“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”

The Six Million Dollar Tweet

tweet is limited to 140 characters, but a picture might be worth six million dollars. Actress Katherine Heigl, who rose to Hollywood stardom on the medical drama television series Grey’s Anatomy, is suing the Duane Reade pharmacy chain for tweeting her image.

At some point a paparazzo took a picture of Heigl carrying Duane Reade shopping bags on her way out of the pharmacy. Duane Reade found it on a celebrity gossip website. On March 18, 2014, Duane Reade included the image in a tweet that read, “Love a quick #DuaneReade run? Even @KatieHeigl can’t resist shopping #NYC’s favorite drugstore.

Continue reading “The Six Million Dollar Tweet”

Fifty Shades of Grey and Fan Fiction: Do You Own Your User-Generated Content?

The book series Fifty Shades of Grey and social media user “terms of service” might not seem to naturally intersect. After all, one is about being bound to obligations. The other is a website agreement. The wildly popular Fifty Shades of Grey series written by E L James has provoked many different reactions. One of the effects is a recent copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit.

Continue reading “Fifty Shades of Grey and Fan Fiction: Do You Own Your User-Generated Content?”

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The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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