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Parallel Universe Spawns Parallel Legal Woes

You knew it had to happen, but are still surprised when it does. In what may be a first-ever, a lawsuit has been filed against a defendant that doesn’t really exist, over a non-existent furniture line. Yes, you guessed it, a bed with special embedded animations that allow participants in Second Life, the virtual reality world established by Linden Labs, to essentially recreate an adult film with their virtual persona—avatars.

For the past few years, Second Life’s approach to IP protection has been to allow players to keep rights to programs, animations and objects they create—although many of the tools (programming scripts, etc.) are Linden’s and are provided to enable players to build things in this virtual world. Much like user-generated content in the world of multimedia audio-visual works, creativity and innovation is creating virtual content by the boatload and creating virtual objects and businesses is not simply a recreational pastime, but also a source of entrepreneurial glee and money for many. Clothing, real estate, automobiles, virtually (pardon the pun) anything, becomes the object of virtual purchases, sales and licensing.

Well, the law has caught up with reality. One player, whose avatar is selling virtual items under the brand “SexGen” bed, is suing another avatar for selling fakes for less—undermining the business. Since you have no obligation to disclose your true identity in Second Life, who do you sue? Well, first you try to get information from Linden, presumably because their computers house the underlying registration and information that would disclose who is behind the knock-offs. But, if the alleged infringer has not registered a real name, credit card or other “real world” items to enable identification, you might only get an IP address.

So we’ll keep you posted on developments, but who knows where this will go. Will a court entertain the case? Will they discover the identity of the alleged infringer? Will copyright infringement principles apply in a virtual world? Perhaps the plaintiff will try to enjoin Linden from allowing or enabling the fake products, or send them a virtual Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) “take-down” notice.

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Novel Judicial View: Parents, Not Advertisers, Must Mind Their Children

Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit filed by parents against manufacturers and importers of alcoholic beverages and the Beer Institute, that alleged advertising is responsible for the illegal purchase of alcoholic beverages by minor children. Although the suit had numerous technical flaws, the parents were suing to recover money their minor children spent on alcoholic beverages, and to enjoin advertising. While the first claim was economic, the second alleged injury to their “parental rights.” Although the court dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction, they cite prior decisions that clearly state there appears to be no legal authority to support the notion that expression of ideas by advertisers interferes with a parent’s right to make decisions regarding their children’s well-being or upbringing. To restrict advertising would be an inappropriate restriction on the advertisers’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.

The plaintiffs acknowledged that laws designed to protect against underage consumption of alcohol—laws which prohibit both the sale to and purchase of by a minor—lose their connection to the advertisers, since intervening criminal acts of third-party sellers and third-party underage purchasers are the direct cause of the illegal activity, not advertising. The court stated what many of us consider to be all too obvious: one must trace the injury or violation to actions of the defendant, not something that results from actions and activities of parties who aren’t even in court (i.e., merchants who sold the alcohol and minors who purchased it).

Perhaps the parents should bring an action against the merchants who sold the alcoholic beverages or even against their own children to recover money the children spent (“converted”) in their violation of laws prohibiting underage purchase of alcohol. The bottom line for this court is that if the First Amendment right to commercial speech (advertising) is to be outlawed, it is for the lawmakers or a constitutional amendment to do so, not the courts.

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Don’t Like Pop-Ups or Banners? Try a Widget

Studies now show that marketing professionals looking to attract today’s generation of social networking, mobile messaging, interactive gaming young people might well experiment with more digital features that one can play and interact with on the Internet. If you responded to last month’s Legal Bytes “Useless But Compelling Facts” (or you peeked at the answer below), you know that a widget refers to a computer program that allows Web pages to be sophisticated and interactive—using graphics, animation, audio-visual effects and user-generated content. While advertisers lose control over where these little widgets are placed (e.g., next to a competitor’s widget), giving consumers—especially young people (another issue for marketing to children?)—a premium or incentive is more likely to get them to put advertising content on their pages. It appears, at least according to one study, that when kids are given a choice of what they want to appear on their pages, especially when some “goodie” is part of the offering (a game, free download, coupon, etc.), they are more likely to choose to use advertisers’ content, than if it is “pushed” to them.

Although using widgets as a promotional tool doesn’t guarantee a successful advertising campaign, especially if the product or service isn’t up to par, widgets represent another arrow in the quiver of advertising and marketing professionals to personalize and target audiences. Some social networking sites block users from putting up widgets, or selectively enable widgets based on endorsements or the protection of intellectual property rights. Widgets also represent another challenge to traditional advertising economics. Since users choose when and where to post the widget applications, the widget creator—generally a hosting, server or similar technology or digital graphics firm—is the only entity getting paid, and beyond that, advertising (and thus advertising revenue) is not tracked.

