Social media sites are transforming not only the daily lives of consumers, but also how companies interact with consumers. Here at Morrison Foerster, across all of our practice groups, we are seeing complex, cutting-edge legal issues arising out of social media. As with the Internet boom during the mid-to-late 1990s, social media is generating new legal questions at a far faster pace than the law’s ability to provide answers to such questions. In an effort to stay on top of these emerging issues, and to keep our clients and friends informed of new developments, Morrison Foerster publishes this blog devoted to the law and business of social media.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Aaron is the chair of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group and co-chair of the Interactive + Digital Media Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals.Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data- and technology-intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud-based technology, digital media (social media, AR/VR, gaming, streaming media, AdTech), AI, healthcare, consumer electronics, e-commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on branding and marketing, trademark licensing, and content-related transactions, as well as the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin-offs, and private equity investments.He has represented clients such as Autodesk, Meta, OpenAI, Splunk, Konami, Kaiser Permanente, SoftBank, Visa, and Yahoo, among others.Aaron has been recognized by numerous publications for his work on market-defining technology transactions. He is currently ranked by Chambers USA for “Technology Transactions.”Aaron also serves as co-editor of Socially Aware, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics. Aaron is also a sought-after speaker on new and emerging areas of law, and is a frequent presenter and panelist at conferences and legal services programs. In addition to his active practice, Aaron regularly provides pro bono assistance to various nonprofit and charitable organizations such as Common Sense Media and the Starlight Children’s Foundation. He is a member of the board of directors of California Lawyers for the Arts.While in law school at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, Aaron served as executive editor of the California Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, Aaron served as law clerk to the Honorable William H. Orrick and the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins, both United States District Judges for the Northern District of California.

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Aaron is the chair of our Technology Transactions Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals. Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data– and technology–intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud computing, AR/VR, AI, gaming, healthcare, consumer electronics, social media, e–commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin–offs, and private equity investments.

Aaron P. Rubin

Lawrence Gallick is of counsel in the firm’s Austin office and a member of the Technology Transactions Group.Lawrence focuses his practice on technology transactions and licensing matters. His diverse experience includes advising on SaaS agreements, cross-licensing agreements, research and collaboration agreements, development agreements, and distribution agreements. He counsels a broad range of companies across the software, hardware, life sciences, biotech and FinTech spaces, as well as other entities including universities.He advises clients in connection with general corporate matters including contract negotiations, and leasing and technology placement agreements.Lawrence also serves as co-editor of <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/" target="_blank">Socially Aware</a>, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics.Prior to joining the firm, Lawrence was counsel at another major law firm. Before earning his law degree, Lawrence was a web consultant, project manager, and web developer in Portland, Oregon, where he managed and consulted on projects using industry methodologies and performed custom development and integration of content management systems.Lawrence was named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2015 and 2018–2022, and is licensed in both California and New York. Lawrence earned his J.D. from the University at Buffalo School of Law, where he was the electronic systems editor for the Buffalo Law Review and awarded the ABA-BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Intellectual Property Law.

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Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster.Anthony advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. He regularly advises companies on the IP aspects of their M&A transactions. His clients include technology, digital media and content for television and music, financial services, and communications companies with diverse intellectual property assets and issues.His practice focuses on the legal aspects of developing, licensing, and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts, including outsourcing transactions, as well as content and data licenses. He regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to licensing and commercialization of digital media and content, digital content that is distributed over the Internet or streamed, mobile applications and social media, as well as the licensing of recorded music for distribution via digital platforms. Anthony is also experienced with issues relating to open-source software, software development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud-based technology, and protection of proprietary information.Anthony has extensive experience working on matters involving disruptive technologies, such as blockchain. He has helped fintech clients with general intellectual property issues in connection with terms of service for online financial products and services.Anthony is an integral part of the outside pro bono legal team for nonprofit organizations based in New York, including advising clients on legal issues regarding entertainment, social media, privacy rights, and the negotiation of outsourcing and service agreements. Anthony received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2009. He received his B.S. from Cornell University in 2004.

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Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster. He advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. His clients include technology, media, and communications companies with considerable intellectual property assets. His practice focuses on the legal aspects of licensing and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts. He also regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to mobile applications and social media.

