Tag: Carter Law Firm

  • When Can Someone Post Photos Of You Online?

    My Camera by Paul Reynolds

    I’ve had a few people ask me about the legalities of posting pictures of other people online. I thought I’d tackle the most common issue with photographs – whether you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. I’m not going to get into commercializing a person’s image or misrepresenting a person. I’m only addressing whether someone can post a picture that they took of you on their Facebook page, blog, Flickr, etc.

    No Pants Light Rail Ride 2012 by Devon Christopher Adams

    Pictures of You in Public
    You have no expectation of privacy in anything you do in public. This includes where you go and what you do while you’re there. For example, I just got an adorable basset hound named Rosie. We take walks every day. I have no expectation of privacy regarding where we walk, what I’m wearing when I walk her, or how I react when she pulls on the leash. That’s all in plain view for everyone to see. Anyone can take a picture of us and post it online, preferably with a caption that says, “Sassy lady and her awesome dog,” and there’s nothing I can do about it (as long as they’re not misrepresenting me or commercializing my image without my consent).

    If you’re in a public place and someone snaps a picture of you while you’re falling down drunk, getting arrested, picking your nose, scowling at a crying baby, or not wearing pants, there’s probably nothing you can do if that picture shows up online somewhere.

    The exception to this rule is you have an expectation of privacy in places like public bathroom stalls, changing rooms, tanning salons, and doctor’s offices that may require you to be partially or completely undressed.

    Pictures of You in Private Venues
    When pictures are taken of you at a private event or in someone’s private home, you have to ask whether you had an expectation of privacy in each particular situation. If you attend a party where there are no rules regarding photos and everyone has their cameras out, you have no expectation of privacy if someone takes a photo of you and puts it in their online album.

    Some events come with ground rules regarding photos that could create an expectation of privacy. I had a friend in college who had a Decorate Your Nipples theme party where everyone had to decorate their chest. Some people put decorations on their shirts and some people opted to decorate their skin. The rule for that party was that no cameras were allowed except during the designated picture time. At picture time, all the photos were limited to one room. If you didn’t want any photographic documentation of your being at that party, you had to go to the no-camera room.

    There may be activities where there are no specified rules about photographs, but where the nature of the event or activity gives you an expectation of privacy. For example, if you and your partner make a sex tape or take intimate pictures of each other, there’s an inherent expectation that no one beside you two would see them. If you break up, your partner can’t post the pictures online and protect themselves by saying that you never agreed to keep them private.

    When it comes to the question, “Can I post pictures of other people online?,” the answer is always, “It depends.” My general rule of thumb is “Don’t do anything in public that you wouldn’t put on the front page of the paper.” When it comes to photographs, the same rule generally applies because you might end up in a situation where you had an expectation of privacy but someone posted a picture of you online that they shouldn’t have. You might have a case against the jerk who posed it, but you still have to deal with the possibility that a lot of people saw a photo of you that they should have never seen.

    If you want more information about the legal rules regarding social media, please check out The Legal Side of Blogging: How Not to get Sued, Fired, Arrested, or Killed. I also maintain a mailing list where I share my thoughts about being a lawyer/entrepreneur, updates about projects I’m working on, upcoming speaking engagements, and I may provide information about products, services, and discounts. Please add yourself if you’re interested. You can also contact me directly or connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

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    Ruth Carter

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  • Ruth Carter’s Speaking Schedule – May 2012

    Ignite Phoenix #5 by Sheila Dee
    Ignite Phoenix #5 by Sheila Dee

    May is going to be an exciting month for me because I have four speaking engagements in Phoenix! I’m really excited to get out and talk about intellectual property and social media law. I like to keep my talks casual, interactive, and provide useful information to the audience.  I hope you’ll come out and have fun with me. Here’s where you can find me . . .

    Trademark Basics
    Wednesday, May 9, 2012 – 6pm
    Midweek Mind Tweak – Co+Hoots
    This is an interactive discussion about what a trademark is, the strength of attendees’ trademarks, and the benefit of registering your trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

    Why You Need a Social Media Policy
    Wednesday, May 16, 2012 – 5pm
    Midweek Mind Tweak – Co+Hoots
    Every company needs a social media policy for their employees, but if you create one that is too broad, you might have to pay over $10,000 for violating the National Labor Relations Act. It’s a problem that is easy to fix, if you know what the law is.

    The Legalities of Blogging
    Wednesday, May 23, 2012 – 12pm
    GP Brownbag – Gangplank Chandler
    A spoke a few weeks ago at Gangplank Academy about the legal side of blogging, and they asked me back to present a condensed version as a brownbag discussion. I’ll be presenting the 8 questions you should ask yourself before you publish a blog post.

    Adapting Licensed Properties to Comics
    Thursday, May 24, 2012 – 7pm
    Phoenix Comicon – Phoenix Convention Center
    I’m so excited to speak at Phoenix Comicon. The thought fills my little geek heart with joy. I’m going to be talking with sci-fi and comic book fans about copyright issues related to creating fan fiction, fan art, and slash fiction. It’s going to be so much fun!

    I hope I get to see you at one or all of my talks!

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    Ruth Carter

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  • Form Contracts are the Beginning

    Signing a Contract by Victor1558Last weekend, I went indoor rock climbing with my friends. It’s not uncommon for me to participate in activities that require signing a liability waiver. I think most people just sign them without reading it. My friends get a kick out watching me read every word and change the terms I disagree with. I respect that these companies want to protect themselves against liability. I accept that I participate in risky activities and as such I might get hurt, but if I get hurt because of their horrific negligence, I want to be able to get them to pay for my injuries that they caused.

