Social Networking Websites

Pinterest’s Terms of Service Screws Its Users… Or Maybe It’s Just Like Every Other Social Networking Site

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As some of you may have heard, Pinterest is the newest social media craze sweeping the nation. The idea behind the site is to create a virtual pin board of cool crap you find on the internet and want to share with your friends.

I know, it’s totally new and unlike anything we’ve ever seen before!

The site is still in its infancy, but it’s already facing its first backlash/potential legal controversy, a problem kicked off a few weeks ago by a lawyer-slash-photographer who thought she noticed something fishy about the startup’s terms of service policy. Namely, how does a company protect itself when it’s arguably built on the premise of users sharing art they don’t own? Pass the buck, of course…

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The Practice: Does Anyone Want a Mentor Anymore?

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Over the past few weeks, the ugly truth about the generational gap between those who claim the moniker of “Gen Y lawyer” and, well, everyone else, has been raging through the blogosphere. While younger generations have always looked at their elders as “stupid,” and not worthy of listening to, it has never been as much a part of the legal profession as it is now. The Gen Y cheerleading squad of lawyers and their marketers believe there actually is a “revolution” in the legal profession and that if those who have come before don’t get with it and move their practices to the iPad, they (we) will go the way of the dinosaur.

They also think their elders want them to fail, are scared of them stealing clients, and only offer criticism for these reasons. I hate to break it to you kids, but I want you to succeed, and my clients aren’t hiring you. They’re not hiring your website or your Facebook Fan Page. Really, they’re not…

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Non-Sequiturs: 03.08.12

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* “Joe the Plumber” and the GOProud are friends again. I’m sure there is a joke there that would be wildly inappropriate. [MetroWeekly]

* Apparently, being a partner at Morgan Lewis makes you too liberal to be Senator from Texas. [Am Law Daily]

* Workout regimes of people truly rich enough to not work out and still pull all the ass they could possibly want. [Dealbreaker]

* It’s pretty sad that the GOP has taken voter suppression so far that the NAACP has to whine to the United Nations. [The Guardian]

* Jay-Z didn’t steal Big Pimpin’ from Egypt. Though, if this were 1970 I’d totally be “Pimp Pharaoh” and carry around a scepter. [Bloomberg Law]

* Law firm associates aren’t the only ones who need instructions on how to use a toilet. [Going Concern]

* Can your company demand your Facebook password? Next they’re going to want the keys to your house. [Not So Private Parts / Forbes]

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Is There A Facebook Snitch In Your Class?

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I hope they're reading Above the Law.

Usually, it’s law professors who spend time bitching about students using Facebook and Gchatting in class. Boring, old, can’t hold an audience unless it’s captive, law professors. For the most part, I let those professorial concerns go in one ear and out the other. You’re making six figures as a law professor and you have to teach a couple of times a week. If your lecture isn’t more interesting than Minecraft, it’s your own damn fault. If you try, they will listen.

Yesterday we got something that we don’t see a lot: a letter from a law student complaining about the way her classmates use Facebook and Gchat. Yeah, apparently there is some law school out there that forces students to look at other students’ Facebook pages during class. Can you believe it… oh, wait; I’m getting new information over the wire that suggests the complaining student is just an incredible busybody who thinks she’s been elected police commissioner of other people’s in-class behavior.

Let’s delve into the mind of a person who wants to be the boss of you….

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Facebook Status Update of the Day: In Whine There Is Truth

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I work as a lawyer so I can afford Gold Label so I can forget that I work as a lawyer.

– Facebook status update of a person who graduated from a top 10 law school and now works at a large law firm.