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Lawrence W. Gallick

All Your Sale Are Belong to Us - Mitigating IP and Payments Risk in In-Game Economies (Part II – User-Generated Content and In-Game Payment Models)

A New California Digital Content Law Establishes New Requirements for Advertisers and Vendors

California’s Assembly Bill 587 Loses Key Provisions After Legal Challenge from X

Social Links: TikTok Tussles, Teen Privacy Push, and the Thumbs-Up That Sealed the Deal

Utah’s New App Store Age Verification Law: What S.B. 142 Means for Kids, Parents, and Tech

Well, as our readers know, we are modest people here at Socially Aware, and we don’t like tooting our own horn, but we do feel compelled to note that Socially Aware has been named one of the <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/best_law_blogs_web_100" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">50 best law blogs</a> by the <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ABA Journal</a>, the American Bar Association’s flagship publication!To determine which blogs represent the best of law-related online media, the ABA Journal’s staff considered nominations by readers who wrote the publication “<a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/web_100_2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to share what they considered the most compelling corners of the web</a>.” In a change from years past, judges from outside the publication also nominated blogs for consideration and helped to make the final determinations. You can find the names of those esteemed judges at the bottom of the page at <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/best_law_blogs_web_100/P1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this link</a>.The ABA Journal has annually compiled a year-end list of exemplary legal web content—which until this year was called the Annual Blawg 100—since 2007. Socially Aware was delighted to be included on that list in <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2015/12/02/wow-socially-aware-made-the-blawg100/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2015</a> and <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2016/11/29/socially-aware-made-the-blawg-100-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2016</a>.This year, to make room among the honorees for 25 law podcasts and 25 law-related Twitter accounts, the ABA Journal renamed the list the <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/web_100_2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Web 100</a> and whittled down the number of blogs it recognized to 50. We’re thrilled to have made the cut, and to be included on a list of so many excellent blogs.We remain as passionate about social media and technology law as the day we launched Socially Aware. And we’re thankful for the Socially Aware community—all the readers, contributors and colleagues who have been so important to the blog’s success.We look forward in the coming year to continuing to share our thoughts and insights—and to hearing your thoughts and insights—on legal developments, business trends and emerging best practices relating to social media, mobile apps and other emerging technologies!

Aaron is the chair of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group and co-chair of the Interactive + Digital Media Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals.

Aaron Rubin

Socially Aware Named One of the Best Law Blogs for Third Year Running

Well, as our readers know, we are modest people here at Socially Aware, and we don’t like tooting our own horn, but we do feel compelled to note that Socially A

Socially Aware Named One of the Best Law Blogs for Third Year Running

The government in Indonesia has warned the world’s biggest social media providers that they risk being banned in that country if they don’t block pornography and other content deemed obscene.A member of the House of Lords has proposed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/18/lords-push-for-children-to-be-protected-against-tech-giants-by-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">an amendment to the U.K.’s data protection bill</a> that would subject technology companies to “minimum standards of age-appropriate design” such as not revealing the GPS locations of users younger than 16.A <a href="https://www.wpr.org/bill-would-make-online-catfishing-illegal-wisconsin">bill in Wisconsin</a> would make impersonating someone on social media a misdemeanor.Google’s general counsel wrote a blog post arguing that two new cases over <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2015/05/28/status-updates-errand-apps-for-everyone-a-right-to-be-forgotten-update-your-entire-google-search-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">right-to-be-forgotten</a> requests and pending before the European Union’s top court put the search-engine company at risk of “restricting access to lawful and valuable information.”Trucking is a $700 billion industry that stands to save billions from automation, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/business/self-driving-trucks.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> and will likely get self-driving vehicles on the road</a> sooner than most people expected.Social media platforms are often used to prey on potential sex trafficking victims, according to one FBI special agent.A recent study shows that searching for information from unofficial sources on social media during a crisis is likely to result in the spread of misinformation and anxiety. Researchers recommend that, to quash rumors, emergency management officials should stay in regular contact with people even if they don’t have any new information.This piece in Slate invites readers to <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/11/the_law_that_let_silicon_valley_stay_clueless_made_the_internet_we_have.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">imagine what the Internet would look like today if not for the passage of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act</a>, a statute that “says that in general, websites are not responsible for the things their users do or post.”An op-ed in USA Today compares to swift spread of infectious diseases that resulted from the concentration of populations in urban areas to the swift spread of ideas that accompanied the invention of the Internet, and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/11/20/social-media-threat-people-survived-disease-we-can-handle-twitter-glenn-reynolds-column/879185001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">concludes that traditional training in critical thinking is as necessary to survive the latter as nutrition was to survive the former</a>.By allowing companies to provide consumers with verifiable information about things like their diversity-driven hiring practices and their products’ supply chains, blockchain is going to change the marketing industry significantly, the American Marketing Association reports.A high school senior who was bullied in middle school <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-and-the-pursuit-leadership/201711/meet-the-teen-who-discovered-the-secret-social" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">created Sit With Us</a>, the phone-based anti-bullying app that helps kids find a welcoming place to eat in their school cafeteria.

