Social Media Law Update : Intellectual Property, Advertising and Video Game Law: Sheppard Mullin Lawyers & Attorneys

By Craig Cardon and Rachel Tarko Hudson

Occupy protesters in New York are attempting to quash the Manhattan District Attorney's subpoenas of their tweets and Twitter account information. The protesters were arrested for obstructing the Brooklyn Bridge during a protest in October. The District Attorney wants to use the tweets to show that the protesters knew their actions were not sanctioned by the police. The D.A. is also attempting to obtain account information in order to connect anonymous Twitter accounts to their real owners. The protesters' motions argue that the subpoenas violate their privacy rights and their right to speak anonymously.

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By Michelle Sherman

The world is closely watching a federal case in the Northern District of California where a mobile news and reviews resource company, PhoneDog, is suing a former employee Noah Kravitz (or independent contractor, depending on what news report you read) over who owns a Twitter account that was started in association with PhoneDog, and is now being used by Kravitz as his own Twitter account. The issues drawing so much attention include who owns a social media account – the employee who posts on it, or the employer on whose behalf the employee was posting. The other issue is what value, if any, can be placed on Twitter followers (or, by analogy Facebook likes), when social media attracts people who are portable and not "owned" by the social media account. 

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By Michelle Sherman

Everywhere we turn, someone is blogging about something. We have come to expect that we will get much of our news through one form of web media or another. Many people subscribe to a certain web sites because the posts are in line with how they view the world. They may want a perspective that is viewed as extremely liberal or conservative. Like mainstream newspapers, blogs are selling advertising space. Blog posts are also drawing national attention to people and issues.
 

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By Michelle Sherman

Web businesses have fueled the natural cynicism that consumers have when reading online reviews. There are too many reported instances of businesses or PR firms using employees or paid reviewers to post glowing reviews, and, in addition, mark as unhelpful negative reviews of their respective businesses.
 

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