Annette T. Burns, esq.
Edith A. Croxen, esq.
Rebecca M. Stahl, esq.
Is Social Media A Fad?
 Social Media Revolution
The Internet World
 The internet is now a “Cloud”
 The internet cloud is “a collection of utilities built on internet technologies for
on-demand services”
 Also known as SaaS or Software as a Service
 Sample Clouds: Amazon Web Services
Google Apps
Force.com
Microsoft Windows Azure
Salesforce.com
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What does the internet look like?
It has physical locations.
 In the U.S.: Miami, Florida - NAP of the
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Americas;
Columbia River Valley – Google;
Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon
 Microsoft facility alone is 469,000 square feet which could
house seven Boeing 747s and is cooled by the Columbia
River
Cloud Computing
 Microsoft announced on 6/3/10, that it was entering
into a collaboration with the world’s two largest laptop
manufacturers, Quanta Computers and Compal
Electronics of Taiwan, to develop and manufacture a
new generation of servers for containerized cloud data
centers
Security Issues
 THE INTERNET IS NOT SECURE!!!
 Identity theft – five times more likely by stolen wallet than
high tech hacking
 But, exposure of personal emails and information can only
be done on the internet
 Security services recommend consumers learn password
protection rules
 ISPs and Secondary ISPs
How can we use the internet and
remain safe and sane?
 Today technology entrepreneurs everywhere can
take advantage of what Google and Yahoo learned
along the way. They can write their own apps to
run on Google’s data center infrastructure.
 The Biggest Cyber Crime in History – Issue 1106
June 2010, Rolling Stone Magazine
What you can do - Security
 Passwords need to be different for each utility
 Use a combination of letters and numbers or symbols
from the keyboard
 Do not store on computer
 Choose false questions and false answers or make up
obscure security questions.
Searching Issues
 Define how you want to use the internet, personally and
professionally
 Take a few hours to find the best search engines for your needs
 Search engines are not content-driven sites; they are search-only
sites
 A good search engine does your work for you
 There are search engines to find search engines:
 Dogpile.com; hotbot.com
A Search Warrant?
 United States v. Vosburgh, (3d Cir. 2010)
 Facts: Vosburgh was convicted of having child
pornography on his computer.
 Holding: The IP address listed on an affidavit
“provided a ‘substantial basis’ for the magistrate's
conclusion that there was a ‘fair probability that
contraband or evidence of a crime [would] be found’ in
Vosburgh's apartment at the time of the search.”
 Legal Search Engines and Portals
FindLaw’s Law Crawler (http://lawcrawler.lp.findlaw.com and
http://www.legaline.com/lawsites.html)
These sites are programmed to search only sites that contain legal
information.
Legal Portals and Directories
The difference between portals and search engines is that the portals are
human constructed and monitored.
 Legal portals and directories are usually sponsored by one of five different groups: 1.
Commercial entities 2. Law firms 3. Governments 4. Academic Institutions 5. Associations
 “A high quality, useful legal portal or directory should: (1) be reliable by being credible, up-to-
date and objective; (2) include a subject directory and preferably a jurisidictional directory; (3)
link directly to many relevant sites; and (4) be user friendly (intuitive).” Levitt and Rosch, The
Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet
 Legal Portals:
 Hieros Gamos (HG)
 http://www.hg.org
 Nolo Press
 http://www.nolo.com
 RSS Feed – electronic update services that allows blog to
automatically deliver information continuously to desktop
Control Issues
 Parental Controls
 Keeping your computer clean
Delete Cookies
Delete Files
Delete History
Clean Disk
Defragment
 Chatroulette!!!!!
Social Networking
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Facebook
Myspace
Twitter
LinkdIn
Second Life
World of Warcraft
Meetup
Orkut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networki
ng_websites
Survey
 How many of you are on facebook?
 How many of you are on LinkedIn?
 How many of you are on MySpace?
 How many of you use Twitter?
Facebook
 There are over 500,000,000 people on facebook.
 President Obama used facebook to campaign and
continues to campaign through it.
 The fastest growing demographic is women 55-65.
 Redefines demographics and advertising.
 According to a Kaiser Family Foundation Study,
children spend an average of 7.5 hours per day of
“entertainment media.”
Facebook
Myspace
LinkedIn
 The professional social network site – more than
90,000,000 members
 Resume
 Recommendations
 TripIt
 Groups
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
Twitter
 July 2010 75,000,000 members
 January 2011 190,000,000 members
 140 character updates
 65 million tweets per day
 Can link to other websites, to photos, etc.
 Department of State pays foreign officials by Twitter
 Absolutely public by default, but can restrict to
followers
 The Library of Congress is going to keep all tweets
Twitter
Problems with social networking
for litigants
 Posting inappropriate information / photos
 Information can be about where the person was
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Wrong timing – supposed to be with kids but instead on facebook
 Photos can be in a bar or of their significant other’s children
(ex of significant other usually does not like that)
 Finding old flings – one law firm says that 20% of divorces
cite facebook in the petition.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/57742,newscomment,technology,facebook-causes-one-in-fivedivorces-says-law-firm
What else have litigants done?
 Posting nude pictures of an ex:
http://www.freep.com/article/20100520/NEWS06/100
520018/
 Blaming the phone company for the breakup:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/05/17/womansues-rogers-wireless-inc-for-ruining-her-marriage/
Problems with social networking
for Professionals
 Ethics!
 Updating at problematic times regardless of what is
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said
Accidental invites to sites
Second Life? Is it real?
Privacy issues: adversarial litigants finding out about
your personal life.
Above the Law – what it is, why it is a problem
Did we mention ethics?
