Socially Aware

January 07, 2016 - E-Commerce, Live streaming, Disappearing Content, Marketing, Privacy, Compliance, Wearable Computers
Our List of Lists
By: Aaron P. Rubin
January is the month when lists—lists of predictions, lists of trends, lists of feats and lists of failures—pervade social media newsfeeds and publications’ headlines. Here at Socially Aware we’re making an annual tradition of curating a “List of Lists”—an inventory of the roundups that
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October 06, 2015 - E-Commerce, Terms of Use
Three Steps to Help Ensure the Enforceability of Your Website’s Terms of Use
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Operators of social media platforms and other websites typically manage their risks by imposing terms of use or terms of service for the sites. As we previously wrote , websites must implement such terms properly to ensure that they are enforceable. Specifically, users must
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August 17, 2015 - E-Commerce, Terms of Use, Fraud
Federal District Court: “Browsewrap” Terms and Conditions Provide Sufficient Notice to Defeat False Advertising Class Action
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Websites sometimes present their terms of use (“TOU”) to users merely by including a link to those TOU on the website without requiring users to affirmatively accept the terms by, for example, checking a box or clicking an “I accept” button. As we have
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July 09, 2015 - E-Commerce, Status Updates
Status Updates: Pinterest’s new purchasing feature; Driving while social; and a small country’s Facebook ban
Pin money. The social media site Pinterest, a 5-year-old Internet powerhouse with an $11 billion valuation , is implementing another feature intended to bring in some cash : Buyable Pins. Soon, the site’s users—who, according to demographics reports, are often affluent women—will be able
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June 12, 2015 - E-Commerce
The NYDFS Finalizes its BitLicense Proposal
By: Jeremy R. Mandell
On June 3, 2015, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued a final rule regarding its “BitLicense” regulatory regime (“Final Rule”). The Final Rule follows an initial proposal from July 2014 and a revised proposal from February 2015 (“Revised Proposal”). Our analysis of
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May 28, 2015 - E-Commerce
“Firsts” for the World of Virtual Currencies
By: Jeremy R. Mandell
There have been two recent virtual currency-related actions worthy of note: (1) the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) announced its first civil enforcement action against a virtual currency exchanger, and (2) the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) granted its first license to
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June 11, 2013 - E-Commerce, Ethics
Playing Fair? UK’s OFT Investigates Online and App-Based Games
On April 12, 2013, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the UK regulator for consumer affairs and competition, announced that it was launching an investigation into children’s web- and app-based games. In particular, the OFT is looking into whether such games comply with
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May 29, 2013 - E-Commerce, Litigation
UK: The Latest Social Media Legal Updates
In our May 30, 2012 post on the Socially Aware blog— “Should We All Be Getting the Twitter “Jitters”? Be Careful What You Say Online (Particularly in the United Kingdom)” —we considered a variety of UK laws being used to regulate the content of
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April 24, 2013 - E-Commerce, Litigation
E-Commerce Providers Take Note: New York’s Highest Court Upholds “Amazon” Sales Tax Statute
On March 28, 2013, the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, issued a decision in Overstock.com, Inc. & Amazon.com, LLC, et al ., holding that New York’s “click-through nexus” statute does not violate the Commerce Clause or the Due Process Clause of the U.S.
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