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.

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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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In March, <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2018/03/12/social-links-inline-linking-to-tweet-containing-photo-could-constitute-copyright-infringement-proposed-california-legislation-could-restrict-website-operators-efforts-to-have-minors-consent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Socially Aware reported on a lawsuit</a> involving several prominent news outlets’ publication of a photo of NFL quarterback Tom Brady on Twitter. The case had the potential to upend a copyright and Internet-law rule that, in the words of a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaifalkenberg/2019/05/29/settlement-of-suit-over-tom-brady-photo-leaves-major-online-copyright-issue-unresolved/#3f764dfe5695" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes columnist</a>, “media companies had viewed as settled law for over a decade.” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaifalkenberg/2019/05/29/settlement-of-suit-over-tom-brady-photo-leaves-major-online-copyright-issue-unresolved/#3f764dfe5695" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read</a> exactly what common-law copyright rule the case called into question, and how the Tom-Brady-Twitter-photo lawsuit concluded without resolving the status of that rule.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-blocks-daily-caller-twitter-unconstitutional-2019-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked the conservative media outlet The Daily Caller</a> from following her on Twitter after the publication disputed something she’d said in connection with her Green New Deal resolution. Some First Amendment experts argue that public officials’ blocking of accounts on social media doesn’t violate the free speech rights of the owners of those blocked accounts. Last year, however, in a case filed by Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute and seven individuals who claimed President Trump had blocked them on Twitter, a <a href="https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/trump-block-twitter-users-unconstitutional-court-ruling-1202819850/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">federal district court in New York held that Twitter’s “interactive space” constitutes a public forum, and that blocking users violates their right to free speech</a>.A draft law in Germany is believed to be the first regulatory proposal in Europe “<a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mediapolicyproject/2019/05/29/germany-proposes-europes-first-diversity-rules-for-social-media-platforms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to impose binding diversity obligations on social media platforms’ ranking and sorting algorithms</a>,” according to the authors of a post on a media blog belonging to the London School of Economics. The proposed law would, among other things, prohibit “media intermediaries”—a category that includes social media platforms, search engines and news aggregators—from “unfairly disadvantage[ing] (directly or indirectly) or treat[ing] differently providers of journalistic editorial content to the extent that the intermediary has potentially a significant influence on their visibility.”The government of Bahrain, an island-country in the Persian Gulf that has been increasing security since a Shi’ite Muslim-led uprising in 2011, recently sent text messages to its citizens’ phones warning them that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bahrain-security-socialmedia/bahrain-says-following-opposition-social-media-could-result-in-legal-action-idUSKCN1T30PU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">merely following activist social media accounts could result in legal liability</a>.Pursuant to a 2016 Russian law that requires social media sites to acquiesce to the government’s requests for user data, the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/tinder-ordered-hand-over-its-user-data-russias-security-services-1441828" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russian government is requiring the dating app Tinder to collect and turn over all of its user data</a> for at least six months. Blackmail fodder, anyone?North Face, an outdoor-activity-accoutrements company,<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18644158/north-face-wikipedia-hack-leo-burnett-top-imagens" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> secretly executed an ad campaign on Wikipedia</a>. The campaign may have been an ingenious way to get North Face’s products at the top of world travelers’ Google results, but it violated the educational platform’s terms of service and struck many people as unethical. The company and its ad agency have since <a href="https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/north-face-apologizes-its-wikipedia-hack/2174591" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apologized</a>.In a case that serves a reminder of the increasing use of social media posts as evidence in courts of law, a court near Paris held that a French <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/world/europe/johnny-hallyday-instagram-will.html?searchResultPosition=1ns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rock star’s Instagram account provided sufficient evidence</a> to prove that the musician had spent enough time in France over several years to give a French court competence over the his estate.

Clients seek out Julie because of her practical advice on cutting-edge issues at the intersection of privacy and consumer protection laws. She provides clients with practical solutions to compliance c

Julie O'Neill

Clients seek out Julie because of her practical advice on cutting-edge issues at the intersection of privacy and consumer protection laws. She provides clients with practical solutions to compliance challenges around a wide variety of both online and offline privacy issues, including tracking, interest-based advertising, geo-targeting and other mobile tracking, personalization, and cross-device tracking. Recognized in The Legal 500 US 2014, 2016, 2019, and 2020 and Chambers USA 2021 for her exceptional legal work, her clients praise her saying, “She is really good at giving practical, targeted advice and taking stock of what the risk profile of the client is, so that the advice is holistic.” (Chambers USA 2021).

