release of this information, or of their plans to change the procedure in July. In order to ensure the simultaneous release of the data, the Department conducts what they call a “press lock-up.”  It works this way: At 7:30 a.m. on the day figures are to be released, about a…

  • Rebekah Brooks To Be Charged With Conspiracy In Phone Hacking Case

    Media Law Prof Blog
    Media Law Prof
    15 May 2012 | 9:31 am
    The Guardian reports more legal problems for former News of the World and News International exec Rebekah Brooks. The Crown Prosecution Service will charge her with obstructing justice in the inquiry over phone hacking. She is accused of conspiring of...

  • The 'Mugshot Racket' II: A Commercial Purpose Exemption?

    Citizen Media Law Project
    Justin Silverman
    14 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    When Tim Donnelly, a 26-year-old job seeker, Googled his name recently he found that the first link provided was that to a mugshot of him taken seven years ago. He got into a fight as a teenager and was arrested for criminal trespass and assault. According to Donnelly, the trespass charge was dismissed and the assault charge was downgraded to disorderly conduct. "I have since learned better," he said. What bothered Donnelly wasn't the publication of his mugshot per se, but instead the companies working together to solicit payment for its removal. "I am all for having…

  • Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Ban on Political and Issue Advertisements by Public Broadcasters

    Newsroom Law Blog
    Charles Coble
    18 Apr 2012 | 10:51 am
    Last week, a federal court based in California issued a surprising and sure to be controversial decision finding the Communication Act’s ban on the airing of political and issue advertisements by public broadcasters to be a violation of their First Amendment rights.  The decision is available here.  By a two-to-one majority, the court held that the ban on all paid public issue and political speech by public broadcasters is an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech because the statute permits paid promotional messages by non-profit advertisers on these same…

  • FTC Workshop: Security and Privacy Concerns with Mobile Payment Systems, Both Perceived and Real (Part 2 of 2)

    Consumer Advertising Law Blog
    Neil Rosenbaum
    11 May 2012 | 8:44 am
    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently conducted two half-day sessions on mobile payment systems (technology that enables consumers to make payments using their mobile phones; e.g., pay for parking meters) -- Paper, Plastic… or Mobile?.  The second session featured panels on data security and consumer privacy issues surrounding this emerging capability.  We previously summarized the morning session.  Because, as the panel discussions made clear, both concerns can be addressed by technology, the real problem for mobile payment systems is likely consumer…
 
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    Citizen Media Law Project

  • The 'Mugshot Racket' II: A Commercial Purpose Exemption?

    Justin Silverman
    14 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    When Tim Donnelly, a 26-year-old job seeker, Googled his name recently he found that the first link provided was that to a mugshot of him taken seven years ago. He got into a fight as a teenager and was arrested for criminal trespass and assault. According to Donnelly, the trespass charge was dismissed and the assault charge was downgraded to disorderly conduct. "I have since learned better," he said. What bothered Donnelly wasn't the publication of his mugshot per se, but instead the companies working together to solicit payment for its removal. "I am all for having…

  • How Should We Measure Damages for Defamation Over Social Media?

    Jeffrey P. Hermes
    10 May 2012 | 2:08 pm
    On April 24, 2012, a Texas jury awarded $13.78 million to a married couple in a case based upon an extended campaign of defamation on the website Topix.com - to be specific, more than 1,700 separate statements accusing the plaintiffs of a wide array of criminal activity and, shall we say, unusual sexual practices, among other misconduct. The husband was awarded $5.1 million from one defendant and $1.7 million each from two others. The wife was separately awarded $3.168 million from the first defendant (the less-than-round number reflecting in part the value of the wife's business, which she…

  • The Score in Illinois: First Amendment 2, Eavesdropping Law 1

    Jeffrey P. Hermes
    8 May 2012 | 5:19 pm
    Once again, the CMLP is pleased to report that the First Amendment has scored an important victory in a case involving the recording of police officers in public. Last summer saw the strong pro-First Amendment decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Glik v. Cunniffe (see our coverage here); the spring of 2012 brings us another sunny (and lengthy) decision for freedom of speech from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in today's opinion in American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois v. Alvarez. (Full disclosure, and a point of pride: the CMLP, through the…

