The California Consumer Privacy Act, commonly referred to as the CCPA, was enacted in 2018 and became effective on January 1, 2020, though there is a six month grace period for enforcement which give companies that engage with California residents time to implement and work out best practices for these new requirements. This landmark [...]
Facebook Branded Content Policy Update - March 2017 On March 30, 2017, the Facebook Branded Content Policy was quietly updated (again). The most significant change is that now only Pages or profiles with access to the Branded Content Tool (BCT) are permitted to post branded content. These are significant changes to both the original policy, which I wrote about [...]
"I have the right to free speech!" You’ve heard it or have seen it posted… Someone saying they can say whatever they want, post whatever they want and no-one can do anything to them. As if the First Amendment is their sword and shield. And you can’t do anything about it. Freedom of speech. [...]
While the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has, over the past several years, slowly ramped up its enforcement of non-disclosure for paid (or otherwise compensated) endorsement by bloggers, influencers, and celebrities, their enforcement and oversight is limited to the US. And though social media and the web is global, other countries have not [...]
Some people like to call it ‘content curation’. Really, it’s just a fancy way to say you want to share work that is not yours. In theory, this sounds like a really nice thing, sharing someone’s work and giving them an audience beyond their own. In reality, though, it’s intertwined with copyright law; which [...]
For the first time since they were first written in 2009 (and made public in 2010), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated its "What People Are Asking" page, which is a Q&A-type resource relating to the FTC Endorsement Guides and related online disclosure rules. The update provides further clarification related to how and [...]
Update for Facebook Promotions Running your sweepstakes or contest on Facebook may look different come November 5, 2014. In announcing updates to the Graph API, Facebook Software Engineer Harshdeep Singh included the Platform Policy changes in a post on the Facebook Developer Blog on Thursday August 7, 2014. While this is a more technical [...]
You know in passing when you say to someone "We should do a G+ hangout!" and they say yes, that's how this happened. While I've written about Photo Copyright on several different sites, Peg Fitzpatrick instantly agreed to do a Google + hangout about online photo use because we both find it frustrating to [...]
One of the best ways to find usable copyrighted works, especially images, is to find someone who wants to share their work under a Creative Commons license. Since 2002, Creative Commons has been giving creators a way to share their work without having to relinquish copyright or individually license their work. These licenses have [...]
In response to questions and uncertainty about using Pinterest to run giveaways, Pinterest has issued an update to its Pinterest for Business Brand Guidelines and Acceptable Use Policy. While the Brand Guidelines are specifically for business users, the Acceptable Use policies apply to all platform users. Together, these new Pinterest giveaway rules should help [...]