Social Links: Suit over “embedded tweet” with Tom Brady’s photo settles; brand agency manipulates Wikipedia; evidence from Instagram wins French rock star’s kids a share of his estate

In March, Socially Aware reported on a lawsuit involving several prominent news outlets’ publication of a photo of NFL quarterback Tom Brady on Twitter. The cas

Social Links: Suit over “embedded tweet” with Tom Brady’s photo settles; brand agency manipulates Wikipedia; evidence from Instagram wins French rock star’s kids a share of his estate

A <a href="https://mashable.com/article/australia-laws-social-media-violence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new law in Australia</a> makes a social media company’s failure to remove “abhorrent violent material” from its platform punishable by significant fines. The law also states that the executives at social media companies who fail to remove the content could be sentenced to jail time.The European Parliament voted to approve the Copyright Directive, a directive that, although vaguely worded, affords copyright holders significant new protections online, and requires online platforms to police content more thoroughly than ever before. Find out exactly <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/tech/eu-copyright-article-13/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">what impact industry advocates predict the law will have</a>, and how long it will be until it’s implemented.Learn how companies can <a href="https://www.law.com/2019/03/27/whats-next-biometrics-law-101-the-lawsuits-are-coming-does-a-new-copyright-law-mean-extinction-for-memes/?slreturn=20190305155141" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collect and use biometric data</a> without becoming an easy target for litigation, according to my co-editor Julie O’Neill and our colleague Max Phillip Zidel.As part of the <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2018/03/06/ftc-quest-better-influencer-disclosure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FTC’s continuing efforts to ensure consumers are aware of when an online endorser has been compensated</a> in connection with an endorsement, <a href="https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/334124/ftc-settles-with-snack-box-sender-over-online-revi.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the agency recently settled a complaint against a subscription service that allegedly offered its product for free</a> to consumers who posted positive online reviews.In the wake of <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/331719" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports about social media influencers purchasing fake followers</a> and fake likes, as well as <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/instagram-celebrity-sponsored-content-federal-law_n_5ca01661e4b0474c08cfbe22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failing to adequately label endorsed content</a>, online celebrities are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/05/its-genuine-you-know-why-the-online-influencer-industry-is-going-authentic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embracing more relatable posts</a>, potentially in an effort to appear more trustworthy.To better compete with digital media platforms, the top 40 television markets in the United States will introduce a <a href="https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/334255/new-broadcast-standard-poised-to-enable-interactiv.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=113460&hashid=icw4eEcCBUZXM8pArHBIb_YN6sc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broadcasting standard that will enable interactive and targeted advertising</a>.Snap Inc., whose Snapchat app currently excludes users younger than 13 but generally does not verify ages, has announced that it is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-19/snapchat-owner-says-it-may-tighten-controls-on-underage-users">working with British lawmakers to prevent underage children from signing up for its service</a>.What’s up with <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/04/10/4-questions-we-still-have-about-googles-new-gaming.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google’s new streaming game platform</a>?A photographer is suing supermodel Gigi Hadid for copyright infringement for <a href="https://people.com/style/gigi-hadid-sued-again-posting-photo-without-permission/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posting a photo of herself to Instagram</a>.<a href="https://www.shots.net/news/view/compose-a-jingle-for-breathable-boxer-briefs-and-win-10k" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fruit of the Loom is holding a contest on Instagram</a> in search of the best jingle for their Breathable Boxer Briefs. See how much the underwear manufacturer promises to award the winning songwriter.

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.











Anthony Ramirez

Social Links: An EU law to protect copyright owners online; collecting biometric data without running afoul of the law; influencers’ attempts to appear more authentic

A new law in Australia makes a social media company’s failure to remove “abhorrent violent material” from its platform punishable by significant fines. The law 

Social Links: An EU law to protect copyright owners online; collecting biometric data without running afoul of the law; influencers’ attempts to appear more authentic