the law of managing social media sport and recreation alliance mike patrick and alastair cotton 4...
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The Law of Managing Social Media
Sport and Recreation AllianceMike Patrick and Alastair Cotton4 October 2011
Four broad categories to consider:
Blogging and networking conducted on your own website
Networking Sites
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
Sharing Sites
YouTube, Flickr
Review sites, price comparison sites, third party blogs and wikis
Wikipedia, Blogspot, WordPress, Industry Forums
Defining Social Media
Old Wine, New Bottles v New media, New Risks?
Data Protection Act (1998)
Privacy and Electronic Communication (EC Directive) Regulations (2003)
E-Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations (2002)
Defamation Act (1996)
Equality Act (2010) (Discrimination)
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988)
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006)
Content is King
Employees: who owns:
- the tweets, posts and other content submitted
- the account / profile
- the data / contact details, followers, connections, friends?
Third parties: assignment and scope of licences
User generated content
Naming conventions, contracts and social media policies
Data is God
Using social media for direct marketing - technical constraints
Consent and the surprise test
Data aggregation: cookies, spiders and scraping
Options?
- “user” marketing
- links and posted content
- social media plug ins
Welfare and child protection
Who is a minor and when and how is parental consent required?
Child protection - under 18
Data Protection – under 12? 16?
Marketing – under 16
[Health and Safety – under 18 (?)]
Controlling the output
Policies with:
Employees
Athletes
Commercial partners, sponsors and
stakeholders
And policies imposed by others (IOC, BOA,
UK Sport)
Establishing your approach
Employment contract, athlete agreement, third party contracts
Policies and guidelines
Website terms and conditions and privacy policy
Communication and training
Disciplinary processes
The best laid plans…
Opportunity v risk?
“Jordan Crane is banned from Tweeting. The next time he does that I will break both his
ankles. None of our players will be Tweeting or Facebooking anything about Leicester Rugby
Club again” [Richard Cockerill - August 2010]
So what are the risks?
Infringement of Intellectual Property rights
Defamation – libel
Breach of privacy / data protection
Distinguishing nature of the internet
- lack of control/responsibility?
- speed of publication/republication?
Liability (eg Defamation)
What is defamatory?
Vicarious liability
Carried out in the course of your employment
Importance of social media policy / guidelines
User Generated Content
Copyright- E-Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations (2002)
Defamation
- E-Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations (2002)
- Section 1 Defamation Act 1996
Privacy
- PCC (Scottish Sunday Express case)
What if something does go wrong?
PR v Legal
Factors to take into account
- Sense of perspective?
- Who is the information reaching?
- Is the information likely to go viral?
- Might any legal action be publicized and criticized?
- Is the information already out there?
- Do you need to act now?
- Is there a realistic chance of success?
- Legal costs?
Questions and discussion
Mike Patrick
Associate
020 3375 7115
Alastair Cotton
Associate
020 3375 7112