Social Media

Complying With the FTC's Disclosure Requirements

If you have a relationship with a company that needs to be disclosed, then you should do so in a "clear and conspicuous" manner. Don't put it in small print or hide it away on a backwater page on your website. You want readers to easily notice the disclosure, and you want them to understand it. So make the disclosure clear and unambiguous so it can be understood by the average reader.

CMLP Publishes Guide to Live-Blogging and Tweeting from Court

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As part of our legal guide series on documenting public proceedings and events, today we published a guide to Live-Blogging and Tweeting from Court.  Over the past year, we've published guides addressing how to stay out of legal trouble while

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Live-Blogging and Tweeting From Court: Experiences From the Field

In conjunction with our legal guide on live-blogging and tweeting from court, the CMLP staff conducted interviews with journalists and bloggers with experience live-blogging or tweeting from court.

The following accounts are summaries of the interviews and include individual experiences from journalists detailing: successful and unsucessful attempts, correspondence with judicial staff and courthouse officials, general observations, and other practical issues encountered.

Office Space Star Ron Livingston Sues Wikipedia Prankster, Community Norms At Issue

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Maybe I'm a big dork, but I think Office Space is a totally hilarious movie.  And based on his starring role in the film, I would assume that actor Ron Livingston has a pretty good sense of humor.  But apparently not so, at least when it comes to web 2.0 technologies and his personal life.

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The Library Police: Why a Shortage of Bandwidth is Turning Librarians into Traffic Cops

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For a time, few issues could rally nerds as effectively as net neutrality.

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One of the Classic Blunders: Microsoft’s De-Listing Campaign Makes No Sense

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Before the Thanksgiving holiday, Microsoft held talks with News Corp. in an attempt to convince the titan of information to de-list its content from Google.

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Smith-Green Community School Corp. v. T.V. & M.K. (minors)

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Date: 

01/01/2009

Threat Type: 

Disciplinary Action

Party Receiving Legal Threat: 

T.V.; M.K.

Type of Party: 

School

Type of Party: 

Individual

Court Type: 

Federal

Court Name: 

United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana

Case Number: 

1:09-cv-00290

Legal Counsel: 

W Eric Weber-Mefford & Webber P.C.

Legal Counsel: 

Kenneth Falk-ACLU Indiana

Legal Claims: 

None

Web Site(s) Involved: 

MySpace

Publication Medium: 

Social Network

Relevant Documents: 

PDF icon Complaint.pdf

Status: 

Pending

Disposition: 

Lawsuit Filed

Description: 

High School Principal Austin Couch suspended two female high school sophomores from participating in extracurricular athletics after Couch obtained sexually-suggestive photos that the students took of themselves and posted to MySpace.  The students, T.V. and M.K., subsequently filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana alleging First Amendment violations by Couch and the Smith-County Community School Corporation, which operates the high school.

According to their complaint, T.V. and M.K. took photos of themselves at a slumber party in the summer before the 2009-2010 school year, including photos pretending to kiss and lick a novelty phallus-shaped lollypop and wearing lingerie with dollar bills stuck in their clothes.  After the students posted these photos to their MySpace pages, an unknown person gave them to Couch, who suspended the students from all extracurricular activities during the school year, including athletics.  The students agreed to attend three counseling sessions and apologize to an all-male panel of coaches in order to reduce their suspension to 25% of their fall extracurricular activities.

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1-High

Sorry Jack Thompson, Your Comprehension of Section 230 Is in Another Castle!

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On this blog, I typically write about frivolous or ill-considered lawsuits. In the long, long ago, before I came to law school, I wrote about video games.

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Australia's Facebook Five and the Right to Whinge About Your Boss Online

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It's hard to be a prison guard in Australia, and not just because the entire country is a penal colony — zing!  Apparently you run the risk of being fired for griping about your job in a private Facebook group, even if other corrections officers are the only ones reading your complaint.  Such is the threat looming over those officers whom the Australian press has dubbed

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The Judge Would Like to Be Your "Friend"

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I'm always pleased to see judges embracing new technology.  And it's not just because, as an aspiring lawyer and a Webby, techie guy, my ability to find a job in this economy may depend on it.  I really do believe that technology can help judges do their jobs better.

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Florida Nukes the Fridge: Facebook, the Bar, and the Latest Entry in the Social Network Hijacking Saga

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It’s rarely a good sign when a series grows beyond a trilogy.

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Judge Issues Opinion Overturning Lori Drew's Conviction

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As originally reported by Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy, a federal district judge in California issued an opinion on Friday overturning the jury verdict finding Lori Drew guilty of a misdemeanor violation of the Computer Fraud

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Southeastern Conference Sacks Social Media, Then Recovers

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Responding to a storm of criticism, the 12-university Southeastern Conference was forced to back away from proposed rules which would have prohibited fans from blogging, Twittering, instant messaging, or otherwise disseminating "any material or information about [its sports competitions], including, but not limited to, any account, description,

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Out of the Frying Pan and into the Mildly Uncomfortable Sauna: The Not-So-Bad-But-Still-Unconstitutional Social Networking Ban

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The New Intellectual Arms Trade: Amazon and B&N as Literary God-Emperors

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When we were kids, we couldn’t wait for the future to hurry up and get here. Flying cars, pills for food, conveyor belts, the works.

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