Facebook stunt lands guy in jail

facebook website attorneyToo often, as a Website attorney, I see domestic disputes turn into online stalking and harassment. Then there’s this case involving a guy who went nuts when his girlfriend broke up with him.

In this case, the guy threatened his ex, stole her stuff, and then decided to get “revenge” using Facebook as the weapon. He posted a naked pic of her on Facebook and made it public so that a half billion FB users had access to it, including her friends.

Arrested and convicted for distributing the photo, the guy will be spending only 4 months in jail for the stunt.

Your Website attorney will tell you that there are at least two important lessons to learn from this…

1. Don’t take (or let anyone else take) pics or video of you that could embarrass you in the future. It can and will come back to haunt you somehow…often permanently cached somewhere on the Internet.

2. If you have anyone doing work on your Internet business (employee or independent contractor), you’ll want to have a Social Media Policy in place that protects your reputation and limits your liability exposure for what they put on Facebook and other social media sites while doing work for you.

To your online success!

-Mike the Website attorney

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Net Neutrality Died November 2, 2010

Net NeutralityVoters Kill Net Neutrality

As a Website attorney, I believe political support for Net Neutrality was just killed in the voting booths nationwide.

Here’s why…

95 Democrat congressional candidates signed a pledge in favor of Network Neutrality. Of those 95, every single one appears to have lost election/re-election.

Net Neutrality Makes Bad Politics

Although there a variety of issues at stake, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or a Website attorney for that matter, to figure out that going 0 for 95 makes a poor case for any politician in the near-term to vote for Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality by Regulatory Fiat?

The only way you’ll see this zombie revived in the short-term is if White House pushes federal regulatory agencies to circumvent Congress and impose Network Neutrality by fiat. Given the track record of the administration to appoint rogue “Czars,” this possibility of regulatory Net Neutrality still exists despite prior court rulings that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacks the power to implement it.

However, imposing Network Neutrality by regulation instead of law would be foolish when the opposition party now controls the purse strings for those agencies after recapturing the U.S. House of Representatives.

To your online success!

-Mike the Website attorney

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Is your copyright agent missing in action?

website attorney copyright agentMost website owners like you don’t fully protect themselves against copyright infringement claims. That typically means paying extra legal fees to a website attorney when things go wrong.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) contains what lawyers call “safe harbor” provisions. In plain English, this means by taking a few simple steps you can make yourself an unattractive target to sue because you’ve limited the amount of damages the other side can collect if you (or someone else) accidentally posted infringing material on your website (photos, graphics, text, videos, audios, etc.).

Although the DMCA is mind-numbingly complicated, here’s 3 keys steps you will want to consider to take advantage of the “safe harbor.”

Step 1. Designate your copyright agent.
Step 2. Post a DMCA Notice on your website.
Step 3. Follow the steps outlined in your DMCA Notice when a complaint is filed.

Of course, talk with your website attorney if you have any specific questions about the DMCA and designating a copyright agent.

To your online success!

-Mike the Website Attorney

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