This course will cover important legal issues relating to social media platforms and user interaction. Social media has revolutionized how we share, consume, and interact with all forms of digital content. These changes brought by social media touch on all aspects of our life—including our legal system. This course will discuss the spectrum of legal topics being impacted by social media: terms of service, platform liability, marketing, intellectual property, employment, privacy, free speech, and fund raising. You will also explore the role that lawyers in law firms and within organizations face when addressing these changes and the emerging risks. From Facebook to Pinterest, Foursquare to Quora, Instagram to Snapchat. We will explore how these platforms are changing our application of existing laws. The objective of this ready group course is to introduce students to the social media legal issues and the methods being used by attorneys to address these risks and how to identify the next area of social media that will challenge our existing legal norms. Students will be expected to post regularly on Canvas reactions to the reading material by finding a new and recent example of the issues raised. The grade will be based upon student reaction papers, student participation, and a 15-20 page research paper due at the end of the semester.
Dzienkowski, John S. 