  • U.S. Marine Faces Uphill Battle in First Amendment Challenge

    Arthur Bright
    7 May 2012 | 3:44 pm
    What happens when the First Amendment collides with military decorum and respect for chain of command?   It looks like we'll get to find out as the matter of Sgt. Gary Stein, the Marine who on a Tea Party Facebook page slammed President Obama and threatened to disobey his orders, rolls ahead.  Stein got drummed out of the Corps with an other-than-honorable discharge late last month, and his lawyer promised to pursue all his options in administrative proceedings and federal court.  But does Stein really have a case? Well, he's already in trouble when it comes to one of the preeminent…

  • Jenzabar v. Long Bow: Oral Argument Focuses on Initial Interest Confusion and Search Engine Results

    Andrew F. Sellars
    3 May 2012 | 6:37 pm
    This morning Jeff and I had the pleasure of watching the Massachusetts Appeals Court argument in Jenzabar, Inc. v. Long Bow Group, Inc.  As we mentioned once before on this blog, the CMLP filed an amicus brief in this case with the assistance of Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic. (And thanks again to HLS students Mike Hoven and Andrew Pearson for their help!) The case concerns a documentary film company that released a film concerning the Tiananmen Square protests, called The Gate of Heavenly Peace. The film profiles many of the figures surrounding the protest, and is critical of a…
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    Newsroom Law Blog

  • Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Ban on Political and Issue Advertisements by Public Broadcasters

    Charles Coble
    18 Apr 2012 | 10:51 am
    Last week, a federal court based in California issued a surprising and sure to be controversial decision finding the Communication Act’s ban on the airing of political and issue advertisements by public broadcasters to be a violation of their First Amendment rights.  The decision is available here.  By a two-to-one majority, the court held that the ban on all paid public issue and political speech by public broadcasters is an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech because the statute permits paid promotional messages by non-profit advertisers on these same…

  • CNN Must Defend Lawsuit over Online Captioning

    Charles Coble
    18 Apr 2012 | 9:19 am
    A California court recently ruled that a lawsuit in which a group representing deaf citizens contended that CNN must provide captioning for videos uploaded to its website may proceed.  The group, The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, brought suit under the California's Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Disabled Person's Act.  The court's decision is available here. CNN responded to the suit by moving to dismiss under California's Anti-SLAPP statute, Section 425.16 of the California Code of Civil Procedure, contending that the claims arise from its…

  • Primary Lineup Set in North Carolina

    Charles Coble
    21 Mar 2012 | 11:32 am
    The primary election in North Carolina is Tuesday, May 8, 2012, with a second primary (if needed) being either June 26 or July 17The second primary will be June 26 if no second primary is needed for U.S. Representative races and it will be July 17 if there is a second primary for those federal races.  Since there are a number of multi-candidate primaries in the Congressional races, odds are that the second primary will be July 17  If no candidate receives 40% of the vote in the first primary, the second-place finisher can--but doesn't have to--call for a second primary. We have…

  • FCC Denies Political Advertising Complaint

    Elizabeth Spainhour
    10 Feb 2012 | 8:48 am
    In the final hours of the last business day before the Super Bowl, the Chief of the FCC's Media Bureau released an order denying the "reasonable access" complaint of Randall Terry against a Chicago television station. Terry's campaign had been seeking to place ad buys on stations around the country leading up to and during the game.  He claimed he was a "legally qualified candidate" for the Democratic nomination for President. The ads featured disturbing images of aborted fetuses that would be potentially disturbing to some audiences. As we wrote…

  • Photojournalist Has No Privacy Protection Act Claim Where Search Was Supported By Probable Cause

    Elizabeth Spainhour
    1 Feb 2012 | 1:05 pm
    In a decision released this week, a panel of the Fourth Circuit affirmed the decision of the Eastern District of Virginia holding that a photojournalist had no claim under the federal Privacy Protection Act for a search of the journalist’s home conducted pursuant to a warrant, where law officers had  probable cause to believe the journalist was involved in a crime. The plaintiff in Sennett v. U.S., No. 11-1421 (4th Cir. Jan. 30, 2012), was a photojournalist who routinely covered protests, political demonstrations, and acts of “grassroots activism” and…
 
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    Consumer Advertising Law Blog

  • FTC Workshop: Security and Privacy Concerns with Mobile Payment Systems, Both Perceived and Real (Part 2 of 2)

    Neil Rosenbaum
    11 May 2012 | 8:44 am
    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently conducted two half-day sessions on mobile payment systems (technology that enables consumers to make payments using their mobile phones; e.g., pay for parking meters) -- Paper, Plastic… or Mobile?.  The second session featured panels on data security and consumer privacy issues surrounding this emerging capability.  We previously summarized the morning session.  Because, as the panel discussions made clear, both concerns can be addressed by technology, the real problem for mobile payment systems is likely consumer…

