• Pin Money. Brands of all sizes have long used the virtual pin board/social media site Pinterest to promote their wares and drive traffic to their web sites. Beginning in October 2014, companies will be able to purchase paid advertisements on the site as well. Pinterest announced plans to make "Promoted Pins" available to more than just the handful of big brands that have been helping the company to test its ad product since last fall. The company expects to ultimately offer advertisers pay-per-click arrangements like the ones available to purchasers of Google's sponsored search results, and is amending its privacy policy to state, among other things, that Pinterest may collect information about its users from its advertisers and in connection with its advertisers' websites and apps.
  • Benched judge. Michael Maggio, a state trial judge in Arkansas, was removed from the bench by the state's highest court after he acknowledged posting confidential details about court cases in social media outlets. The judge was handling a closed adoption involving actress Charlize Theron, and he admitted posting private facts about the case. After a report by a state judicial-discipline commission, he was removed from the bench and prohibited from handling any judicial office in the future. He was found to have violated at least 23 strictures that apply to sitting judges.
  • Sweet tweets. According to a study conducted by Twitter, the Twitter accounts of members of casts of television shows get a 228 percent increase in followers if the actors live-tweet their shows. This follows other studies that indicate that TV ratings can go up as a result of live-tweeting. Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, both originated by Shonda Rhimes, are among the shows that have gotten major boosts from the social network.

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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