Gerry Rogers Removed From Assembly – The Dark Side of Social Media

I was perusing Techdirt, as I often do, and read a story I simply couldn’t  ignore about a Canadian politician who was removed from assembly for something that she simply did not do.  Gerry Rogers, a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly, was removed from Assembly when it was learned that she was part of a Facebook group targeting Premier Kathy Dunderdale called “Kathy Dunderdale must GO!!!”.  The group page evidently contained death threats regarding Dunderdale.  Rogers denied joining this group, saying that she was added to the group without her knowledge.

Casey Movers Demonstrates How Not to Handle a Bad Online Review

It is inevitable in the lifespan of any company, it will receive bad reviews online.  While the source of those negative reviews can be from competitors or trolls, most often those reviews come from legitimate customers with gripes.  Casey Movers did numerous other businesses a favor and offered a lesson on what happens when you address a legitimate online review that is negative the wrong way.

House (Mis)fires First Shot in Battle over Employer Access to Facebook Passwords

While at least one Senator is drafting a bill to stop the “unreasonable invasion of privacy” resulting from employer access to your Facebook page, the House has rejected a similar proposal from Colorado Representative Ed Perlmutter.  The measure would have prevented employers from collecting Facebook user names and passwords as a condition of employment.  The law was added as an amendment to the FCC Reform Act Bill, but was shot down 236-184. Republican opposition spelled disaster for the amendment, though it’s not clear whether House Republicans were genuinely opposed to the legislation or simply did not want to address the matter as part of the FCC Bill (which incidentally, they passed later that day).

As this blog has reported previously, Facebook is vehemently opposed to employers gaining access to employee pages. However, presumably because Facebook lacks the legal and technical capacity to stop the practice, Facebook (and its user base) has been ratcheting up the pressure on Congress to do something.

Given the attention on this issue, it’s practically certain that these measures will be reintroduced in future legislation. We’ll no doubt be blogging about these developments, so check back with us for updates as this saga unfolds.

By Stephen Ramaley, Esq.

Five For Friday: The Waterlogged Edition

The torrential rains in the DC area this past week culminated with a late night escapade amidst a driving rain into my home’s crawl space to pump about a foot of water.

That being said, we never lost internet connectivity (through that, Irene, or the earthquake), so we are able to present this week’s Five For Friday.

First, it is becoming increasingly clear that (for better or for worse) IP addresses are not the silver bullet in identifying potential infringers accused of unlawfully downloading copyrighted works.  It will be interesting to see if the industries’ strategy changes course.

Second, a new week = a new social media platform.  This one, Mightybell is counter-intuitive.  Here is why.

Stories From This Past Week You Don’t Want to Miss

For being the last week of summer, last week was pretty busy.  Let’s take a quick look:

• First, as I posted last night, a blogger was held liable for blogging the truth. Have no fear, this seems like a decision destined to be overturned on appeal.
• The ongoing trademark saga between a little known author and the Texas DoT made for some interesting reading.  We have the story here and our analysis here (Why you can sometimes “Mess with Texas”).
• Groupon’s CEO sent out a meandering memo to his staff defending his company.  We later learned that that very memorandum may delay Groupon’s IPO.
• My firm sued Verizon business.  The story is here.
• What bothers me about Yelp.
• Another silly case, an embarrassed substitute teacher, and our initial take on the Protect IP Act.

We’ll have more in a bit.

Can bloggers be liable in a court for blogging the truth?

I know this is a question that many bloggers have.  In fact, I have been approached by a few asking that very question.

My answer is pretty simple and elaborated as part of a guest blogging spot last week.

Now comes a case with a result I had never seen before-a Plaintiff was awarded $60,000 in a case against a blogger even though the blogger was telling the truth.

Five for Friday: To Like or Not to Like….That is the Question!

Well, we all made it through another week – even if it was just barely.  I had a pretty busy week, traveling to Dallas for depositions, and giving a presentation today for the ABA on the geolocation tracking controversy.  You can order the CD-ROM by going here.  My co-presenters were excellent and offered insight on addition emerging issues.  Alternatively, I would be happy to e-mail you a copy of my portion of the presentation.  Just drop me a line.

Ready for our weekly Five for Friday?  I know I am!

First, in case you did not know it already, Germany has very strict privacy laws.  How strict you ask?  So strict that Facebook’s “Like” button violates it.  It appears the decision to essentially unlike the like button stemmed from two factors because the IP address of the person “liking” something is tracked by Facebook: (i) how long Facebook kept the data for (they claim two years and Facebook concedes 90 days); and (ii) the fact that the data went through servers in the United States.  It sounds like Facebook needs to spend some PR dollars – especially after a top German government official admitted to an affair with a 16-year old he met on Facebook (which is actually legal in Germany).

Second, Google+, which was the flavor of the day just last week has faced a number of stories that people are abandoning the new social media platform.  Here is a good example.  It’s hot.  It’s not.  It’s hot again.  We’ll see.

Third, I would be remiss if I did not mention HP’s unceremonious killing of webOS just yesterday.  (Disclaimer: technically, HP killed all of the hardware associated with the OS and HP claims they will continue to develop webOS.  I doubt it.)  The internet and twitterverse was all buzz with this news.  I wonder if the webOS team is blaming the HP hardware folks for this.  I know I would.

Fourth, the BART protests continue.  I recommend following OpBART on Twitter for the latest.  The owner of that Twitter account claims no responsibility for the recent hacks on BART-related websites.  We’ll have more on this as it develops next week.  And speaking of Anonymous, check this out.  Hot off the press and a must-read.

Fifth, Sue Scheff who co-authored a book detailing her head-online fight with internet defamers has some good tips to detect if your Facebook account has been hacked.  She is a great follow on Twitter.  Facebook hacking happens way more often than you think.  Beware.

As the weekend rolls on, remember: you’re legit!

There is a lot of good information out there.  I will bring as much as I can when I can.  I will address jurisdictional issues (can you sue in X court?) next week (don’t worry – it is much more fun than it sounds!)