  • FTC Workshop: Introduction to Mobile Payment Systems (Part 1 of 2)

    Neil Rosenbaum
    7 May 2012 | 8:30 am
    This is the first of a two-part series on the FTC’s April 26 workshop on mobile payments, Paper, Plastic… or Mobile?  Mobile payments is an umbrella term which includes alternative payment technologies that enable consumers to pay for products using their mobile phones. The morning session involved a panel discussion of industry participants with representatives from Google, MasterCard, Intuit, LevelUp, the National Consumer Law Center, and academia.  An overarching theme of the morning session was that mobile payment systems are in a nascent stage and while they will have a…

  • Green Millionaire to Pay Millions: FTC Settles With Marketer Over Negative Option Program

    Neil Rosenbaum
    1 May 2012 | 8:25 am
    “FREE!” shouted advertisements for the Green Millionaire Book.  “This free offer won’t last,” so you’d better “GET YOUR FREE BOOK TODAY!”  Reasonable people might conclude that the book in question was free.  Not so free, according to the FTC, which charged Green Millionaire, LLC and its co-defendants with failing to disclose adequately the true cost of the offer before enrolling consumers who accepted the offer in a negative option program.  In a negative option, sellers interpret consumers' silence or inaction as permission to continue charging…

  • Whaddaya Think About Arbitration? The CFPB Wants to Know

    Neil Rosenbaum
    30 Apr 2012 | 8:04 am
    Acting on powers it received in the Dodd-Frank Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has opened the public comment period to gather views regarding the use of arbitration agreements “in connection with the offering or providing of consumer financial products or services.”  The CFPB seeks comments by June 23, 2012, regarding the prevalence of arbitration clauses in consumer financial products and services; the types of claims brought by and against consumers in the financial services context; the effects on consumers and financial services companies of actual arbitrations;…

  • GE Foods: To Label or Not to Label - That is the Question (Again)

    Neil Rosenbaum
    26 Apr 2012 | 2:11 pm
    Right or wrong, scientifically-based or not, the labeling of genetically engineered foods (GE foods) - often, and erroneously, referred to as GMO foods - remains a topic on the mind of activists and legislatures across the country.    In October 2011, the Center for Food Safety (not to be confused with FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition), and other nonprofit organizations, filed a citizens’ petition with the US Food and Drug Administration seeking mandatory labeling for foods made from genetically engineered crops. Similar groups launched a “Just Label…
 
 
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    Media and Communications Policy

  • Locking Up Reporters at the DOL

    Patrick Maines
    7 May 2012 | 7:55 am
    If, like many people, you’re an investor, you are already familiar with the market-moving impact of government data, like the Department of Labor’s monthly payrolls and unemployment figures.  What you probably don’t know are the ways in which the DOL has for decades arranged for release of this information, or of their plans to change the procedure in July. In order to ensure the simultaneous release of the data, the Department conducts what they call a “press lock-up.”  It works this way: At 7:30 a.m. on the day figures are to be released, about a…

  • The Boston Debate League and the Boston Marathon

    Patrick Maines
    4 Apr 2012 | 2:40 pm
    One of the most intractable and tragic aspects of American life is the plight of so many urban youth. The societal cost of this state of affairs is great; the human costs incalculable.  In the midst of the despair, however, sometimes come programs that make a difference. An example that became the basis of the 2005 documentary, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” is the New York City public schools program that teaches ballroom dancing to fifth graders from different parts of the city. Another example is the Boston Debate League, an organization that works with the Boston public schools to…

  • Free Speech Is Real Loser in Rush Kerfuffle

    Patrick Maines
    27 Mar 2012 | 7:00 am
    Is it appropriate to defend free speech even when it’s harsh or degrading?  Whatever their political views, do people have a right to express them?  Not for the first time, such questions are being debated in the court of public opinion. The proximate reason for the debate, this month, is some nasty things said about a law student by Rush Limbaugh, a man who – like Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore, Bill O’Reilly, Ed Schultz, Michael Savage, and Bill Maher – makes his living by saying provocative and sometimes ugly things through the media of TV,…

  • The Koch Brothers' Designs on Cato

    Patrick Maines
    19 Mar 2012 | 8:00 am
    Political gift giving, whether in support of candidates for public office or ideologically active nonprofit organizations, is fraught with the risk that activists of a different stripe (or journalists who are themselves of a different stripe) may take offense and retaliate.  Such has been the experience of the wealthy Koch brothers, Charles and David, two long-time funders of libertarian policies, politicians, and organizations who have been attacked without surcease by activists and journalists for about two years.   In part, of course, attacks on them have happened because…

