Forgot to Cancel? Pay Attention to Recent Auto-Renewal Law Changes
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Julie O'Neill
2y ago
As subscription models have gained exponential traction, legislatures are clamoring to ensure that their auto-renewal laws keep up with novel consumer protection issues. Several states have introduced or revised their auto-renewal laws, and the Federal Trade Commission has affirmed its commitment to enforce against unlawful offers. Perhaps most notably, California—already a leader in state auto-renewal laws—has significantly amended its law, with the amendments taking effect on July 1, 2022. Other new state requirements took effect on January 1, 2022. Read the full client alert for key takeawa ..read more
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Facebook rebrands as “Meta;” disables facial recognition capabilities
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Aaron Rubin, Julie O'Neill and Anthony M. Ramirez
2y ago
In late October, Facebook announced that it would change its name to Meta, signaling a shift of the social media giant’s focus toward the metaverse, a virtual space where social media, gaming, augmented reality, virtual reality, and cryptocurrencies converge and allow people to interact virtually with one another. It’s a relatively new concept in technology with many different definitions and interpretations. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at the company’s annual Connect conference that brings together virtual and augmented reality developers, content creators, marketers, a ..read more
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District Court Enjoins Controversial Texas House Bill 20
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Aaron Rubin and Heather Whitney
2y ago
Over the past several years, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal law that provides social media platforms with immunity from liability for user content and was once hailed as “the law that gave us the modern Internet,” has gone from relative obscurity (at least outside of tech circles) to being a household name and politicians’ favorite punching bag. Interestingly, the objections to Section 230 come from advocates on both sides of the aisle. Those on both the left and the right see the law as permitting platforms to maintain content moderation policies that result in sig ..read more
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Social Links: Embedding social media posts can be considered copyright infringement…but is it?
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Aaron Rubin, Julie O'Neill and Anthony M. Ramirez
2y ago
Social Links is our ongoing series here at Socially Aware that rounds up current developments at the intersection of social media, policy, research, and the law. Embedding social media posts can be considered copyright infringement…but is it? A Manhattan federal judge ruled in August 2021 that the practice of embedding social media posts on third-party websites, without permission from the content owner, could violate the owner’s copyright. The case centered around a 2017 video of a starving polar bear that nature photographer Paul Nicklen took and posted on his Instagram and Facebook accounts ..read more
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New “Two-Click Cancellation” Button – German Exceptionalism for Subscription Terminations
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Kristina Ehle, Stephan Kress and Jannis T. Werner
2y ago
As part of the new Fair Consumer Contracts Act, [Gesetz für Faire Verbraucherverträge; published in the Federal Gazette (Part I) no. 53/2021, p. 3433 et seq., full text publicly available (in German) Germany will soon require specific cancellation/termination mechanisms for consumer subscriptions. These mechanisms come on top of the updated EU-wide consumer contract rules under the EU Directives on Contracts for Digital Services and Content and on Contracts for the Consumer Sale of Goods and will take effect on July 1, 2022. Significant implementation effort is expected for affected providers ..read more
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Clubhouse faces steep challenges in spite of new features and expanded access
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Morrison & Foerster’s Social Media Practice Group
2y ago
Clubhouse, the former invitation-only social media darling that captured the attention of investors, social media early adopters, and competitors since its introduction in April 2020, now faces significant challenges as it strives to remain relevant and attract new and engaged users. Since our previous report on Clubhouse in March 2021, the social media app has released some significant changes and upgrades on its platform. Clubhouse now is available on the Android platform, but has yet to release all of the features that are available on the iOS version. Equally significant, Clubhouse has re ..read more
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Some Things Never Change… Including, Apparently, T&Cs in Germany
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Kristina Ehle and Jannis T. Werner
3y ago
With a judgment dated April 27 and published on June 4, 2021, the German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof – the “Court”) declared unfair and therefore illegal and unenforceable a common way to make changes to terms and conditions (“T&Cs”) used vis-à-vis consumers in Germany. For more information, read the full client alert. The post Some Things Never Change… Including, Apparently, T&Cs in Germany appeared first on Socially Aware Blog ..read more
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Northern District of California Holds that Section 230 Applies to App Store
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Aaron Rubin and Scott Chen
3y ago
While Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act continues to face significant calls for reform or even elimination, the recent Coffee v. Google case illustrates that Section 230 continues to provide broad protection to online service providers. In Coffee, the Northern District of California invoked Section 230 to dismiss a putative class action against Google alleging various claims premised on the theory that video games in the Google Play store with a gaming feature called “loot boxes” constituted illegal “slot machines or devices” under California state law ..read more
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Click Yes to Accept: Fairness and Transparency in Consumer Contracts in Europe
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Alistair Maughan and Mercedes Samavi
3y ago
Companies contracting with consumers have to take care to ensure their agreement terms are enforceable. In one of the first post-Brexit decisions on issues in an online consumer contract, a UK court recently showed that principles of fairness and transparency remain vital in the terms and conditions of consumer digital contracts. In Europe, drafting digital consumer contracts requires extra care and thought to be given towards incorporation, meanings, and additional regulations in comparison to B2B contracts. This is equally true in a post-Brexit world as it was back in 2012 when we repor ..read more
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Mitigating User Content Risk After EU Copyright Directive
Socially Aware | The Law and Business of Social Media
by Christiane Stutzle
3y ago
Partner Christiane Stuetzle, senior associate Patricia Ernst, and research assistant Susan Bischoff authored an article for Law360 covering how online content service providers must act to mitigate risks and avoid liability under the European Union’s Copyright Directive, created in an effort to strengthen the rights of copyright holders by making certain platforms that host user-uploaded content (UUC) liable for copyright infringements. This article was first published on Law360 on May 14, 2021. It is also available as a download on our website. (Please note that Law360 may ..read more
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