Happy Healthy Holidays & New Year
SXSW South by Southwest Conference
As some of you already know, South by Southwest ®(SXSW) is one of the world’s premier events showcasing music, film and interactive media. This internationally-recognized event has live panels, special events, cinema and combines entertainment and educational activities in a conference and festival atmosphere. The event takes place annually in Austin, Texas in the United States – this year between March 8th and 16th, 2024.
I have made a proposal to participate by making a presentation entitled “Legal Implications of AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and voting by the online community is now live! That allows the public to help the organizers decide on ideas that are the most creative, innovative, and relevant for 2024. Starting today and until August 20th (11:59 PM PT), you can see my proposal and vote using this link: Legal Implications of AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I hope you will vote to include my presentation in the event.
My objective is to make the presentation interactive and entertaining, including some potentially innovative uses of AI to make the point. What do I want to talk about? First, how does current law deal with the film, television, music, art, literary industries – what are the challenges and the opportunities. Second, how can celebrities, sports figures, creative artists and talented professionals protect themselves while also exploiting the evolving technology. Of course, last but not least, is it too soon to start regulating AI? If so, what are we waiting for? If not, how do we even suggest regulation when we can’t predict where we are going?
I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but I will try to provide an enlightening, stimulating and thought provoking presentation – and yes, entertaining! Again, I would appreciate your vote: Legal Implications of AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
Although amended twice (September 13th and October 11th of 2018) after its initial passage by the California State Legislature and being signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in June of 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act (California Civil Code Section 1798.100) (“CCPA”) becomes effective with the new year (January 1, 2020).
Although it is intended to protect and afford California residents with certain rights (in some areas, greater or somewhat different than the European Union’s General Data Protection Directive 2016/679), it affects non-profit entities that do business in California, and that collect personal information of consumers and either has annual gross revenues over $25 million OR buys or sells personal data of 50,000 or more consumers/households OR earns over half its annual revenue from selling consumer personal information.
If your organization fits into any of those categories, you are required to establish, put into place and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect consumer data and to afford California residents the right to know what personal data is being collected about them; to know whether and to whom the consumer’s personal data is sold or disclosed; to refuse to permit the sale of their personal data; to access their personal information; and to ask you to delete personal information collected from them. The law also prohibits discrimination against any consumer for exercising any of their privacy rights under the CCPA.
While many business have been busily amending their agreements with suppliers, service providers and likely have been presented updated and revised contracts with “CCPA” amendments in order to ensure those in the chain of collection, storage, handling, distribution and use are in compliance, if you do any business in or with California residents, don’t forget to update your privacy policies and any terms of use that apply to your websites, e-commerce and online/mobile presence generally. Those sites, even those that do not require any registration or input directly from consumers, almost certainly will be collecting information that is covered by the broad definition of “personal information” under the CCPA.
If you would like to know more about the CCPA or have any questions about this post, don’t hesitate to contact me Joe Rosenbaum, or any of the Rimon lawyers with whom you regularly work.
25th Anniversary Edition: Best of the Best USA Expert Guide
I am honored at having been notified I will be listed in the 2019 Best of the Best USA Expert Guide, as one of the Top 30 Media Practitioners in the USA.
Over the course of a quarter of a century, Euromoney’s Legal Media Group has researched the world’s legal markets. Based on extensive review, with legal peers and in-house counsel, they identify the world’s leading lawyers, advisers and legal practitioners.
Over these past 25 years, the Expert Guides have become a valuable reference tool and trusted resource for international buyers of legal services.
This is their 25th Anniversary Edition and although I have been listed in previous editions of the Guide to the World’s Leading Technology, Media and Telecommunications Lawyers, each time I receive such a notice, it reminds me of the professional relationships I have enjoyed over the last 40 years and the great privilege I have been afforded of serving and working with clients and colleagues, not only in the USA, but around the world. Thank you!
Fake News, Troubled Celebrity Endorsements & Social Media
On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, I had the privilege of presenting a live, interactive, video-conference program and course entitled “A Perfect Storm: The Intersection of Fake News, Celebrity Endorsements & Social Media,” sponsored by Lawline.
The course was broadcast live and also recorded at Lawline’s Studio in lower Manhattan and is now available for on-demand viewing at Lawline.com. With permission, I have also posted a PDF of the PowerPoint visuals used during the presentation (although you will not be able to see the embedded videos) and you can view or download a copy for your personal use right here: A Perfect Storm: The Intersection of Fake News, Celebrity Endorsements & Social Media
As always, if you need more information, you can contact me directly (Joe Rosenbaum) or any of the Rimon attorneys with whom you regularly work.
Best Wishes for 2018
To all my Legal Bytes subscribers, fans, readers, family and friends, thank you!
I would like to take a moment and wish all of you a joyous holiday season and health, happiness, success and peace in 2018 and beyond. . . and now I would ask you to take about 4 minutes out of your busy schedule, put down your mobile phones, tablets and video game consoles, click to start the video and take your hands off the keyboard to listen and watch and just enjoy . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxDXnM1Jd6Q
What is an “Ad” These Days?
On Friday, December 8, 2017, I had the privilege of presenting a seminar, hosted by Lawline, entitled “Augmented, Native and Interactive: The New World of Digital & Mobil Advertising.” This was broadcast live on the Web and recorded for subsequent on demand viewing and was my second presentation at Lawline. The first “Online & Mobile Digital Interactive Advertising: Video Games, Branded Entertainment, Native Advertising and Beyond” remains available as a web-based, on demand offering at Lawline.
