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Monday, February 07, 2011

Law - "Emerging Legal Issues in Social Media: Part I"

This lengthy and valuable article, published by Ken Strutin at LLRX.com, has this introduction:

Social media is engaging masses of people in unprecedented ways. At the same time, the diversity of social networking applications has permeated and extended the range of legal investigation, discovery and litigation. As human activity is played out and recorded online, the laws governing cyber-behavior, privacy and discovery continue to evolve. And the distinction between public and private discourse blurs as the demand grows to fill limitless self-published cyber-columns.

Noteworthy means "worthy of notice or attention; notable; remarkable" -- literally jotting something down because it was worth remembering. This descriptor came into vogue barely a century after the birth of movable type, when self-publication and distribution were still daunting tasks. The advent of the printing press changed society by multiplying the written word exponentially, and it occurred before there was any reckoning of the avalanche of information to follow. The technologies of our era have put the power of the printing press into millions of hands. And they are creating a new environment for the practice and administration of law.

The materials collected in this article aim to provide a sense of the emerging issues created by the crosshatch of social media and legal practice. They represent a current sampling of notable developments in law enforcement, law practice, civil and criminal litigation, and technology's influence on human behavior. Hopefully, these materials will offer some insights into the changes being wrought by the user dominated stage of the Information Revolution.

Due to the breadth of this topic, the article will be published in two parts. Part I covers select statutes, case law, ethics opinions, and news media. Part II will address pertinent materials appearing in professional journals and blogs, law reviews, reports, books and secondary resources.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 7, 2011 10:53 AM
Posted to General Law Related