Peter Brody and Mariel Goetz have published a great article in Bloomberg BNA about the Ten Things You Need to Know About Social Media and Intellectual Property in 2013. They list the 10 things as:
1.Be on the lookout for the next Pinterest.
2.Determine the level of social media interactivity that works best for you and your business.
3.Determine an appropriate policy regarding ownership of user generated content.
4.Proactively address ownership and use of business-related social media accounts by employees.

Although it shouldn’t be news to advertisers that they need to include a disclosure, even on mobile phones and sites such as Pinterest and Twitter, the FTC realized that there was a gap due to advancing technology and issued a report last week to provide additional guidance to advertisers for short-form ads on social media like Twitter and Facebook as well as mobile platforms. The new rule “takes into account the expanding use of smartphones with small screens and the rise of social-media marketing,” the agency said in a statement. “The updated guidance emphasizes that consumer protection laws apply equally to marketers across all mediums.”

The Federal Trade Agency just released new rules under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to address the advances in social media since the COPPA was enacted in 1998. According to Jim Halpert, a partner at DLA Piper, as quoted in Corporate Counsel, “The world of COPPA compliance has just gotten considerably bigger… The major thing the FTC was concerned about was different forms of tracking children online that didn’t involve collecting their names and addresses.”

The COPPA Rule puts certain requirements in place for businesses that operate websites or mobile apps that are directed to children under the age of 13 or if the provider has actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from children under the age of 13. What didn’t change with the FTC’s new COPPA rules? Businesses still have to give notice to parents and get their verifiable consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13. Businesses must still keep the children’s information secure and the website or mobile app provide can’t make a child provide more personal information than necessary in order to participate in activities on the website or app.

What did the FTC change with the new COPPA rules?

Have you struggled with when and how to credit a source on your blog? Have you wondered if you are doing the right thing in how you are handling a situation or required disclosure on your blog? Have you had the misfortune of Tweeting something without thinking and then trying to delete and pretend it never happened?

Social media is still a media platform and advertisers need to remember that disclosures are still required. Nutrisystem is using Pinterest (a social media platform that has been discussed on this blog frequently) to pin photos as part of an advertising campaign. However, Nutrisystem’s captions only contained the information on the person in the photo (name and number of pound lost). The disclaimer (that this loss is unusual and the normal loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week) was missing.

As the use of social media by companies has become main stream, it is important to provide guidance to clients on the legal risks that accompany the use of social media to promote their businesses. The legal risks can be broadly grouped into the following categories:

1. Employment: As discussed previously on this blog previously,employers need to be careful when investigating potential and existing employees through social media. The potential to discoverprotected information about an employee is very high and should not be risked. In addition, the National Relations Board (NLRB) has recently released an advisory memo that states an employees posts on social media are protected if the posts discuss wages, hours, and working conditions with co-corkers and others. Employers need to be very careful to remain up to date on the current state of employment law as it relates to social media.

2. Contractual Issues: Using sites such as Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others all require a user to accept their terms and conditions to have an account. If your company is advertising on these sites, make sure that the terms and conditions that you agree to for advertising are in line with the terms your company can live with; otherwise you may run afoul of the requirements of the social media site and end up with your entire account being removed. In addition, if you have an employee running your social media campaign for you, make sure that employee is well versed in both the requirements of the FTC for your company and the terms and conditions of the social media site the employee is using.

How many of blog readers really understand the purpose of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disclosure language at the bottom of blog posts? Or how about the sarcastic comment many bloggers add in to their posts nowadays that goes something like – Here is the required FTC disclosure- I was (wasn’t) given XYZ (anything) for free in exchange for writing this post but my opinions are all my own. What is the purpose of this disclaimer and why did bloggers start adding it to their blogs?