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When is a Proof-of-Purchase Coupon Not a Proof-of-Purchase Coupon?

Well according to a June 5, 2007, decision by a Federal District Court in California, when it falls within “the plain language of the statute…”—that is, California’s Gift Certificate statute—(Section 1749.5 of the California Civil Code). Scared yet? You might be.

Philip Morris used proof-of-purchase promotions enabling consumers to collect “Marlboro Miles” from packages of cigarettes and send them in for catalog items. A few years ago, Philip Morris changed the promotion and announced that the “Old Miles” (ones collected prior to 2003) were only valid through 2003 and that in 2004, it would only accept the “New Miles.” In 2006, Philip Morris decided to end the promotion altogether and removed “Marlboro Miles” proofs-of-purchase material on cigarette packages sometime in 2006, indicating that folks had until the end of September to put in their catalog order requests with any “New Miles” they had accumulated.

As if the tobacco industry didn’t have enough trouble, now comes the class action! Since these were distributed to consumers under “an awards, loyalty or promotion program” the plaintiffs argue they should be considered gift certificates and covered under the California Gift Certificate statute. If that is correct, Old Miles, New Miles or any miles simply can’t expire!

But wait a minute. These aren’t really “gift certificates,” are they? Look at dictionary definitions, case law, the text of the California statute itself. Listen, if proof-of-purchase coupons on boxes are gift certificates when you run a promotion, then anything and everything that is part of any sort of rewards, loyalty or promotional campaign—think bottle caps, box tops, candy wrappers—rises to the status of potential gift certificate. What’s worse, if the decision holds (Courtney Reynolds v. Philip Morris USA), once the coupons or other items are categorized as a gift certificate, in California (among other states), they can’t expire—ever! In fact, read the decision and you’ll walk away with the notion that unless a 10-point ALL CAPITAL type font is used for an expiration date on the face of the proof-of-purchase icon or label, you may never be able to terminate at all.

Think the law and regulation of promotions—gift certificates, loyalty rewards programs, sweepstakes, contests and coupons, interactive gaming, online gambling—is complicated? That’s why Rimon created the Advertising Technology & Media law group. Between our leading practice in the U.S., our network of offices around the world, and the worldwide GALA network, we are at the top of our game. Put us to work for you…and while you are at it, pay attention to the special rules applicable to marketing and advertising which is (or could arguably be) targeted at children.

If you think the tobacco industry is the only target, just pick up a newspaper. Obesity in children is caused by advertising—didn’t everyone know that? The regulators seem increasingly inclined to think so. Violent behavior? Clearly there’s too much violence in movies and television programming. At least that is what’s on the minds of some legislators. That’s why we have Adlaw By Request. The Internet has not simply expanded the reach of advertising and marketing, but has transformed (an unabashed plug for Transformers) advertising and marketing into new worlds—both real and virtual. It’s a complex and highly regulated world out there—let us help guide you through it.

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What Do DSS, GLB and SOX Have in Common?

If you carry, accept, use, issue or have anything to do with the world of credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, smart cards, stored value cards, pre-paid cards—need I go on?—you need to pay attention to DSS. That is the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standards that apply to all types of payment cards issued by the major card-issuing companies. The PCI DSS, in case you hadn’t heard, requires, as an example, that personally identifiable card data be rendered unreadable (truncated, encrypted, firewalled, decapitated—is anyone reading) whenever it is potentially exposed to a third party, when it’s stored, transmitted, used or processed. If you are a merchant with significant card-transaction volumes. encryption can be expensive or time-consuming or both—and no one wants to slow down transactions at the point of sale or at the point of billing. The DSS also requires audit records be kept so breaches can be detected, compromises traced and data integrity monitored. Yes, there are DSS Audit Guidelines from the PCI as well. Not to mention the fact that more than 30 U.S. states already have some form of data breach legislation that requires disclosure, notice and, in some cases, that some remedies be made available to consumers who are or potentially might be the victims of lapses in data protection.

Acquiring institutions—those financial institutions and card processors that have the relationships with merchants that accept and process cards—have until year-end to bring their systems and relationships into compliance, and some card associations are offering rewards for early compliance, but stiff penalties for delays and failure to comply.

How complex does it get? Well, imagine that a merchant opts to mask all credit card numbers, even though address information is unencrypted—but the numbers aren’t visible within any systems and therefore can’t be cross-referenced. PCI compliant? Probably? BUT, that won’t comply with Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the privacy statute applicable to banks and financial institutions that requires otherwise. What about SEC regulations regarding customer data and, of course, Sarbanes-Oxley, which says, “You must control access to your information.”

It’s enough to give anyone a headache. That’s why Rimon has a Financial Services, Corporate & Securities, Intellectual Property and, of course, an Advertising Technology & Media Law practice—so you get one seamless solution to your problems, no matter how complex the world gets.