    The same ideas apply to businesses. A lot of businesses have form contracts that they use for providing services, creating intellectual property, and/or licensing you software or equipment.   I look as these as a jumping off point to begin negotiations.

    Whoever writes a contract write the terms that best protect their interests. If a company hires the lawyer, the lawyer writes the best provisions for their client. They may not care about your interests at all. It’s your job to read these contracts carefully and propose the terms and conditions that work best for you. Lots of things may be open for negotiation such as

    • Payment rates,
    • Whether you’re licensing, renting, or purchasing software or equipment,
    • The length of the contract,
    • Whether you can end the contract early,
    • How disputes will be settled, and
    • If their creating intellectual property for your use, who owns it.

    There are so many things that could be open to negotiation. It’s best to think of the worst-case scenarios and to protect your interests and assets if one occurs. There may be more than one way to address a potential problem; you and the other side can decide which way works best for the both of you.

    If you’re given a form contract and you don’t like a provision, change it and see what the other side says. They may accept it. (Be sure to check with your lawyer so you know how to properly change the contract, or better yet, hire a lawyer to review your contracts before you sign them.) If the other side says they can’t accept an altered contract, ask to speak with someone who can or seriously consider doing business with someone else.  You don’t want to set yourself up to be screwed down the line.

    The law generally holds you to the contracts you create, so think hard before signing your name.

    In my personal life, I’ve changed contracts and the other side has accepted the changes without question. Sometimes they’ve come back and said they can’t accept it with the changes, and that opened the discussion about what they could accept. Sometimes I have to walk away from an offer if we couldn’t make a deal and sometimes I bind myself to the original contract provisions, but I always know what risks I’m taking and I try to set myself up to be protected.

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    Ruth Carter

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  • Why You Need an Operating Agreement

    Sailor race cardboard boat in base competition by Official U.S. Navy Imagery

    If you have an LLC and your company has more than one owner, you need an operating agreement. Period.

    An operating agreement is a contract between the owners of a business that tells them how they’re going to run their business. Think of it as the owners’ rule book and prenuptial agreement. It puts everyone on the same page from the beginning in terms of what each person owns, what each person is responsible for, and how you’re going to resolve problems.

    Your operating agreement can answer important questions like:

    • If an owner wants out, how much notice does he have to give? Do the other owners have first dibs on buying his portion of the company?
    • Do owners ever have to contribute their own money to the business?
    • What do you do if an owner isn’t pulling her weight? Can she be voted out of the company?
    • How will disputes be settled? If there’s an even number of owners with equal votes on each side, what’s the tie-breaker?
    • What happens if an owner dies?

    Don’t think that you don’t have to create an operating agreement if you’re going into business with your best friend, spouse, or relative. We all know someone who has gone through a nasty divorce. The same can happen in the break up of a business if there isn’t an operating agreement that tells you how events will proceed.

    It may seem strange to think about how you’ll handle problems at the beginning of the business, but it’s the ideal time to put these provisions into place. Hopefully everyone is optimistic and thinking about the business’ best interests which will make it easier to decide the best way to handle major decisions down the road. If you put off figuring out how you’ll resolve disputes until one occurs, you’ll be fighting over how the company should resolve its problems and you’ll be fighting over the problem at hand.

    Operating agreements aren’t just about resolving problems. They give you the ability to create the company you want. Some companies may decide disputes in mediation, but you can choose to settle problems with a coin flip, a game of ping pong, or let your dog decide if that’s what you and the other owners want. You can also use your operating agreement to declare other rules like requiring everyone to bring pie to work on March 14th (Pi Day) and allowing video games as an acceptable brainstorming technique.

    You’re not required to have an operating agreement if your LLC is in Arizona, but you’re asking for trouble if you don’t. This is one of those times when it’s worth it to pay a lawyer. You will pay a lot less to have someone draft the agreement for you, than to clean up the mess that could result when you and the other owners have a major dispute and everything goes to hell.

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    Ruth Carter

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  • Why I Opened A Solo Law Firm

    Office Coffee by Mauricio Lima
    Office Coffee by Mauricio Lima

    It’s still a bit surreal to think in the last four years I went to law school, passed the bar exam, opened a law firm, and have goals of becoming a leader in my niche areas of practice.

    When I started law school, I was spoon-fed the idea that every lawyer should aspire to clerk for a judge and work at a big law firm with the goal of becoming a partner. When I started working in the legal field, I realized that I didn’t want any of that. I don’t want to be trapped in an office 60 hours/week, working on cases I don’t care about, and setting myself up to have a severe chemical dependency problem, a heart attack, or a nervous breakdown before turning 40.

    I’ve been a blogger for the last two years. During that time, I’ve developed passions for intellectual property, internet law, flash mob law, and preventing cyberbullying. I also had the pleasure of working in the Innovation Advancement Program at Arizona State University where I worked with entrepreneurs to get their endeavors off the ground. It was such a joy to help them breathe life into their dreams.

    When people ask me where I work, I love that I get to respond, “In my laptop.” I have a virtual law office, which means I can work almost anywhere that I have wi-fi and a power outlet. I am not encumbered by a formal office or staff. With this autonomy comes more options for myself and my clients.

    When I reflect on why I decided to open Carter Law Firm, one word comes to mind: “freedom.” I have the law career I’ve always wanted. I get to work on cases I’m passionate about and with interesting clients. It also gives me time to be a public speaker on legal issues and to blog posts and ebooks.

    Opening this firm is the beginning of an incredible adventure. I’m excited for what’s to come.

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    Ruth Carter

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