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Non-Sequiturs: 03.01.12

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* Defense lawyer: “I think you’ll be returning a verdict of ‘guilty’ on each and every one of these counts. I mean, crap… Scratch that, reverse it.” [NewsNet 5 Ohio]

* It really stinks that Chick-fil-A is a little bit evil, because their food is SO GOOD. [TaxProf Blog]

* Attorneys with more pronounceable names rise more quickly to superior positions in their firms. Apologies to Elie Mystal. [The Atlantic]

* Southwestern Law School 3L freaks out about looming debt, records EP entitled “Financial Aid,” and lands gig at SXSW. I’m actually kind of jealous. [Mike Bauer, Facebook]

* KLM is allowing you to upload your Facebook profile before you pick your seat, so you can hand pick your seatmate. How long before people start trolling with fake Kim Kardashian accounts? [The Not-So Private Parts]

* The job interview shame thread. Lord, this is painful. And hilarious. [Dealbreaker]

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Non-Sequiturs: 02.24.12

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Let's hope nobody you make fun of ever decides to kill themselves. Otherwise you might end up like Ravi.

* So, your colleague or family member dies, suddenly, after allegedly being worked into the ground. But it’s my blog post about it that “turned the sad situation into a nightmare”? I think instead of lamenting for a fluff piece in a local paper, the media geniuses at Dinsmore should respond to a legitimate press inquiry. [West Virginia Record]

* The Dharun Ravi trial is under way. I’ll be calling it the Ravi trial, not the Tyler Clementi trial. Because Tyler Clementi is the kid that tragically killed himself, while Dharun Ravi is the very much alive person who has already had his life ruined even thought he didn’t kill anybody. [Metropolis]

* Are law firms finally starting to make money off of their investments in social media? [Legal Blog Watch]

* HoLove is getting a Brazilian. [Legal Week]

* Mmm… Section 230. [Paid Content.org]

* Does pot make you less productive, or does lack of productivity make you smoke pot? Or, man, have you ever thought that, like, maybe the pot was smoking you, or something? [What About Clients?]

* If you go to the second hour of this show, at about the 33-minute mark, you’ll hear me start to absolutely lose my mind over the Supreme Court’s decision to grant cert in Fisher. [WBEZ]

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You Got Served — By Facebook

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Working as a process server is a tough job. It might be one of the few modern professions where “don’t shoot the messenger” still has literal meaning. Seth Rogen made it look kind of cool in Pineapple Express, and he got to wear disguises. But that movie wasn’t exactly realistic.

But what if there was a new, technologically savvy way to serve hard-to-access litigants? Some sort of online community that everyone was a part of? Oh wait, we have that. It’s called Facebook.

::Light bulb goes on::

At least, that’s what a judge in England was thinking on Tuesday when he ruled that a defendant in a commercial dispute could be served via Facebook. The judge gets points for forward thinking, but at the same time I’m not sure the plan was too well thought-out…

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Sex Offenders, Welcome to Facebook (Well, Kind Of)

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Like it or not, sex offenders have rights, too.

Sex offenders are the easiest people to take away rights from. Even other criminals hate sex offenders. Their crimes are heinous, it’s unclear if recurring sex offenders can ever be “cured,” and if they ever get out of jail, even most progressives are happy to severely curtail their rights and freedoms.

It’s tough to take a public stand for the rights of pedos. But someone has to do it. Yesterday, a Louisiana federal judge struck down a state law barring sex offenders from Facebook and other social media. He used a First Amendment argument to scrap the law, which took effect in August, and created a “near total ban on internet access” for sex offenders.

That’s all well and good, although Facebook isn’t exactly pleased….

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No, You Can’t Sue Your Uncle For Putting Embarrassing Family Photos On Facebook

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Humiliating? Yes. Harassment? No dice.

At this point, nearly everyone has at least one friend who finds perverse joy in posting stupid, unflattering photos of their friends to Facebook. Maybe drunk photos or maybe just dorky, grody ones from right after you ran a marathon or something.

In these mildly annoying situations, most people would untag the photos and then forget that they existed. But not everyone. A Minnesota man named Aaron Olson could not handle the fact that his uncle posted photos from his childhood in front of the Christmas tree, along with some snarky captions. So he sued his uncle for harassment.

A Minnesota district court tossed his case, and earlier this week the Court of Appeals of Minnesota denied Olson’s pro se complaint. Judge Natalie E. Hudson wrote a surprisingly zen unpublished opinion, considering how silly the lawsuit (and Olson’s in-court behavior) was…

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