This panel, moderated by Nilesh (Neal) Patel, Counsel with Frost Brown & Todd, LLC, was by far the most interesting (and most ignored by attendees) session in the two-day AdClub Digital Non-Conference set Nov. 14-15 in Cincinnati.
The panel included Jill P. Meyer (Partner, Frost Brown & Todd, LLC), Michael Fry (Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald PLLC), Elaine Skeldon (WonderGroup) and Jeff Jones (WonderGroup).
In record time, the group covered legal issues involving interactive media; how to protect websites and companies, and what are the risks involved.
Jones and Skeldon introduced ToppsTown, a virtual world created by WonderGroup for Topps Baseball Cards. The website is genius. It allows to participate in "e-trading" baseball cards and bringing them collections to life. They can trade electronic cards; create their own clubhouse and play games to earn points and buy more e-cards.
Ah, now to the lawyer stuff:
"From where I sit, anytime you are interacting on a website and asking someone to post content or play on the site, that peaks the legal interest," says Meyer. "There are virtual worlds; news sites with i-reporters that are asking you to create content.
"Social media is what you are hearing about every day," said Jones. "It's a big part of advertising"
And, thus, their are going to be legal issues.
"Lots of legal issues, but what brings them all together is the lack of control," said Meyer. " What is the content going to be? Shear lack of control is a legal issue. Much of this is limited to advertising, but other things are involved such as terms of use and privacy policies."
Fry agrees.
"There are legal risks. What are you saying? What kind of music are you playing? What are you saying about brands? When users bring that into your site, then you are exposing yourself to all kinds of liability," said Fry.
Patel noted that, when given the chance on a website, someone will always do something bad. For example:
- steal (copyrights, trademarks)
- be mean to others (defame, threaten)
- post obscene stuff (nudie pics, porno)
- misrepresent (false claims, false advertising)
"When you are developing sites for others to populate, do you have a screening process?" said Patel.
What about the content?
"As long as you are hosting a website for others to develop the content, how is it set up? There is a contractual issue there," said Meyer. "Whoever is creating the content is responsible."
Other areas of discussion included:
- Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and obtaining verifiable parental consent prior to collecting personally identifiable information. ToppsTown not only abides by COPPA in seeking parental approval for any children under the age of 13, but does not collect and keep that information for data purposes.
- "That information is only used to get parent concent. Then it is thrown away," said Skelton.
- "Any personal, for a child under the age of 13 - name address, anything that can allow a company to come back and identify a user, they cannot collect," said Fry.
- When do you need to call the lawyers? "Call them early," said Jones. "Have a meeting with the programmers and lawyers. Understand the logic so you can build it."