  • Republican Criticism of the Media (and Why It's Ignored)

    Patrick Maines
    6 Mar 2012 | 11:58 am
    Imagine that you’re the head of a consumer products company, and it’s revealed to you that about half the people in the country don’t like some aspect of your product.  Is there any chance that you wouldn’t try to address that problem? It is, of course, a rhetorical question.  So what, then, explains why the CEOs of the parent companies of the so-called mainstream media (MSM) – whose news operations are seen by Republicans as politically biased – do nothing about it?   Several theories come to mind: It’s not a new problem; the…
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    Student Press Law Center

  • TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Rise in student loan defaults illustrates human toll of economic statistics

    Frank LoMonte
    15 May 2012 | 4:22 pm
    It’s important, and relevant, to tell the story about the continued employment difficulty facing new college graduates. One way to add depth to the story is to look at the rate at which grads are defaulting on their college loans, which is a pretty good indicator that they’re unemployed or under-employed. Fortunately, several organizations already [...]

  • Tennessee school board vows “investigation” of yearbook over gay student’s profile story

    Frank LoMonte
    10 May 2012 | 11:18 am
    Responding to fierce public criticism, the Lenoir City, Tenn., school board is investigating the decision to publish an article in the 2012 Lenoir City High School yearbook in which a student describes his decision to come out publicly as gay. Today’s Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that, during a discussion of the yearbook article at Wednesday’s board meeting, Chairwoman [...]

  • TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: “That’s personnel” is rarely the right response

    Frank LoMonte
    8 May 2012 | 10:04 pm
    How public employees are performing their jobs (or whether they’re showing up at all) would appear to be pretty essential information for journalists (or just inquisitive citizens) to figure out whether government agencies are, or aren’t, working effectively. It’s long been the case, however, that personnel information is some of the toughest information to obtain [...]

  • The College of Arts and… What? Licking libel — no butts about it.

    Frank LoMonte
    7 May 2012 | 9:46 pm
    As a professor of comparative literature, Cornell University’s Walter Cohen undoubtedly has read some pretty racy texts in his time. Nevertheless, it had to be momentarily startling to read in Friday’s Cornell Daily Sun that he’d been named associate dean of the College of Arts and [VERY BAD WORD]. The newspaper’s red-faced explanation? An interloper [...]

  • TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Private campus, public records — SMU’s Daily Campus puts on a clinic on covering sexual assaults, athletics spending

    Frank LoMonte
    1 May 2012 | 7:25 pm
    If your campus newspaper broke the story that big-name athletic director, recruited and paid top dollar to build a major-conference powerhouse, had helped instead dig the athletic program into an $18.6 million yearly deficit, you’d think you had a pretty strong semester. For the staff of The Daily Campus at Southern Methodist University, it might [...]
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    Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union

  • New Proof of an Old Fear: Execution of the Innocent

    Suzanne Ito
    15 May 2012 | 3:58 pm
    The State of Texas, long the nation's leader in executions, has now earned the dubious title of the state most likely to execute the innocent. In 2004, Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham, despite compelling evidence that he was actually innocent of the arson which caused the death of his three small children. Now, newly assembled evidence suggests that Carlos DeLuna, executed by Texas in 1989, was also innocent. A team of researchers from Columbia Law School today released a new report about DeLuna's case, Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction. The full report, along…

  • 16 and Solitary: Texas Jails Isolate Children

    Suzanne Ito
    15 May 2012 | 2:06 pm
    Imagine locking a teenager in a bathroom for an entire day, a week, a month, six months, a year, or longer. What would happen to that child? She would miss school. She wouldn't be able to exercise or burn off energy in a healthy way. She wouldn't be able to interact with other kids or adults. She would probably have a mental breakdown. She might even hurt herself. If a parent treated a child this way, most of us would agree that such actions would constitute child abuse. In Texas county jails — and the majority of jails across the country — such treatment is simply a matter of…

  • Rhode Island's Rightful Stand Against the Federal Government

    Suzanne Ito
    15 May 2012 | 1:44 pm
    Last week, the Rhode Island ACLU announced its disappointment with a federal circuit court's decision overturning Gov. Lincoln Chafee's efforts to prevent the institution of federal death penalty charges against Jason Wayne Pleau, whom Rhode Island was already prosecuting in state court. We join that sentiment here. Pleau has been charged with the robbery and murder of a gas station manager who was making a bank deposit. Rhode Island, like every other state, has laws designating these crimes as murder and robbery, courts in which to prosecute the crimes and prosecutors and defense attorneys…

  • In Massachusetts, A Registry of Everywhere You’ve Ever Driven?

