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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Socially Aware is devoted to the law and business of social media, proactively addressing emerging issues and keeping our clients informed of new developments. We cover fields such as artificial intelligence, privacy and data security, Section 230, intellectual property, and much more.

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Lawrence W. Gallick

Social Links: Statehouse v. Smartphone

Federal Court Enjoins California Teen Privacy Law . . . Again

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

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Twitter updated its online Privacy Policy to disclose that Twitter will be personalizing content and facilitating <a href="http://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2016/09/19/interest-based-advertising-disclosure-requirements-become-more-clear-and-potentially-more-burdensome/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interest-based advertising</a> by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2017/05/18/twitter-privacy-update-called-creepy/#50029989464f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sharing information about its users’ online activity</a> both on and off the microblogging site.Since YouTube resolved to <a href="https://blog.google/topics/ads/expanded-safeguards-for-advertisers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">give brands greater control over the kind of content that their ads appear alongside</a>, many of the platform’s content creators and personalities have seen their ad revenue plummet, and they’re not sure whether it’s a result of <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/starbucks-pepsico-more-brands-pull-youtube-ads-growing-boycott-988721" target="_blank" rel="noopener">major companies continuing to avoid the platform</a>, new ad-buying methods, or YouTube algorithms flagging their content as inappropriate.A recently-released ABA ethics opinion states that, for communications with clients involving highly sensitive confidential client information, <a href="http://www.globallegalpost.com/big-stories/aba-warns-lawyers-updated-tech-needed-to-protect-client-info-43471852/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawyers may need to take extra steps beyond using unencrypted email to guard against cyberthreats</a>.An IBM application built on its Watson artificial intelligence platform and designed to help financial services companies monitor their outside counsel spend <a href="http://www.corpcounsel.com/id=1202786434937/IBM-Says-New-Watson-Tool-Could-Dramatically-Reduce-Outside-Counsel-Spend/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly saved one corporate customer close to $400 million a year in legal fees</a>.By advertising on quality news sites (and not just the big social media platforms where brands are currently spending the bulk of their online advertising dollars), corporate America can save not only critical watchdog journalism but also democracy itself, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/07/business/media/ad-buyers-have-say-in-survival-of-news.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology&action=click&contentCollection=technology&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=38&pgtype=sectionfront" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes The New York Times’s Jim Rutenberg</a>,Has the <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/05/blame-fyre-festival-fiasco-plague-celebrity-influencers/?mbid=social_twitter_onsiteshare%27" target="_blank" rel="noopener">influencer marketing model been jeopardized by the fiasco that was the Fyre Festival</a>, which celebrity influencers including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid allegedly endorsed “without any proof of concept” and, contrary to <a href="http://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2014/12/03/ftc-enforcement-action-confirms-that-ad-disclosure-obligations-extend-to-endorsements-made-in-social-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FTC guidance</a>, allegedly promoted on social media <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/05/04/fyre-festival-influencers-sued-for-social-media-promotion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">without clarifying that their posts were paid endorsements</a>?A <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/15/sunrise-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new mental health app</a> offers users support between professional therapy sessions by allowing them to anonymously message fellow members for support and by employing an artificial intelligence-based natural language processing system that can recognize and delete abusive messages and refer emergencies to a human moderator.Wendy’s awarded a year’s worth of its chicken nuggets to a 16-year-old whose tweet asking the restaurant chain for a 365-day supply of the fast food <a href="http://time.com/4772186/carter-wilkerson-most-retweeted-tweet-free-chicken-nuggets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">went viral and broke Ellen DeGeneres’s record for the most re-tweeted post</a> on Twitter (3.42 million retweets and counting).

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

Social Links: Twitter modifies Privacy Policy; YouTube ad-policy changes lower some video creators’ payouts; teen beats Ellen DeGeneres’s re-tweet record

Twitter updated its online Privacy Policy to disclose that Twitter will be personalizing content and facilitating interest-based advertising by sharing informat

Social Links: Twitter modifies Privacy Policy; YouTube ad-policy changes lower some video creators’ payouts; teen beats Ellen DeGeneres’s re-tweet record

