- What's not to like? The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that an employee's Facebook "like" approving of another employee's statements about their employer may constitute "concerted activity" under federal labor law. Two employees—a waitress and a cook—had been fired by a sports bar in Connecticut for complaining about the employer on Facebook, but the Board found on August 22 that their activity was protected under the National Labor Relations Act and the firings were unlawful.
- Hello Siri, I need money. According to an article in The American Banker, banks should explore the potential of wearable computing devices. So-called smart watches and similar devices may prove useful for quick banking updates such as fraud alerts, balance checks, and funds transfers. They should also work well with voice-activated banking, enabling customers to ask a "personal assistant" like Apple's Siri to answer questions or do simple banking tasks.
- Likewise. A U.S. district judge in Florida has ruled against the creator of a Facebook fan page for a TV show in a dispute with BET, the producer of the show. Stacey Mattocks started the fan page and amassed millions of "likes," but lost them after a falling out with BET that resulted in Facebook transferring the "likes" to BET's own page for the show. Mattocks sued, arguing that BET converted her business interest in the "likes," but the court held that the "likes" were not her property and could not be converted. The judge said that "liking" a Facebook page is merely an individual user's expression of enjoyment or approval and noted that a user can revoke a "like" at any time. Therefore, the court determined, to the extent a "like" belongs to anyone, it belongs to the user and not to the person who created the page.
Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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