FTC Flexes Blogger Rules Again

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project)
The Federal Trade Commission has reached a second settlement with a marketer over apparent violations of the Commission's rules requiring disclosure of compensated endorsements, particularly on blogs and social media, as well as other contexts in which the compensation (which may include free samples or discounts) is not "reasonably expected by the audience."

Second Circuit Abuzz About FlyontheWall Case

On Friday morning (Aug. 6), I attended oral argument before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Barclays Capital Inc. v. Theflyonthewall.com, Inc., No. 10-1372-cv (2d Cir.), an appeal of a permanent injunction and an award of $12,750 in statutory damages, plus interest and attorneys' fees, to three financial research firms against a website that charged subscribers for summaries of the firms' research reports, including recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities.

A primary topic of the argument -- which, although scheduled for 40 minutes, went on for more than twice that length of time -- was the viability of the "hot news" doctrine, which the district court applied to find that Theflyonthewall improperly undercut market for the financial firms' reports.  The district court also found that the site violated the firms' copyrights.