A nice overview of the rules on researching jurors’ social media accounts in various jurisdictions from Law.com.The importance of appearing at the top of Google search results, especially on mobile devices, is driving retailers to spend more and more on the search engine’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/technology/google-parent-company-alphabet-advertising.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_tu_20170424&nl=bits&nl_art=1&nlid=69264395&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">product listing ads</a>, which include not just text but also the photos of products.Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/mit-construction-robot-3d-print-building/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designed a mobile robot that 3D-printed a building that is 50-feet-wide</a> in 14 hours.In the second half of 2016, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/27/government-requests-for-facebook-user-data-up-9-in-second-half-of-2016-but-content-restrictions-declined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook received 9% more global government requests for users’ account data</a> and—largely because users had stopped posting images of the 2015 Paris terrorist attack victims’ remains, which was against French law—28% fewer global government requests to remove content that violates local law.After Kashmiris posted photos and videos depicting alleged military abuse in the days following a violence-plagued local election, authorities in the Indian-controlled region banned 22 social media sites, claiming it was necessary to restore order.At the UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff, Wales, this summer, British police will pilot a new automated facial recognition (AFR) system to scan the faces of attendees and compare them to a police “persons of interest” database.To show concerned citizens—and criminals—that they mean business, police in an Alabama city are live-broadcasting arrests on Twitter.The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/fitbit-data-murder-suspect-richard-dabate?CMP=twt_a-technology_b-gdntech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data collected by the physical-activity-tracking device</a> worn by a Connecticut murder victim contradicts the timeline of events given by her husband, a suspect.One of the Kardashians is being sued by a photo agency for allegedly copying a copyrighted photo of her and posting it to her Instagram account.And on the subject of user-generated content, owners of video content that is posted by users to Facebook without authorization can now <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/27/not-so-freebooting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claim ad earnings for the infringing content and set automated rules</a> that will determine when infringing content should be blocked.The editor of the MIT Technology Review provided interesting insights to Chatbots Magazine regarding <a href="https://chatbotsmagazine.com/mit-technology-reviews-jason-pontin-technologists-consistently-underestimate-the-awfulness-of-926b49b4cc98" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the future and current state of artificial intelligence</a>.Police in Silicon Valley arrested a man for allegedly <a href="http://abc7news.com/1915713/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">knocking down a 300-pound security robot</a> while he was intoxicated.

Social Links: Rules for researching jurors via social media; law enforcement and new technologies; Facebook tool allows copyright owners to claim ad earnings from unauthorized video uploads

A nice overview of the rules on researching jurors’ social media accounts in various jurisdictions from Law.com. The importance of appearing at the top of Googl

Social Links: Rules for researching jurors via social media; law enforcement and new technologies; Facebook tool allows copyright owners to claim ad earnings from unauthorized video uploads

A New York State senator has introduced a bill that would make posting footage of a crime to social media with the intention of glorifying violence or becoming famous punishable by up to four years in prison and fines.Instagram hit the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/26/instagram-700-million-users/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">700-million-user</a> mark.<a href="http://www.adweek.com/digital/social-media-advertising-spend-was-up-60-year-over-year-in-q1-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brands spent 60% more on social media advertising</a> in the first quarter of 2017 than they did in the same quarter last year, a new report shows.But savvy brands will do more to leverage social media than just buy advertising, according to a columnist in Entrepreneur. <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288952" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chatbots that can interact with customers on private messaging networks and in connection with in-app purchasing</a> are the next big things.And while we’re on the subject of private messaging networks, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/tumblr-is-inviting-you-and-your-friends-to-chill-at-the-cabana/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tumblr is launching its own version, called Cabana</a>. It encourages six friends to “hang out” and watch YouTube videos together.Pointing out the inadequacy of many celebrities’ methods of disclosing their status as paid endorsers of the products they promote on Instagram, the <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/04/20/ftc-instagram/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FTC sent a letter to 90 high-profile social media users</a> that provides some guidance on how to fulfill the <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2014/12/03/ftc-enforcement-action-confirms-that-ad-disclosure-obligations-extend-to-endorsements-made-in-social-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsement guides</a>’ requirement that sponsored posts be identified in a “clear and conspicuous” way.<a href="http://www.adweek.com/digital/linkedin-060717-changes-privacy-policy-user-agreement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn has updated its terms of service</a> and privacy policy, reportedly to make way for new platform features such as identifying when other LinkedIn members are in physical proximity to you, making available “productivity bots” to assist you in interacting with members of your LinkedIn network and allowing third-party services to display your LinkedIn profile to their users.<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/18/facial-recognition-is-coming-to-us-airports-fast-tracked-by-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facial recognition systems will soon be used to identify visa holders</a> as they leave the United States, raising civil rights questions.The U.S. population’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/us/political-polarization-internet.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology&action=click&contentCollection=technology&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">political polarization isn’t a result of the rise of social media</a>, a new working paper issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests, because hyper-partisanship is most prevalent among older Americans who are less likely than other Americans to consume media online.

Social Links: Social ad spend soars; the FTC’s special message to “influencers”; LinkedIn changes terms of use

A New York State senator has introduced a bill that would make posting footage of a crime to social media with the intention of glorifying violence or becoming 

Social Links: Social ad spend soars; the FTC’s special message to “influencers”; LinkedIn changes terms of use