Social Links: Proposed legislation to outlaw “catfishing” & protect young Web users; blockchain technology’s impact on marketing

The government in Indonesia has warned the world’s biggest social media providers that they risk being banned in that country if they don’t block pornography an

Social Links: Proposed legislation to outlaw “catfishing” & protect young Web users; blockchain technology’s impact on marketing

Following a recent U.S. district court’s ruling, foreign companies operating cloud-based services may find themselves subject to federal long-arm jurisdiction under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 4(k)(2), even if they have no physical presence in the United States. In reaching its decision, the court noted that the question was ripe for consideration by the court of appeals; thus, it remains to be seen whether the decision will stand if appealed.In Plixer International, Inc. v. Scrutinizer GMHB, the District Court of Maine ruled that, while jurisdiction would not exist under Maine’s long-arm statute, the court had specific personal jurisdiction over a German company under federal long-arm statute. Rule 4(k)(2), the federal long-arm statute, provides that serving a summons or filing a waiver of service establishes personal jurisdiction over a defendant if the defendant is not subject to jurisdiction in any state’s courts of general jurisdiction as long as exercising jurisdiction is consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws.This litigation started when Plixer International, Inc., a Maine firm, filed a case against the German defendant for a variety of trademark-related claims, including trademark infringement. The German company moved to dismiss the case. The parties agreed that the German company was not subject to general personal jurisdiction. Thus, the court was left to decide whether the German company was subject to specific personal jurisdiction under federal long-arm statute and Maine’s long-arm statute.To answer the question of whether jurisdiction was consistent with the U.S. Constitution as required under Rule 4(k)(2), the court applied the “minimum contacts” test set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/326/310/case.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">International Shoe v. Washington</a>. The test asks whether the defendant has sufficient contacts with the forum such that maintaining the suit in that forum does not offend “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.”Under its analysis of federal long-arm statute, the Plixer court focused on whether the German company purposefully availed itself of the privilege of conducting business in the forum State (here, the United States as a whole). Notably, the German company had no physical presence in the United States, but offered cloud-based services from an interactive website and had some U.S.-based revenue. Notwithstanding these limited contacts, the court was satisfied that the German company had minimum contacts with the United States to be subject to personal jurisdiction.As the First Circuit (the applicable appellate court) has yet to determine whether a foreign company can be subject to specific jurisdiction on the basis of an interactive website or sales from such an interactive website, the district court considered some of the factors weighed in other circuits to determine if a website owner would be subject to personal jurisdiction. Such factors included, for example, whether a defendant uses a website to physically send items into the forum state or whether a defendant can be said to be directly targeting forum state residents.The district court found no evidence that the German company “targeted” the United States in particular. Nonetheless, the court went on to find that there were sufficient factors that the German company “purposefully availed” itself of the United States.In particular, the Plixer court noted, German company operated a “highly interactive website that sold its cloud-based services directly through the website, that it was open to business throughout the world, that it accepted recurrent business from the United States in a substantial amount, and that it did so knowingly.” The court also cited the German company’s trademark application in the United States as another factor showing the company’s “desire to deal with the American market.”While recognizing the concern, the court did not agree that its decision might open up all types of foreign website operators to lawsuits in the United States. The court held that the German company engaged in “sizeable and continuing commerce with United States customers” through its website and should not be surprised by the U.S. litigation. The court reached this conclusion notwithstanding that the German company made only about $196,000 in U.S. sales over the prior three and a half years.While being forced to litigate in the United States imposed a significant burden, the court ultimately concluded that exercising specific jurisdiction over the German company was reasonable after considering all the facts and circumstances.With respect to Maine long-arm statute, the court found that personal jurisdiction did not arise, noting that the German company only had “attenuated contacts” with Maine, that the amount of business from that State was “miniscule.” The company had only two Maine customers.Foreign cloud-based service providers should take note of the Plixer decision. Just because they do not have a physical presence in the United States, or ship any products for sale into the United States, does not necessarily mean they are safe from being hauled into a U.S. court, including being forced to defend themselves in states where they may have few if any customers and that they might not even be able to locate on a map.*                   *                  *For other Socially Aware posts addressing litigation-related issues regarding cloud storage solutions, please see: <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2017/11/08/us-v-microsoft/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SCOTUS to Resolve Lower-Court Dispute Over U.S. Warrants Seeking Foreign-Stored User Data</a>; <a href="http://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2017/02/23/google-ordered-foreign-stored-user-data/">Google Ordered to Comply with Warrant for Foreign-Stored User Data</a>; <a href="http://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2017/05/03/court-orders-google-foreign-stored-data/#more-6782">Court Orders Google to Turn Over Foreign-Stored Data</a>; and <a href="http://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2016/10/25/email-outside-us/">Second Circuit: Email Stored Outside the U.S. Might Be Beyond Government’s Reach</a>.

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Foreign Cloud-Based Service Providers May Be Subject to Personal Jurisdiction in the United States