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Social Media and its Impact on the Legal Process Robert A. Heverly Associate Professor Albany Law School New York State Magistrate’s Association and Magistrate’s Court Clerks Conference Annual Conference Monday, September 28, 2015 Sheraton, Niagara Falls, NY | [email protected] | http://robert.heverly.org | 518 445-2379 | Robert A. Heverly is an Associate Professor of Law at Albany Law School of Union University. He has taught as a visiting professor at Michigan State University College of Law, taught in and directed a Masters in Law Program at the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Law School in the UK, has taught in Trier, Germany as a Guest Professor of the Common Law, and regularly teaches Internet Law as part of the George Washington University School of Law’s Munich Intellectual Property Summer Program. Professor Heverly earned his LL.M. from Yale Law School, after which he undertook a Resident Fellowship with the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, where he retains an affiliation as a Faculty Fellow. He received dual Bachelor of Arts degrees (Broadcasting & Mass Communications Studies and Psychology) from the State University of New York College at Oswego (with honors), and a Juris Doctor (with honors) from Albany Law School of Union University. Prof. Heverly is currently the Chair of the Internet and Computer Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools. Professor Heverly’s research interests include intellectual property, technology and society (especially the Internet, computers, networks, and information law), media law, property, and globalization. He regularly teaches continuing legal education courses on legal ethics and social media & online activity. He has taught Torts, Property Law, Art and Entertainment Law, Cyber/Internet Law, Copyright Law, International and Comparative Intellectual Property Law, and related courses. He has published articles and book chapters in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, the Georgetown Journal of International Law, and MIT Press, among others, and recently spoke at the Drones and Aerial Robotics Conference (DARC) sponsored by NYU’s Engleberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy. Heverly: Social Media and its Impact on the Law Contents I. Introduction: The Internet Changes Nothing, the Internet Changes Everything ......................................... 1 II. Social Media and the Internet: The Technological Framework ................................................................... 2 A. Facebook ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 B. LinkedIn ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 C. Twitter ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 D. Google Plus (Google+) ............................................................................................................................... 4 E. Other Sites and Technologies ..................................................................................................................... 4 III. Internet Law and Law for the Internet ........................................................................................................ 5 A. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 5 B. The Internet and User Content—Part I: 47 U.S.C. §230 .......................................................................... 5 C. The Internet and User Content—Part II: 17 U.S.C. §512 ........................................................................... 8 D. Jurisdiction and the Internet ..................................................................................................................... 9 E. Access to Electronic Communications ..................................................................................................... 10 IV. Computers, the Internet, and the Courts .................................................................................................... 11 A. Social Media Discovery ............................................................................................................................. 11 B. Social Media Evidence ............................................................................................................................... 13 1. A General Framework ............................................................................................................................ 13 2. Authentication Issues............................................................................................................................. 14 3. Hearsay ................................................................................................................................................... 16 4. Anonymity .............................................................................................................................................. 17 C. Service of Legal Process via the Internet .................................................................................................. 17 V. Online Speech, Legal and Otherwise: Publishing Online, Blogging, Facebook, Twitter and More ........... 19 A. Identifying clients online ......................................................................................................................... 20 B. Florida lawyer disciplined for calling a judge names on a blog .............................................................. 20 C. Admission Denied for Online Crime ......................................................................................................... 21 D. Texas lawyer gets in trouble for asking for continuance for funeral then partying ................................ 21 E. Posting False Negative Review Earns Reprimand .................................................................................. 22 ii Heverly: Social Media and its Impact on the Law F. Responding to Negative Online Review with Confidential Information Earns Rejection of Reprimand ..................................................................................................................... 22 G. Posting Fake Dating Ad for College Acquaintance Yields Suspension ................................................... 22 H. Hiring a Secretary via Craigslist Is Fine; Asking for Sex as Part of the Job is not ................................ 22 I. Judges can get in trouble, too ................................................................................................................... 23 VI. The Internet and Ethical Practice .............................................................................................................. 24 A. The Firm Online ....................................................................................................................................... 24 B. Electronic Errors Are Bound to Happen ................................................................................................. 27 C. E-mail is not a Phone Call ........................................................................................................................ 28 D. Encryption and Electronic Transactions ................................................................................................. 29 E. Being in Two Places at Once ..................................................................................................................... 31 F. Being in One Place and not Another ........................................................................................................ 32 G. Working Two Places at Once ................................................................................................................... 32 H. More problems with E-mail ..................................................................................................................... 32 I. Trying to Influence Public Perception by Posting Criminal Discovery Video Online ............................. 33 J. Westlaw Access Not Allowed After Leaving Position .............................................................................. 34 K. With Computers You Can Make Stuff Up (but shouldn’t) ...................................................................... 34 L. What’s on the Web Can Be Found ............................................................................................................ 34 M. You Can’t Get Rid of What’s on Facebook, But You Can Try (Though Maybe You Shouldn’t) ............ 35 N. Friends, Following, and Linking-in: Connections in a Connected World ............................................. 36 iii Heverly: Social Media and its Impact on the Law This page intentionally blank. iv Heverly: Social Media and its Impact on the Law The Internet, mobile telephony, and the apparently constant connectedness of business professionals and their clients and colleagues raise a variety of issues in the modern professional world. Of these, new technologies often raise many issues, often simply because we are unaware of the technology’s true impact on our lives and our practice. These materials will look at how connectedness in many of its forms implicates judicial, procedural, and ethical concerns. I. Introduction:

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