    Jay Stanley
    15 May 2012 | 12:46 pm
    Back in the fall of 2010, I was perusing the Massachusetts state public safety website when I came upon an interesting notice. The state had received nearly a half a million dollars from the federal Department of Transportation for the purchase and distribution of automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) systems for state and local police. And there was one detail there that really surprised me. It was the first I’d heard of the technology, so I had to do a little digging. A cursory internet search revealed that police and the organizations that represent them, like the International…

  • The First Amendment Applies to Foreign Service Officers, Too

    Suzanne Ito
    15 May 2012 | 12:12 pm
    Today, the ACLU told the State Department that public employees don't give up their First Amendment rights in exchange for a job with the government. We sent a letter to the State Department on behalf of Peter Van Buren, a State Department employee who is being punished for publicly criticizing the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq. He has written extensively on the program's problems, and is now in the process of being fired. Our letter advises the State Department that its actions violate Mr. Van Buren's freedom of speech and urges the department to reverse course immediately. Mr. Van…
 
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    media law news - Google News

  • Council of Europe maintains “serious concerns” over Hungary media law - Politics.hu

    16 May 2012 | 4:03 am
    Council of Europe maintains “serious concerns” over Hungary media lawPolitics.huBy MTI Serious concerns remain over Hungary's media law but amendment proposals submitted to parliament are welcome, Thorbjorn Jagland, the Council of Europe's (CoE) head, said on Tuesday. Jagland told MTI by phone that he would soon send a reply to Council of Europe says Hungary must do more on media lawExpatica Franceall 2 news articles »

  • Leveson inquiry: Jack Straw gives evidence - The Guardian (blog)

    16 May 2012 | 3:57 am
    The Guardian (blog)Leveson inquiry: Jack Straw gives evidenceThe Guardian (blog) not looking to criminalise any conduct that is not currently against the law." Robert Jay QC says Straw was faced with a "double-pincer movement" from media executives and because of the time constraints of getting the bill through parliament.and more »

  • Georgia militiaman accuses law enforcers of setting him up for assassination - Knoxville News Sentinel

    16 May 2012 | 3:18 am
    Georgia militiaman accuses law enforcers of setting him up for assassinationKnoxville News SentinelBy Jamie Satterfield Given a chance Tuesday to plead for mercy, a Georgia militiaman convicted in a plot to take over a Monroe County courthouse instead railed against the "mainstream media" and accused law enforcers of setting him up for assassination and more »

  • Burma: President Creates Interim Press Council - Eurasia Review

    15 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Burma: President Creates Interim Press CouncilEurasia ReviewBy Ko Htwe An interim press council will form in June following a presidential order aimed at dealing with media regulations before the country's new media law is adopted. Government's Information Minister Kyaw Hsan instructed representatives from and more »

  • Judge slams media as international custody dispute returns to court - Sydney Morning Herald

    15 May 2012 | 8:55 pm
    Sydney Morning HeraldJudge slams media as international custody dispute returns to courtSydney Morning Herald''That particular media outlet based in this city has clearly broken the law,'' he said. Although not named in court today, The Courier-Mail yesterday and today published photographs of the girls on its front page. In a written statement, Courier-Mail and more »
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    Media Law Journal

  • Siemer loses again

    Steven
    13 May 2012 | 5:21 pm
    The Court of Appeal has dismissed Vince Siemer’s appeal against being held in contempt for posting a suppressed judgment about the Urewera case. (I discussed the High Court decision here, predicting this appeal and this outcome). Of interest to trainspotters is the way the Court of Appeal has grounded the court’s ability to suppress parts of a judgment in its inherent powers (possessed by District Court judges as well as High Court judges, and allowing them to manage the proceedings to ensure fairness). That’s in contradistinction to inherent jurisdiction - extra powers…

  • Parole prisoners gagged

    Steven
    13 May 2012 | 4:38 pm
    I see from today’s story about convicted rapist Brad Shipton that one of his parole conditions is that he give no interviews (presumably to the media). I guess this is to protect victims from anguish caused by what he might say. But I have to say, that seems an extreme restriction on his speech rights. It seems that he could not, for example, criticise the conditions in prison, or argue that his conviction was procedurally flawed. I rather suspect that, as usual, no-one has thought hard about this, and in particular, considered whether this plain restriction on his right to freedom of…

