Legal Guide To Social Media Second Edition

Learn how to navigate the ins and outs of the law and social media. How should you respond to a request to remove copyrighted materials from a Facebook page? If you create a Twitter username at work, who owns the username when you change jobs? Can you be sued for libel if someone thinks your posts are defamatory? If you’ve ever asked yourself these kinds of questions, this pioneering legal handbook is for you. Despite the enormous growth in social media usage by businesses and influencers, very little has been written about the laws affecting their activities. In this new edition of the Legal Guide to Social Media, Kimberly A. Houser, law professor and tech attorney, explains the potential pitfalls and how to avoid them including what social media influencers could have done to protect themselves from the lawsuits resulting from the Fyre Festival debacle. Easy-to-understand, comprehensive, and up-to-date, the Legal Guide to Social Media, Second Edition provides the latest information on case law and statutes. It covers everything from privacy laws to the legal considerations in setting up a page or website as well as new governmental regulations. This plain English legal companion offers examples of and solutions to the kinds of situations you can expect to encounter when posting online content, whether for yourself, your own business, or on behalf of your client’s business. You’ll learn how to avoid liability for defamation and third-party posts, how to protect your own content, the unique legal issues surrounding social media in the workplace, and much, much more. The new edition covers new state regulations on privacy, data security and advertising; how to avoid intellectual property infringement actions; and the newer legal risks for influencers.

How should you respond to a request to remove copyrighted materials from a Facebook page? If you create a Twitter handle at work, who owns that handle when you change jobs? Can you be sued for libel if your posts are defamatory? If you’ve ever asked yourself these kinds of questions, this pioneering legal handbook is for you. Despite the enormous growth in social media, scant legal advice is available to help the many people who are posting online. Easy-to-understand, comprehensive, and current, Legal Guide to Social Media provides the latest information on case law and statutes. It covers everything from privacy laws to copyright issues to how to respond to employers’ requests for your social media passwords. This plain English legal companion offers examples of and solutions to the kinds of situations you can expect to encounter when posting online content, whether for personal enjoyment or on behalf of an employer. You’ll learn how to avoid liability for defamation and third-party posts, the legalities of copying and linking to content, how to protect your own content, and much, much more. Whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, business owner, new media manager, or simply one of the millions of social media users in the United States, this must-have guide will help you to understand and mitigate the most common legal risks inherent in social media use.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat allow users to connect with one another and share information with the click of a mouse or a tap on a touchscreen—and have become vital tools for professionals in the news and strategic communication fields. But as rapidly as these services have grown in popularity, their legal ramifications aren’t widely understood. To what extent do communicators put themselves at risk for defamation and privacy lawsuits when they use these tools, and what rights do communicators have when other users talk about them on social networks? How can an entity maintain control of intellectual property issues—such as posting copyrighted videos and photographs—consistent with the developing law in this area? How and when can journalists and publicists use these tools to do their jobs without endangering their employers or clients? Including two new chapters that examine First Amendment issues and ownership of social media accounts and content, Social Media and the Law brings together thirteen media law scholars to address these questions and more, including current issues like copyright, online impersonation, anonymity, cyberbullying, sexting, and live streaming. Students and professional communicators alike need to be aware of laws relating to defamation, privacy, intellectual property, and government regulation—and this guidebook is here to help them navigate the tricky legal terrain of social media.

How to Avoid Legal Pitfalls on Social Media Social media is where your customers are--so it's where your business has to be. Unfortunately, this space is packed with land mines that can obliterate your hard-earned success in the time it takes to click a mouse. Written in easy-to-understand, accessible language, Social Media Law for Business reveals your legal rights and responsibilities in the fast-moving and ever-changing social media landscape. Learn how to: Create a social media policy for your business * Recruit, hire, and fire through social media * Share content without getting sued * Blog and run contests * Draft disclosure requirements in digital advertising "Glen Gilmore stands alone as the authority on social media law. Social Media Law for Business should become a ready reference for business leaders and digital marketers." -- MARK SCHAEFER, bestselling author of Return on Influence "Required reading not only in the classroom, but also in the boardroom--and in any business where people care about getting social media marketing right." -- PETER METHOT, managing director of executive education at Rutgers Business School "A layperson's blueprint for minimizing the legal risks of social media marketing, while maximizing the opportunities for digital marketing success." -- AMY HOWELL, founder of Howell Marketing Strategies and coauthor of Women in High Gear

Written by a veteran litigator and leading expert on law and social media, The Lawyers Guide to Social Networking provides a comprehensive look at how social media is affecting the legal system. This book examines the myriad ways in which information from sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter is being put to use in everything from criminal and family law matters to personal injury, employment, and commercial cases nationwide. The author illustrates how the pervasive social networking phenomenon is redefining traditional notions of jurisdiction, duty, service of process, and legal ethics while using actual trial and appellate level cases to analyze the discoverability and admissibility of social media evidence.

Many lawyers view social media as a passing fad, but lawyers who dismiss social media do so at their peril. This cutting-edge guide shows lawyers how to use a practical, goal-centric approach to social media. By enabling lawyers to identify the social media platforms and tools that fit their practice, lawyers can implement them easily, efficiently, and ethically. Written by two lawyers, this book is designed with both the novice and advanced user in mind.