Facebook Insult About Islam May Lead To Execution in Iran

Be careful about what you say online.  For example, if you are a United Kingdom resident and post allegedly derogatory messages about Iran and/or Islam and then visit Iran you may be detained by the Iranian authorities.  This appears to have happened to a British resident recently.

According to The Independent, a British woman allegedly posted derogatory comments about Iran's government and Islam on Facebook.  It appears that as soon as she landed in Shiraz, Iran to visit family she arrested and was taken to Tehran and charged with "gathering and participation with intent to commit crime against national security" and "insulting Islamic sanctities".  These charges may lead to her execution. 

This set of facts leads me to believe that Iran is social media monitoring every negative comment online about its government and when it has the opportunity to arrest the alleged speakers it does.

The bottom line is that sometimes it is best to have anonymity online.  The Federalist Papers were published anonymously for a reason and that reason was to express political opinions without fear of retribution.  Therefore, before making online political comments about certain issues anonymity may be best. 

Copyright 2014 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.

Illinois Enacts Right To Privacy in the School Setting Act

Illinois has recently become the 2nd state in the country to enact social media privacy legislation that provides protection to the personal digital accounts of K-12 and post-secondary students. Michigan was the first state to enact social media privacy protections for K-12 and post-secondary students last year.  Multiple other states across the country have enacted social media privacy laws that protect post-secondary school students.   

The Right to Privacy in the School Setting Act was enacted because of several troubling social media related situations in Illinois.  For example, there was an incident where an Illinois public middle school violated the constitutional rights of several students by requiring some students to turn over their Facebook and email usernames and passwords.

Unfortunately, this aspect of the act is very troubling and will have unintended consequences:

Section 10. Prohibited inquiry.
(d) This Section does not apply when a post-secondary school has reasonable cause to believe that a student's account on a social networking website contains evidence that the student violated a school disciplinary rule or policy.

 Northwestern University will be required to change its student-athlete social media policy before 1/1/2014 due to the new law.  Northwestern's Online Soical Networking Student-Athlete policy states,  "You must provide full access to members of your coaching staff and/or selected members of the Athletics Department for any and all personal online networking pages." and "You must fully participate in any system developed by your coaching staff to assist in self-monitoring your teammates' personal online networking pages (e.g., buddy system)." This language clearly violates the new law. 

As a parent of young children, I would never turn over the passwords of their personal digital accounts absent a warrant and/or a court order and I believe this law is poorly drafted.  Does this law violate the Stored Communications Act and/or a student's first and/or 4th amendment?  Time will tell.

The bottom line is that K-12 and post-secondary schools must ensure they do not create social media policies that violate state/federal laws and/or our Constitution.  Its ironic that social media was intended to expand the freedom of speech; unfortunately, the reality is that some institutions that don't like the messages being created are using social media to curtail free speech rights.   

Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved. 

O'Bannon Lawsuit against NCAA Adds Current Student-Athletes

The image and likeness rights to current and former student-athletes are valuable assets.  For years, the basic deal has been that a school offers a prospective student a one year renewable (by the school) scholarship to students and in return a student becomes a student-athlete, receives an education, and hopefully a valuable degree that may be utilized to obtain gainful employment. As part of the deal, a school and/or conference, and/or the NCAA may monetize the name and likeness of their student-athletes in perpetuity. 

Is this a fair deal?  This is a question that is currently being litigated by what is known as the O'Bannon lawsuit.  According to a press release by the law firm representing the O'Bannon class representatives, there is "a conspiracy by the NCAA and its business partners, such as videogame manufacturer EA and licensing agent CLC, to license and sell the names, images, and likeness of current and former student-athletes without compensation to those student-athletes, under the guise of amateurism."

The former student-athlete class representatives Ed O’Bannon, Oscar Robertson, William Russell, Harry Flournoy, Alex Gilbert, Sam Jacobson, Thad Jaracz, David Lattin, Patrick Maynor, Tyrone Prothro, Damien Rhodes, Eric Riley, Bob Tallent, Danny Wimprine, Ray Ellis, and Tate George have now been joined by current student-athletes, Jake Fischer, Jake Smith,Darius Robinson, Moses Alipate, Chase Garnham, and Victor Keise.

If the court certifies the lawsuit as a class action, the case has the potential to change the financial structure of college athletics.  If the lawsuit moves forward, the court may have to determine if the current financial structure of college sports is equitable to all parties.  If this occurs, it is possible that the court may determine that a redistribution of college athletic revenues may be in order.  

Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.