In California, an artist sued an apparel company for putting his designs on items they hadn’t agreed on. Brilliantly, the company’s lawyers mined his social networking tools such as Facebook and MySpace to see if he had ever posted any comments on how he was thrilled to be featured on such products. But a federal judge stepped in and applied a 1986 electronic communications law, stating that as long as the artist’s wall was set to a strict “friends-only” privacy setting, his posts were private and couldn’t be used by the defendants.
In a world of social media crazed communities – where the creators of many of these platforms rely heavily on “sharing” information – the question pops into mind: does this 1986 law apply to the current issues around social networking today? And because the law is often a reactionary measure to the times, how and when will be able to answer that question succinctly?
Guess it’s time for some creative lawyering!
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