This seminar provided an update on many of the concepts and principles discussed in the first program, including some basic principles of advertising law that applies in both the traditional and digital/mobile environment and provided updated information on game advertising – both advertising the game and in-game advertising – as well native advertising and guidance from the Federal Trade Commission. This recent session also delved into a number of digital and mobile advertising issues that were not part of the first presentation, such as celebrity endorsements, bloggers, experts & consumer testimonials in social media, augmented reality and advertising in virtual worlds, programmatic buying and the current tensions in the industry concerning transparency and relationships between advertisers and integrated agencies. You can view the slide images of my presentation “The New World of Digital & Mobil Advertising” and, of course, you can view the recorded session which is available exclusively through Lawline.
As always, if you need assistance or require any additional information, feel free to contact me, Joe Rosenbaum, at Rimon, P.C.
Global Social Media Handbook
I am proud to be among the 22 legal professionals, including 7 of my colleagues at Rimon, who contributed and co-authored a new book entitled Handbook on Global Social Media Law for Business Lawyers, published by ABA Publishing. This comprehensive work, sponsored by the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association, was co-edited by Valerie Surgenor, a partner in the Glasgow, Scotland, law firm MacRoberts LLP and John Isaza, my friend and partner here at Rimon, P.C. Although principally focused on the United States, there are contributions from foreign lawyers in key regions around the world, including Canada, the European Union, Australia, Russia and Asia.
The Handbook deals with national and international law principles and emerging issues related to social media law, ethics, compliance and governance, including cybersecurity, cyber terrorism and risk management in a social media environment (e.g., hacking, corporate espionage, data loss and data breach); intellectual property issues in social media; defamation, “fake news” and social media; implementation of a social media crisis plan; use of social media as a tool in recruitment of employees and the privacy implications to employers; promotional, endorsement and social media disclosure guidelines promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission in the US; and recent trends in UK and European social media legislation and regulation. There is a separate chapter that discusses information and records management within the context of social media.
If you are interested, you can order a copy directly from the ABA (Handbook on Global Social Media Law for Business Lawyers) and of course, if you need more information or want to discuss your particular requirements with knowledgeable and experienced professionals, feel free to reach out to me, Joe Rosenbaum, or to any of the lawyers at Rimon with whom you work with regularly.
Social Media: Celebrities & Paid Endorsements
On Thursday, April 6, 2017, I had the privilege of participating and presenting, together with a panel of distinguished lawyers, on the subject of the legal issues, implications, challenges and opportunities resulting from the use of celebrities in social media to provide endorsements for products and services. My partner, John Isaza, who heads the Records and Information Governance practice at Rimon Law, chaired the session sponsored by the Cyberlaw Committee. The program was held in New Orleans as part of the ABA Business Law Section Spring Meeting and the other presenters and panelists were Adam Nadelhaft, a senior litigation associate in the Washington office of Winston & Strawn LLP and Valerie Surgenor, a partner in the Glasgow, Scotland, law firm MacRoberts LLP.
In addition to my presentation on the use of celebrities in social media for endorsements, marketing and promotional purposes, Adam reviewed the law relating to paid endorsements and ‘buying buzz’ on social media, whilst Valerie focused on the similarities and differences in approach taken by UK and EU law.
You can view and download a personal copy of the presentation in PDF form right here “2017.04.06 Keys to Celebrity & Paid Endorsements in Social Media – Presentation at ABA Spring Meeting.
As always, if you have questions or want more information, feel free to contact me, Joe Rosenbaum, at Rimon Law.
The Paradox of Illumination
I first heard about the paradox of illumination from Lee Loevinger, an extraordinary gentleman I was privileged to know professionally. Lee was a multi-faceted, multi-talented, thought-provoking lawyer whose sage advice and stimulating ideas continue to resonate with those honored to have known him, and everyone else wise enough to read his work and the words he left behind.
In a nutshell, the paradox of illumination is extraordinarily complex, but simple to describe. Much like Albert Einstein who, when asked about his theory of relativity and the notion that time is not constant, described it in personal terms: if a man is at dinner for 10 minutes with a beautiful woman, it seems like a fleeting instant; but sit on a burning hot stove for 10 minutes and it seems like an eternity :).
The paradox of illumination can similarly be described on a personal level. Sit in completely dark room. Really. Completely dark. What can you see? Nothing. You know little about your surroundings and can only sense your own body – in fact, you don’t even know how far your surroundings extend beyond your immediate sensations.
Now light a match. The circle of illumination allows you to see a little of what is around you – but the perimeter and beyond are still dark. Now light a candle. The circle of what you can see illuminated by the light is larger than before, but the size of the perimeter beyond which you cannot see is also a lot larger than before. The larger the light, the larger the area of illumination, but larger by far is the perimeter beyond which we know nothing.
The more we can see and the more we know and understand about the world around us, the larger the amount becomes that we don’t know. In other words, as the circle of our knowledge grows, so does the amount of knowledge we cannot see and don’t know. The paradox of illumination is the paradox of knowledge. Perhaps that is why Michelangelo, when he was more than 87 years old, still said, “Ancora Imparo” (I am still learning).