  • Media regulation seminar

    Steven
    17 Apr 2012 | 11:38 pm
    If you’re interested in new media (and old media) regulation, mark this down in your calendar. The Legal Research Foundation has organised a seminar to discuss the issues arising from the Law Commission’s The News Media meets ‘New Media’ issues paper (which I commented on here). It’s to be held on 1 May from 12:15 at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland. The line-up includes Professor John Burrows and Cate Brett from the Law Commission, Barry Patterson, the Chair of the Press Council, Clare Bradley from TV3, Martin Crocker from Netsafe, and yours truly. (Where’s…

  • Copywrongs

    Steven
    6 Apr 2012 | 9:03 pm
    It seems that pretty much all the discussion about copyright these days is about the new online infringement laws. But I want to talk about another copyright issue that I think poses, on paper anyway, a bigger threat to free speech: the surprisingly narrow reach of our fair dealing defences. I say “on paper” because copyright gets flouted all the time and usually without any consequence whatsoever. If someone gets into the news, newspapers don’t hesitate to filch a photo from their Facebook page. If anyone complains, they offer a couple of hundred dollars. Who’s going to sue? Bloggers…

  • Thanks all the same

    Steven
    6 Apr 2012 | 8:55 pm
    Apparently Paul Dacre, editor of the wildly popular but staggeringly awful British tabloid the Daily Mail, likes NZ. This from a very interesting New Yorker article on the paper: According to one editor, Dacre is enamored with New Zealand: “He thinks it’s like Britain from the nineteen-fifties.”
 
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    Shear on Social Media Law

  • SNOPA (HR 5050) May Protect Insurance Companies From Schools and Businesses That Demand Access To Personal Password Protected Social Media Accounts

    8 May 2012 | 10:46 am
    I have written how the Social Networking Online Protection Act (HR 5050) may benefit employees, job applicants, employers, students, student applicants, and schools. Now, I am going to explain how HR 5050 may benefit insurance companies.Does the insurance industry realize that multiple schools are creating a massive database of their students' password protected social media content and activities? With access to all of this data these schools may become responsible for everything their students do online and everything that is referenced online and/or inferred online that may occur in the…

  • Colleges & Schools That Force Their Students To Facebook Friend Them May Be Violating the Stored Communications Act

    6 May 2012 | 12:12 pm
    Any school or university that requires its students to Facebook Friend a coach, a school administrator, or a third party in order for their students to keep their scholarships, participate in intercollegiate athletics, etc... may be violating the Stored Communications Act (SCA). Under the Stored Communications Act, forced Facebook Friending may be against the law. Since the SCA was enacted in 1986, before the existence of modern social media, the Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOPA) is needed to catch up with modern technology. Any school or university employee who believes that it…

  • Maryland's Facebook Username and Password Law is a Win For Employers, Employees, and Job Applicants

    2 May 2012 | 10:23 pm
    Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed into law today legislation that makes Maryland the first state to ban employers from requiring employees or job applicants to provide access to their personal digital/social media accounts. While Maryland is the first state to enact this type of legislation, California along with other states and the federal government may soon follow Maryland's lead.Senate Bill 433 is a huge win for the business community because it may provide Maryland businesses with a legal liability shield from plaintiffs who may allege that businesses have a legal duty to monitor…

  • SNOPA: The Social Networking Online Protection Act

    27 Apr 2012 | 11:08 am
    The Social Networking Online Protection Act was introduced today by Congressman Elliot Engel of New York. The bill would ban employers and schools from requiring access to password protected digital content. The bill is a win for businesses, schools, and privacy. The bill would protect businesses and schools from creating a legal duty to monitor password protected digital content. Therefore, the bill protects businesses, schools, and taxpayers. In addition, the bill is a win for employees, job applicants, students, and student applicants because it protects them from being required to provide…

  • Occupy Wall Street Public Tweets Subpoena Decision May Have A Troubling Analysis

    23 Apr 2012 | 8:39 pm
    A judge ruled earlier today that deleted public tweets may be used as evidence in an Occupy Wall Street protestor's trial. While I generally agree with the main point of this decision that public Tweets are fair game, some of the analysis behind the decision may be very troubling.Once a Tweet is public to the entire world you don't have an expectation of privacy even if the Tweet has been deleted. Former Congressman Anthony Weiner learned the hard way (no pun intended) that once you post something publicly you have no expectation of privacy. However, if one has a protected Twitter account…
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