PILT Seminar Examines Pitfalls to User-Generated Content

More than 100 attorneys visited Keller Hall this summer to discuss licensing, patenting and policing new technologies during the 20th Significant Developments in Intellectual Property Law of Computers and Cyberspace seminar in June. Sponsored by the Program in Law and Technology, the daylong seminar featured eight sessions presented by national and international experts covering a range of topics, including open-source software, user-generated content, social media and marketing, and copyright music infringement lawsuits.

Brian Wright, an attorney in Faruki Ireland and Cox's Cincinnati office, discussed how advertising has changed because of the advent of web 2.0, leading participants through an overview of the legal pitfalls in social media marketing. "If you have users review your products you don't have control over what they're going to say," he said.

There is brand risk and legal risk to using social media to advertise goods and services, he said.

Furthermore, if a business has customers review their projects on Facebook, the business needs to understand Facebook's terms and conditions, Wright said. "Don't encourage them to violate the terms and conditions," he said.

In another session, Brian Murphy, a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC in New York, examined copyright laws within the context of infringement of rights in musical composition and sound records.

Kate Spelman, an expert in cutting edge copyright matters from San Francisco, and Barb Frederiksen, senior managing consultant for Johnson-Laird in Portland, Oregon, provided insight into managing open and third-party software source code. The session was designed to help lawyers who sometimes lag behind IT professionals on technology developments in the field.