The headline of this recent blog post by the U.S. government promises to answer the question of why you should do some social media estate planning. But the post falls short of providing a compelling reason to plan for how your social media accounts and other digital assets should be handled in the event of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘social media’
Why be concerned with social media estate planning?
May 11th, 2012
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Posted in Governance, Miscellaneous, Privacy, Spam | Tags: estate planning, facebook, governance, Privacy, security, social media, wills
No restraining order against uncle posting family photos on Facebook
February 14th, 2012
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Court refuses to consider common law invasion of privacy tort to support restraining order under Minnesota statute. Olson v. LaBrie, 2012 WL 426585 (Minn. App. February 13, 2012) Appellant sought a restraining order against his uncle, saying that his uncle engaged in harassment by posting family photos of appellant (including one of him in front [...]
Teacher fired over Facebook post gets her job back
February 9th, 2012
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Court invokes notion of “contextual integrity” to evaluate social media user’s online behavior. Rubino v. City of New York, 2012 WL 373101 (N.Y. Sup. February 1, 2012) The day after a student drowned at the beach while on a field trip, a fifth grade teacher updated her Facebook status to say: After today, I am [...]
Posted in Employment, Privacy | Tags: contextual integrity, Employment, facebook, Privacy, social media
Video: my appearance on the news talking about isanyoneup.com
November 17th, 2011
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Last night I appeared in a piece that aired on the 9 o’clock news here in Chicago, talking about the legal issues surrounding isanyoneup.com. (That site is definitely NSFW and I’m not linking to it because it doesn’t deserve the page rank help.) The site presents some interesting legal questions, like whether and to what [...]
Posted in Anonymity, Computer Crime, Copyright, Privacy, Section 230 | Tags: Copyright, harassment, infringement, isanyoneup.com, Privacy, Section 230, social media
Employee’s Facebook status update was protected by the First Amendment
November 9th, 2011
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Mattingly v. Milligan, 2011 WL 5184283 (E.D.Ark. November 1, 2011) Plaintiff worked in the county clerk’s office. Her old boss, whom she had supported in the election, lost. Her new boss (the newly-elected county clerk) began cleaning house and laid off some of the staff. Plaintiff survived that round of cuts, but lamented those terminations [...]
Posted in First Amendment | Tags: facebook, First Amendment, free speech, social media, social networking
Court requires fired social media employee to return usernames and passwords
October 23rd, 2011
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Ardis Health, LLC v. Nankivell, 2011 WL 4965172 (S.D.N.Y. October 19, 2011) Defendant was hired to be plaintiffs’ “video and social media producer,” with responsibilities that included maintaining social media pages in connection with the online marketing of plaintiffs’ products. After she was terminated, she refused to tell her former employers the usernames and passwords [...]
Posted in Employment, Litigation | Tags: confidential information, facebook, injunction, injunctive relief, irreparable harm, social media, twitter
Online threats made by blogger were not protected by the First Amendment
September 27th, 2011
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State v. Turner, 2011 WL 4424754 (Conn. Super. September 6, 2011) A Connecticut state court held that prosecuting a blogger for posting content online encouraging others to use violence did not violate the blogger’s First Amendment right to free speech. Defendant was charged under a Connecticut statute prohibiting individuals from “inciting injury to persons or [...]
Sexy MySpace photos stay out of evidence
August 31st, 2011
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Webb v. Jessamine County Fiscal Court, 2011 WL 3652751 (E.D. Ky. August 19, 2011) Plaintiff filed a civil rights lawsuit against the local jail and other governmnet officials after she gave birth while incarcerated. She claimed, among other things, that the jail’s failure to get her proper medical care before and during the delivery caused [...]
Prosecutor’s Facebook postings did not warrant overturning conviction
June 21st, 2011
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State v. Usee, 2011 WL 2437271 (Minn. App. June 20, 2011) A jury convicted defendant of attempted murder and other violent crimes. He asked the court for a Schwartz hearing (which is what they call these things in Minnesota) to evaluate whether a posting by the prosecutor on her public Facebook page improperly influenced the [...]
Customer reviews on social media provide important evidence in trademark dispute
June 16th, 2011
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Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. v. Chipotles Grill of Jonesboro, Inc., 2011 WL 2292357 (E.D. Ark. June 9, 2011) The awesome burrito place Chipotle sued another restaurant that called itself Chipotles for trademark infringement. Plaintiff sought a preliminary injunction. The court granted the motion. One of the most important factors in the court’s decision to grant [...]
