The Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) has promulgated extensive regulations requiring political advertisements to include disclaimers notifying viewers about who has paid for such ads. In certain situations where it would be impracticable to include disclaimers, the FEC provides exceptions, but how do these exceptions apply to the small advertisements commonly found on the Internet? Facebook… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: June 2011
Real News About Fake News Sites
Posted in FTCThe Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently asked federal courts to shut down ten websites that touted the purported benefits of acai berry weight-loss products. These were not your average promotional sites: Each was convincingly designed to have the look and feel of a news reporting site. For example, the headline of one site read, “Acai… Continue Reading
The Terms That Bind: Revisiting the Enforceability of Online Agreements
Posted in Terms of UseThe Superior Court of New Jersey recently revisited the enforceability of online contracts and the importance of how terms and conditions are displayed on websites, in Hoffman v. Supplements Togo Management LLC, et al. In so doing, the court addressed a line of cases reaching back to the Second Circuit’s 2002 landmark decision in Specht… Continue Reading
Contract Formation via Email: Traditional Rules Apply
Posted in Terms of UseA pair of recent decisions in federal court in Arkansas confirms that nothing about the virtual world changes a core principle of contract formation—that there can be no valid contract without objective manifestation of assent. The decisions both deal with the efforts of one repeat pro se plaintiff, David Stebbins, to impose upon large institutions… Continue Reading
Google’s Mobile Device Tracking Raises Privacy Concerns
Posted in PrivacyGoogle’s recent announcement that it is preparing to offer behaviorally targeted ads for mobile devices has led to concerns regarding the tracking required to implement such functionality. Online behavioral advertising has typically been implemented using cookies placed through a user’s web browser when the user visits a website. Mobile devices, however, often access the Internet… Continue Reading
Linking Liability: One Win, One Loss for Google in Europe
Posted in CopyrightAlthough Google has been generally successful to date in defending against copyright claims in the United States, it has had a more mixed track record in Europe. Recently, Google scored a victory in France in an infringement suit over Google’s linking to music file sharing sites, but suffered a setback in Belgium with respect to… Continue Reading
NLRB Gets Worked Up Over Social Media Policies
Posted in Employment LawThe National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) remains vigilant regarding the interaction between social media and the workplace, and has continued to focus on the impact of restrictive social media policies on employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). In an effort to issue uniform guidance on this emerging issue, all NLRB regional offices… Continue Reading
Do Consumers Have Property Rights in Their Personal Information Collected by Website Operators?
Posted in PrivacyWhen consumers sue online service providers for data breaches involving such consumers’ personally identifiable information (“PII”), courts routinely dismiss such suits based on the failure to allege an “injury in fact” as required to establish constitutional standing — see, for example, the decisions in Bell v. Acxiom Corporation and Amburgy v. Express Scripts, Inc. In… Continue Reading
Twitter World Records, Social Widgets as Data Tools, and More
Posted in Status Updates10 Million Monsters! Marking a truly historic social media milestone, Lady Gaga became the first Twitter user with more than 10 million followers. According to reports, the entertainer noted this achievement with a Tweet saying “10MillionMonsters! I’m speechless, we did it! Its an illness how I love you. Leaving London smiling.” Netflix Traffic Reports are… Continue Reading