Morrison & Foerster’s Sherman Kahn Interviews American Arbitration Association Vice President, Sandra Partridge Many companies are providing for arbitration of disputes in their terms of service agreements governing use of their websites or other online or mobile services. Arbitration clauses in online terms of service agreements should be carefully drafted in order to ensure that… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Terms of Use
Subscribe to Terms of Use RSS FeedThinking About Using Pictures Pulled From Twitter? Think Again, New York Court Warns
Posted in Copyright, DMCA, IP, Litigation, Terms of UseIf you want to use those pictures you found on Twitter, beware. A federal judge in New York recently held that taking photos from Twitter to use for a commercial purpose infringes the photographer’s copyrights. On January 14, 2013, Judge Alison Nathan ruled that Agence France Presse (AFP), which provides subscribers with access to photos… Continue Reading
New Issue of the Socially Aware Newsletter Now Available
Posted in Employment Law, FCC, FTC, IP, Litigation, Privacy, Section 230 Safe Harbor, Statistics, Terms of Use, TrademarkIn the latest issue of Socially Aware, our Burton Award-winning guide to the law and business of social media, we look at recent First Amendment, intellectual property, labor and privacy law developments affecting corporate users of social media and the Internet. We also recap major events from 2012 that have had a substantial impact on… Continue Reading
That’s a Wrap: Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble
Posted in Litigation, Terms of UseWebsite operators often take for granted the enforceability of their websites’ terms of service. In a recent order issued in a case from the Central District of California, Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble, Inc., Judge Josephine Tucker reminds us that such presumptions are not necessarily correct: terms of service that do not require an affirmative… Continue Reading
Look Before You Leap: Amazon Web Services Customers May Be Subject to an IP Covenant Not to Sue
Posted in Litigation, Terms of UseThe growth of cloud computing has been phenomenal, as companies ranging from early stage start-ups to conservative, blue-chip corporations have sought to take advantage of the cost savings offered by cloud-based solutions. And at the head of this revolution has been Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the earliest and most popular of the cloud… Continue Reading
We’ve Come for Your Tweets: Twitter to Appeal Denial of Its Motion to Quash District Attorney’s Subpoena
Posted in Litigation, Privacy, Terms of UseAs the Occupy Wall Street protests fade from memory, a related discovery battle between Twitter and the New York County District Attorney rages on. Earlier this year, we discussed the District Attorney’s efforts to subpoena user information and tweets of criminal defendant Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protester charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly… Continue Reading
Computer Crime Prosecutions Face New Difficulties
Posted in Litigation, Terms of UseIn two recent decisions issued within a day of each other, two influential federal courts limited the scope of three important federal laws used to prosecute criminal conduct involving computers. On April 10, 2012, the Ninth Circuit limited the scope of criminal liability for prosecutions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and on the… Continue Reading
Caveat Emptor, Part II: A Brief Overview of Twitter’s Terms of Service and Related Documents
Posted in IP, Online Promotions, Privacy, Terms of UseIn our September 2010 issue of Socially Aware, we provided a brief overview of Facebook’s “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,” the social media service’s complex set of terms and conditions that companies frequently “click-accept” with little review (often, in a rush to establish their Facebook presences). Naturally, this situation is not limited to Facebook— for… Continue Reading
Facebooks’s Online Terms of Service Held to Be Enforceable
Posted in Terms of UseIn the recent online contracting case of Fteja v. Facebook, Inc., a New York federal court held that a forum selection clause contained in Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (the “Terms”) was enforceable because the plaintiff assented to the Terms when registering to use Facebook. The court’s analysis and holding followed the recent trend… Continue Reading
District Court Considers Value of Twitter Account
Posted in Employment Law, IP, Terms of Use“Man, what do I write here? And what’s it going to be valued at?” So read Noah Kravitz’s Twitter profile soon after Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James of the Northern District of California denied Kravitz’s motion to dismiss a number of claims brought against him by his former employer related to the Twitter account. While Kravitz… Continue Reading
Editor’s Predictions for 2012
Posted in Employment Law, IP, Privacy, Terms of UseTo ring in the New Year, the Socially Aware editors provide their predictions regarding social media law and business developments in the coming year (please keep in mind that, if we were good at this prediction thing, we wouldn’t be practicing law for a living) . . . Watch for an explosion of employment law… Continue Reading
Running Contests and Sweepstakes on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter: How the Rules Stack Up
Posted in Online Promotions, Terms of UseOver the past two years, Socially Aware has revisited Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines from time to time — even as recently as August 2011 — to help keep our readers up-to-date on how popular social media platforms seek to regulate contests, sweepstakes and other promotions. Online promotions are as popular as ever, and given that two-thirds… Continue Reading
Northern District of California Court Addresses the Law of the (Virtual) Horse (and Bunny)
Posted in DMCA, Terms of UseOnline “virtual worlds,” such as Second Life, have their own cultures, customs and economies. This presents new challenges for applying existing intellectual property laws to user-created content in such virtual worlds, as illustrated by a recent case in the Northern District of California, Amaretto Ranch Breedables, LLC v. Ozimals, Inc.. Second Life places users, or… Continue Reading
Twitpic Puzzles Users With Terms of Service Changes, Photo Agency Deal
Posted in Terms of UseTwitpic, a user-generated content service that simplifies the process of sharing photographs and other media through Twitter, came under fire earlier this year for changes to its Terms of Service that appeared to dramatically expand the rights granted to Twitpic by its users— and that were described by some media outlets as a “copyright grab.”… Continue Reading
Reboot: Facebook Overhauls Its Promotions Guidelines
Posted in Online Promotions, Terms of UseIn our February 2011 issue of Socially Aware, we reported that, at the end of 2010, Facebook had revamped its Promotions Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) to eliminate the requirement that approval be obtained from Facebook prior to offering sweepstakes, contests or similar promotions in connection with one’s Facebook page. More recently, Facebook substantially streamlined its Guidelines, which… 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