The keynote session held today at LegalTech West Coast was entitled "Social Media and the Law" and was presented by David Pashman, legal team leader of Meetup.com. The session was well-attended ... we guessed about 200 - 250 attendees with standing room only. Judging by the number of attendees and their engagement with the session, the topic is a hot one that many companies are dealing with -- whether they are involved in social media or not. Pashman touched on defamation and the safe harbors that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act offers to social media providers, and presented real world examples of cases and situations within his own company. He also discussed safe harbors for copyright infringement that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act offers. He also told the audience that trademark usage for social media companies is established within their own internal policies, and that these policies become de facto legal standards. He ran out of time, but not before briefly touching on privacy laws and data security. He told us that Facebook's privacy policy is longer than the U.S. Constitution! His talk ended before he could cover all of his material -- if the schedule had allowed for him to continue his discussion, attendees would have stayed to listen. They were VERY engaged in this session.
