Guide Through the Legal Jungle

How Your Online Activities Impact Your Job Prospects

Many companies have policies concerning employees’ online conduct. (See the blog posting, What a Company Social Media Policy May Legally Require). Failing to know and follow your employer’s social media policy may get you booted out of your current job and make it difficult for you to secure a new job.

As a job seeker, you do not want any potential employer seeing social media postings in which you disclose a past employer’s confidential information or in which you bad-mouth a past employer.

Some internet infractions are illegal activities for which your employer can justifiably fire you – and perhaps even sue you or press criminal charges against you. They include disclosing your employer’s confidential information, making defamatory comments about your employer, and threatening people in the work place.

Other infractions are more akin to social blunders and simply make you look like an oaf no one would want to hire. This category of infractions include using your work email address while hunting for a new job.

Thursday, February 10, 2011 Internet Law Presentation in Chevy Chase, MD

I will offer a presentation on internet law on Thursday, February 10, 2011 at Alfio's La Trattoria, 4515 Willard Ave, Chevy Chase, MD. The event is a 6:30 p.m. dinner meeting sponsored by the DC Chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals.

TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED.

During the presentation, I will address the dos and don’ts of internet use and provide answers to many of the legal questions asked by those who blog, podcast, operate a website, publish an email newsletter, or participate in social media such as:

• How do I protect my original content posted online?
• Do I need permission to post other people’s material?
• Can I depict or mention real people online?
• Can I be fired for my internet activities?
• At what point does my negative online review about a company or product cross the line from legal to not-so-legal?
• Am I safe if I post my negative review anonymously?
• What can I do about negative information posted online about me, my child or my business?
• Is it okay for me to post a review about a product on my blog if the manufacturer gave me a free copy of the product?
• Do websites know more about me than I think they know?
• How do websites get information about me if I don't give it to them?
• How can I protect my online privacy?

MORE DETAILS

The $25 event fee (payable by cash or check at the door) includes a three-course dinner and valet parking. You can find additional information at AITP website at www.aitp.org. If you do plan to attend, please RSVP via email to [email protected]

Internet Legal Trends to Watch. Part 5: Net Neutrality

Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are headed to a showdown over how and whether the FCC should regulate the flow of information over the internet. The FCC adopted a net neutrality order last December.

What Is Net Neutrality?

Very simply, net neutrality means setting traffic rules for the flow of data on the internet. When the net is neutral, all information regardless of its source is treated equally. There are no gatekeepers or roadblocks so reaching John Smith’s website is as easy as reaching the website of Google, Facebook or the Wall Street Journal.

Net neutrality is a plus for for consumers and start-up companies because net neutrality guarantees an even-playing field for all online content. On the minus side, analysts and broadband companies complain that internet regulations forcing net neutrality will inhibit capital investment, deter innovation, raise operating costs, and ultimately increase consumer prices

What Has the FCC Proposed?

The FCC net neutrality order in part provides that landline broadband providers can’t block legal websites. The order imposes fewer restrictions on wireless carriers than on wired carriers. While the order discourages landline broadband providers from offering faster delivery of data for money, the order doesn’t explicitly prohibit them from doing so.

Where Does Net Neutrality Stand?

There are questions about whether the FCC has the authority to regulate the internet. Verizon has already filed a lawsuit arguing that the FCC does not have the right. Both Democratic and Republican members of congress have threatened to block the FCC’s net neutrality regulations.

Internet Legal Trends to Watch. Part 4: Copyright’s Race to Keep Up with the Internet?

Along with the entry of internet access into more homes and into our daily lives comes more opportunities for piracy and new attitudes about copyright law. In response, content owners have tried to squelch the unauthorized online sharing and copying of their copyrighted content.

Starting with the RIAA

Beginning in 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued or threatened to sue over 35,000 individuals who participated in P2P file sharing of music. Most of the RIAA lawsuits never went to trial and resulted in settlements in which the accused file sharer paid a settlement fee of several thousand dollars. Due in part to complaints against RIAA’s methods and the failure of the lawsuits to deter piracy significantly, the RIAA has phased out its strategy of suing individual file sharers.

Righthaven Follows

However, other content owners have picked up where the RIAA left off. Righthaven is among the most notorious. Since last year, Righthaven filed over 200 copyright infringement lawsuits against bloggers and website owners for posting newspaper articles without permission. Those hit with Righthaven lawsuits include former senate candidate Sharron Angle and the Democratic Party of Nevada. For a blow-by-blow account of the Righthaven lawsuits, read Steven Green’s stories, a Las Vegas Sun reporter who has written extensively about the lawsuits. Another content owner trying its hand at massive copyright infringement lawsuits is Third World Media, which has tried to sue 1,243 individuals who downloaded copies of the pornographic film, Tokyo Teens.

What These Cases Mean for Everyday Internet Users

The Righthaven lawsuits may provide more guidance on how far one can push fair use online. Most of the people sued by Righthaven who attempt to defend themselves rather than settle claim their use of the articles qualifies is a fair use. That argument worked in the case of a realtor who used only eight sentences of a thirty-sentence news article. However, most of the Righthaven defendants have copied an entire article. For them, it is more difficult to make a persuasive fair use argument.

Many have also criticized Righthaven for filing lawsuits without first issuing a DMCA takedown letter. While the majority of content owners would likely send a takedown letter prior to filing a lawsuit, there is no statutory requirement that they do so. Hence, it will be interesting to see how this “no warning” argument resonates with the courts.

Internet Legal Trends to Watch. Part 3: Responses to Cyber Bullying

The tragic suicide in 2010 of Rutgers University student, Tyler Clementi, centered national attention once again on cyber bullying. After a roommate posted a sex tape of Clementi on the internet, Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.

Developing Cyber Bullying Legal Remedies

What can be done to combat cyber bullying and its close cousins cyber stalking, and cyber harassment?

Congress has considered legislation that would impose federal penalties for cyber bullying. The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act was introduced in the last session of Congress – but did not pass into law. New federal legislation may be introduced in the current session.

In the meantime, states are not idly waiting around. They have enacted new state laws and expanded existing laws to incorporate prohibitions against cyber bullying and cyber stalking by means of the internet. For example, earlier this month, New Jersey passed the "Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights" which some call the strongest anti-school bullying law in the nation. The new NJ law includes specific provisions to address bullying via the internet and other digital communication forms and requires schools to report, investigate and resolve bullying issues within ten days – regardless of whether the bullying takes place at school, outside of school, or in cyberspace.

Other states have updated their laws to crack down on cyber misdeeds. Here are just a few of which I’m aware:

• California recently enacted SB 1411 which makes it a criminal misdemeanor to credibly impersonate someone through or on a website or by certain other electronic means to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud another person.
• in response to the Meagan Meier case, Missouri passed the Internet Harassment Law, effective August 28, 2008. which updated harassment laws to remove the requirement that the communication be written or over the telephone and extending it to harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices.
• Nebraska is considering LB 123, which is cyberbullying law similar to the one just adopted by New Jersey.
• As of September, 2009, it became a crime in Texas to impersonate someone online.

More states are certain to follow this trend.