“I Told the Waiter There Was a Fly in My Soup!” – A Little More Freedom for User Outrage on Yelp and other Social Media Sites

“The worst meal I ever had. And the service sucked, too.” Can you legally say that kind of thing about a restaurant on social media sites like Yelp? Those long, eye-glazing terms of service (sometimes called “terms of use,” “end-user terms of service,” etc.) in websites that express your rules of behavior sometimes state that you can’t say derogatory things about a business without violating those user terms. The text of such user terms can ramble on forever and obviously go unread by most customers. When is the last time you thoroughly read the Apple iTunes user agreement?

It’s important to note that U.S. courts typically do uphold website user terms when they are challenged. For example, an Arizona federal district court stated in a 2009 case referring to a non-disparagement clause, that “[u]nder Arizona law, courts generally enforce boilerplate language or clauses in non-negotiated, standardized contracts.” Serious stuff. Continue reading ““I Told the Waiter There Was a Fly in My Soup!” – A Little More Freedom for User Outrage on Yelp and other Social Media Sites”

Truth and Beauty in Hollywood – Can an Actress Keep Her Real Age Private?

It’s not easy being a movie actress over the age of 40, says an actress. Huong Hoang (known also as Junie Hoang) signed up for an iMDb Pro account and didn’t want to disclose her real age. It is said that beauty creates its own rules of conduct; perhaps in Hollywood so does age.

It’s true that just about everyone in the movie and TV industries uses iMDb as a resource. IMDb found out her correct age, and it included that information in her publicly available website data.

Continue reading “Truth and Beauty in Hollywood – Can an Actress Keep Her Real Age Private?”

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