The First Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Yershov v. Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. may carry important implications for mobile app providers seeking to navigate federal privacy laws—in particular, the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (“VPPA”). Although Yershov is not the first case to consider how the VPPA applies to mobile apps,
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Social Links: Twitter’s troll problem; Snapchat fat-shamer risks prosecution; a federal anti-revenge-porn law?

Facebook Messenger joins the elite “one billion monthly users” club just four years after its release as a standalone app.
A Canadian judge ordered a couple convicted of child neglect to post to all their social media accounts his decision describing their crime.
Leslie Jones of Ghostbusters highlights Twitter’s trolling problem. One tech columnist…
Augmenting Reality: A Pokémon Go Business and Legal Primer

We have become inured to the sight of people staring at their phones rather than engaging with one another or enjoying their real-life surroundings. But, over the past two weeks, enslavement to mobile devices rose to new levels, with smartphones and tablets actually propelling users’ movements in the real world as opposed to merely distracting…
App Developer Prevails in Class Action Lawsuit Challenging Shift to New Business Model
If you make available a service through a free app, and you subsequently decide to migrate users of that app to a paid subscription model, that shouldn’t create any problems, right?
Well, app developer LogMeIn did just that, and became the target of a class action lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of California. Although…
Social Links: The ramifications of Microsoft’s LinkedIn purchase; the brands using Snapchat; lawyers’ social media use

Lots of press surrounding Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn: Will LinkedIn change as a result? Will the Microsoft purchase inspire a Twitter acquisition?
“Spam King” gets 30 months in jail for sending 27 million messages.
One columnist says you should stop measuring your social media marketing reach.
Twitter is now allowing brands to target ads…
Now Available: The October Issue of Our Socially Aware Newsletter

The latest issue of our Socially Aware newsletter is now available here.
In this issue of Socially Aware, our Burton Award-winning guide to the law and business of social media, we highlight five key social media law issues to address with your corporate clients; we discuss when social media posts are discoverable…
Mobile App Legal Terms & Conditions: Six Key Considerations

For corporations, the mobile app is today’s website.
Back in the late 1990s, no self-respecting company, no matter how stodgy and old-fashioned, wanted to be without a website.
Today, the same is true with mobile apps. It doesn’t matter what industry a company is in—it needs to have an app that customers and potential…
Status Updates: Artist sues Pinterest; texting for teens without data plans; quit smoking with social media

Pin pain. As a primarily visual social media platform whose self-described purpose is to help users bookmark and save “good stuff you find anywhere around the web,” Pinterest has raised copyright infringement questions since it became explosively popular in 2012. In many cases, copyright owners are happy to have their images “pinned” on…