December B2B Article on FTC’s new Guidelines regarding Endorsements on Blogs is now online

My December article in the Dayton Daily News’ B2B Magazine is now online.  It is entitled, ” When it comes to blogging, disclosure is best practice: Social Media is all about integrity, trust and transparency.”  The article explains that on October 5, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its final revisions to its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (the first updates since 1980), which became effective December 1, 2009 of this year.  The article gives a thumbnail sketch of what this means to bloggers.   For the article, click here.

Just to give my blog readers a “little more” on the subject, here’s the rest of a paragraph that was not published due to space constraints.

Bloggers who have not complied with the principle are now playing catch-up.  They may even be erring on the side of over disclosing.  The rule is not as broad as it seems.  For example, in Example 8 to Section 255.0, in the Guide, the FTC notes that it is not considered an endorsement if a consumer that (1) buys dog food and decides to review the food on a blog or (2) is given a free trial bag of dog food by the store.  However, it would be considered an endorsement, subject to the disclaimer rules, if the consumer obtains the food through a marketing program aimed to distribute the food to potential reviewers.  Thus, it is the more direct advertiser-blogger relationship that is the focus because it gives rise to the potential conflict of interest. 

For more information on the subject The Guide can be found here.  For more information about the FTC historically going after the advertiser that prompted a review without proper disclosure, see here.

November B2B Article on Privacy and Social Networking is now online

My November article in the Dayton Daily News’ B2B Magazine is now online.  It is entitled, “Privacy becomes a more complicated issue for online marketers: Traditional laws remain intact despite increased accessibility of information.”  In it, I explain that the offline laws apply online, that there are a number of sector specific laws that apply both to online and offline data, and that there are a number of purely online laws.  I also explain that you cannot forget about the limits of the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies that you agree to when you use these social networking sites.  Enjoy!  For the article, click here.

Social Media as Alternative or in Addition to BBB When Too Small to Sue

A post at MyShingle.com asks whether lawyers should suggest not only going to the Better Business Bureau with complaints that are too small monetarily to sue over, but also whether lawyers should now suggest using social media to start a viral campaign telling everyone the issue.  See the post here.   My initial thoughts: just be careful what you post is not libelous and complies with other laws.  Some people get so angry, they get carried away.  But if they can stay within the laws and are not breaching any contract by doing so (such as confidentiality provisions), and can take the risk that it might provoke other issues with that company if there is any ongoing relationship, then go for it.

October B2B Article on Immunity, Blogs and Social Network Is Here!

The B2B has published the next in my series of artlices with co-writer David Bowman.  This October article is called  ”Blogs, comments subject to libel law:  Sites walk fine line between editing, being immune from suits.”    It discusses some choices you might want to make about how you set up your site and what you choose to edit and how that might affect whether you have immunity for what others say on your blog.    Happy reading!  (Next artcle will be on privacy aspects of social networking….)

Copyright term chart

Copyright term graph

This is great.  Found this chart while researching something else.  Everyone asks me how long does a copyright last, and I have to give some hedging answer because well,  look left at how complicated it is.  Anyway, this is great.  Tuck this chart away. 

Tom Bell, released it on his website under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license

Social Networking Helps Cut Company Legal Fee Costs – How? Read on!

Social networking is helping companies (specificially corporate counsel) cut legal fees by providing groups and forums for them to discuss and share ideas and answers to legal questions for free.  For instance, on Linked In, there are topic groups that you can subscribe to, like Intellectual Property.  You can then post questions and answer other people’s questions.  Human resources professionals are also benefiting.  Of course, there are issues about the lack of attorney-client privilege and there is no privacy to the questions.  However, for general inquiries that are not private (perhaps such as “Where might I find good examples of social networking policies?”), these sites can really help.

Corporate counsel are also trading forms and drfating their own documents before sending them to outside counsel.

To read more about how companies are cutting costs, see this article here, which incidentally, mentions LexisNexis, my employer.

Facebook posts disparaging your co-workers can get you fired

Yes, Virginia, Facebook postes disparaging your co-workers can get you fired. Just see story of Griffin Scott, who posted on his Facebook status that the rest of the news team didn’t know what the Enola Gay was. He described the incident like this:

“The comment was posted on my personal Facebook page on August 14. I made the comment that I ‘knew what the Enola Gay was and that makes me the only person under 40 who knew that in our newsroom. Not sure whether to be proud or not,’” he said.  

See the Denver- The Latest Word blog here.

Apparently, three days before he was fired, he was asked to remove the post, which he did by deactivating his account.  They fired him anyway.  Now he has filed suit for breach of contract.  The station had terminated him under  a contract clause that prohibited him from subjecting the station to public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule. For more on that see here.

Articles by yours truely re: SOCIAL MEDIA and the LAW

The Dayton B2B recently published an article of mine on Social Media policies, whether employers should have them, what they might look like, etc.  To read it, click here.

The Dayton B2B also recently began publishing a series that David Bowman and I are doing on social media.  David writes on one side about the business implications, and I write on the other side about the legal implications.  Each month there will be a new article.  Our first article is here.

Please let me know what you think of the articles and what ideas you want to see covered in future articles.

LegalZoom = bar complaint and allegations of deceptive advertising

We’ve all heard the adds for LegalZoom on the radio.  They claim LegalZoom was developed by “expert attorneys.”   Hmmmm…. It always made me wonder.

But read for yourself their disclaimer, which in part says:

LegalZoom is not a law firm, and the employees of LegalZoom are not acting as your attorney. LegalZoom’s legal document service is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.

LegalZoom.com, Inc. (“LegalZoom”) is a registered and bonded legal document assistant, #0104, Los Angeles County (exp. 12/09). LegalZoom cannot provide legal advice and can only provide self-help services at your specific direction.

LegalZoom is not permitted to engage in the practice of law. LegalZoom is prohibited from providing any kind of advice, explanation, opinion, or recommendation to a consumer about possible legal rights, remedies, defenses, options, selection of forms or strategies.

Well, somone filed a bar complaint in North Carolina.  The complaint alleges that the software that creates the legal documents constitutes the practice of law because it selects the content. 

So does this mean all forms are bad?   I think not, and remember this is just a complaint, not a decision.  I think that it depends upon the extent to which the forms are reviewed for changes before they are distributed to the “clients.”   But, time will tell…

Of course, although you can do some documents yourself, there are so many things to consider that in most cases, you need a professional.  Biased?  Yes, but I also speak from experience.  Legal issues are not like doing your taxes.  Taxes have a defined set of rules (albeit large).  Legal documents reflect the breadth of creativity in business and life, and there are so many “reasonable” rules whose application can vary by jurisdiction.  One size does not fit all. 

For more information, see eLawyeringBlog’s post here.  For a nice discussion of the allegations of LegalZoom’s deceptive advertising practices, see For Connecticut Lawyer’s blog post here.

Futurelawyer: A technology blog worth reading

I stumbled across http://futurelawyer.typepad.com/futurelawyer/ today.  Futurelawyer is a blog about technology developments for lawyers.  However, he also reviews new phones, computers, and other programs that any business person can learn from.  Lately, he’s posted about the possibility of a color Kindle, itunes in the pool, and new Palms.