Recently in the News
 Hey don’t worry: http://volokh.com/2010/02/11/hey-dont-
worry-the-judge-is-my-friend/
 Florida Supreme Court said that judges and lawyers may not
be friends on Facebook
 What about an organization like AFCC?
 “The practice of lawyers and judges actually being friends, of
course, can’t be prohibited; if lawyer Jones and Judge Smith
played golf last weekend, well, bully for them. And the fact
that they did so in a public place and could therefore show up
in the newspaper wouldn’t give anyone grounds for complaint.
But there is something different about being listed as a
“friend” on a publicly-accessible website.”
Because it never stops
 Friending an ex-felon, who the judge sentenced:
http://abovethelaw.com/2010/06/judge-of-the-dayjoseph-r-carico-gives-up-his-honor-forhalo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&u
tm_campaign=Feed:+abovethelaw+(Above+the+Law)
Technology in the courtroom
 Emails between litigants
 Text messages saved to phones?
 http://www.tigertext.com/ -- email / text to phone – is it
safe?
 Voicemails left on cell phones
 These can all be brought to the courtroom and seen by
the judge
 State v. Damper – Criminal case
Family Privacy Orders
 Parental Controls of Home Computers.
 Both parents will use parental controls on all computers
which are accessible to the minor children. In the event an
adult’s computer does not have parental controls, it shall be
password protected with a secure password unknown to
the child. The parental controls shall include content and
user time limitations. Parents shall only use secure sites to
download children’s games and shall review the content
prior to allowing the child to participate in any internet
game.
 Minor’s participation in Facebook/My
Space/Twitter and other interactive social
networking internet activities.
 The minor may participate in obtaining these
accounts (upon agreement by both parties) but
(each) parent will have the minor’s password for
any of these accounts and shall be able to
completely monitor, and, if necessary, shut down
the account.
 All accounts regarding the minor shall be private
accounts and shall not be open to public use.
The parents will monitor periodically to
determine whether the child’s “friends” are
appropriate and shall block and “friend” which
the parent deems in appropriate.
 Use of photographs of children on the
internet.
In the event either parent desires to post
photographs of the children on a social
networking or other internet site, that parent
will maintain the privacy of the site by blocking
unknown persons and will block “friends of
friends.”
Additionally, any photograph of the child shall
be appropriate for age and content and shall not
include any nudity or partial nudity. The parent
will take any other necessary security
precautions as may be required from time to
time.
Telephone for minor.
 A telephone for the minor child shall not be
provided by either parent prior to the child’s
tenth birthday. Any telephone provided for the
child from age 10 until age 12 shall be restricted to
the telephone numbers the parent(s) elect and
shall include 911.
 After age 12, the minor’s phone may be
unrestricted (upon agreement of the parties )
and the parent providing the telephone shall
allow unrestricted text messaging. In the event
the minor requests a Twitter account, the parents
shall strictly monitor said account for content
appropriateness
 Inappropriate Internet Activities.
 The minor child shall not be exposed to any
pornography in either parent’s home or in any
situation in which the parent is aware that the
minor may be exposed to pornography. This
includes the use of avatars to enter internet
virtual worlds such as Second Life or others
which may from time to time exist.
 The parents will monitor any virtual interactive
games the child may be involved in for
appropriate content and activity. If the parent
cannot or does not do so, the site will be removed
from the minor’s participation by an appropriate
computer parental control.
 Notification to each parent. Each parent
will notify the other at any time there is a
change to the minor’s accounts, internet
activities or other significant event regarding
the minor’s privacy or potential invasion
thereof.
 Parents will take reasonable precautions that
a parent’s significant other or spouse is made
aware of these family privacy orders and shall
monitor the use of the minor’s privacy
information (including photographs) by the
parent’s significant other or spouse.
 New Issues. The parents will maintain
communication about any new developments
on the internet or internet related devices
which may negatively impact the minor and
will cooperate with each other to address any
such issues.
Technology for Good - Litigants
 Long distance – skype
 Ourfamilywizard.com
 Divorce / Family information online
 Text messaging / emailing instead of talking face-to-
face or even over the phone
 Google
 Documents
 Calendar
 Email account both parents use and give the school
Google Calendar – Mom’s View
Google Calendar - Sharing
Options for sharing calendar
Google Calendar - Sharing
Google Calendar – Accepting
Invitation
Google Calendar – Dad’s View
Technology for good –
Professionals: Convenience,
learn, teach, and promote
 Email: Paperless, convenient, fast (is it safe?)
 Websites: Make your website user-friendly
 Facebook fan pages
 Blogs: learn about family law or promote your business
 Twitter: some groups send links to articles and new
case law
 RSS Reader: Have important posts sent to you
Email Tips
 Email is safe . . . when it is
 Civility remains important
 Emails are written communications
 Say hello at the beginning and use a salutation at the
end
 What is your time worth?
 Answer your emails promptly . . . but use some
thought
 Inform clients how they will be charged for your email
use
Website
Facebook Fan Page
Blogs
Blogs
RSS Reader
Online Resources
 Overview of websites for step-families, stepmothers,
stepfathers (and bio fathers), and divorce issues:
http://www.stepfamilies.info/programs-serviceslinks.php
 Fee-for-service parenting aide:
http://ourfamilywizard.com/ofw/index.cfm
 Interactive website for parents:
http://www.uptoparents.org/
Useful Family Law Blogs
 Annette Burns (AFCC and updates on AZ):
http://heyannette.typepad.com/heyannette/
 Family Law Professors Blog (for interesting news /
articles about family law):
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/family_law/
 Search for family law in your RSS Reader, and many
states have state-specific blogs
 International Family Law:
http://familylaw.typepad.com/internationalfamilylaw/
annette@btlawyers.com
eaclawoffices@aol.com
rmstahl@gmail.com