HHR New Media, Entertainment and Technology Group

Over the last year, social networking sites, most notably those with a developer platform such as Facebook, have become hotbeds for virtual goods purchases, social gaming, sweepstakes and advertising-based promotions.  Many of these are based on custom-designed and developed third party applications and widgets, which are veritable revenue drivers for the platform operators.  Several months ago Apple modified the terms for its iPhone application development agreement (via an amendment to the iPhone SDK terms)  to specifically permit app-based contests and sweepstakes.  Specifically, Apple added the following language: “Your Application may include promotional sweepstakes or contest functionality provided that You are the sole sponsor of the promotion and that You and Your Application comply with any applicable laws.” However, questions have arisen regarding the legality of running these games and promotions via such applications and platforms.  At their core, these questions focus on the legal distinctions between lotteries, contests and sweepstakes, distinctions that could mean the difference between a highly successful promotion and a high-profile legal headache. Continue Reading »

Transparency into how websites use, protect and disclose the personally identifiable information of its end users has been an especially hot topic over the past few years as the use of social networking and social utility sites have grown exponentially in popularity.  So it’s no surprise that end users’ control (or lack thereof) over how their personally identifiable information is used, and the extent of that control, has been giving many in our industry “heart burn” and raising the eyebrows of legislators and governments globally.

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Since Facebook launched its Facebook Usernames initiative in mid-June, over 6 million unique individuals have registered usernames for their personal profiles, and over 15,000 usernames have been registered for Facebook Pages as well, which are commonly used by businesses and other organizations.  In many ways, the program looks like a proprietary domain name registration system.  However, when we read that Facebook is claiming ownership over every username, an assertion attributed to a company spokesman, we realized that Facebook is not acting like a domain name registrar.  We also wondered about the legal basis of such a claim.

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• The Performance Rights Act, which was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on May 13th, would levy fees on broadcasters for airing artists’ recordings. An indication of the heat generated by the debate over the PRA emerged this week when the musicFIRST Coalition, however, filed a complaint asking the FCC to investigate whether radio stations have been boycotting artists that support the PRA. The coalition’s filing accuses broadcasters of airing deceptive spots by portraying the proposed royalty as a “tax” and not airing musicFIRST’s own paid ad endorsements. While musicFIRST did not identify any specific station or broadcaster withholding airplay, the coalition alleged that several stations have refused to play an artist’s music based on his or her remarks or affiliation with endorsing the legislation. Spokesman Marty Machowsky said it would only identify specifics if the FCC initiates the proceeding and agrees to keep the information confidential. Continue Reading »

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• The Electronic Frontier Foundation released a “terms of service” tracker earlier this week. The tracker chronicles older and new terms of service agreements, side by side, and highlights changed provisions. The TOSBack.org site was created in part from an outgrowth of Facebook’s change in its service agreement in February that, under a broad interpretation, provided that Facebook with a license to its members’ uploaded content even after termination of membership. Following criticism in the media and by its members, Facebook backed down and provided for a termination of the license. But the episode revealed the difficulty end users have in evaluating how revised terms of service provisions can have real impact. The “terms of service” tracker currently tracks 44 sites, including Facebook, Google, Wordpress, Data.gov, YouTube, GoDaddy, and eBay. Continue Reading »