1. The Law of Managing Social Media Sport and Recreation Alliance Mike Patrick and Alastair Cotton 4 October 2011

2. Four broad categories to consider: Blogging and networking conducted on your own website Networking Sites Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Sharing Sites YouTube, Flickr Review sites, price comparison sites, third party blogs and wikis Wikipedia, Blogspot, WordPress, Industry Forums Defining Social Media

3. Old Wine, New Bottles v New media, New Risks? Data Protection Act (1998) Privacy and Electronic Communication (EC Directive) Regulations (2003) E-Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations (2002) Defamation Act (1996) Equality Act (2010) (Discrimination) Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988) Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006)

4. Content is King Employees: who owns: - the tweets, posts and other content submitted - the account / profile - the data / contact details, followers, connections, friends? Third parties: assignment and scope of licences User generated content Naming conventions, contracts and social media policies

5. Data is God Using social media for direct marketing - technical constraints Consent and the surprise test Data aggregation: cookies, spiders and scraping Options? - “user” marketing - links and posted content - social media plug ins

6. Welfare and child protection Who is a minor and when and how is parental consent required? Child protection - under 18 Data Protection – under 12? 16? Marketing – under 16 [Health and Safety – under 18 (?)]

7. Controlling the output Policies with: Employees Athletes Commercial partners, sponsors and stakeholders And policies imposed by others (IOC, BOA, UK Sport)

8. Establishing your approach Employment contract, athlete agreement, third party contracts Policies and guidelines Website terms and conditions and privacy policy Communication and training Disciplinary processes The best laid plans…

9. Opportunity v risk? “Jordan Crane is banned from Tweeting. The next time he does that I will break both his ankles. None of our players will be Tweeting or Facebooking anything about Leicester Rugby Club again” [Richard Cockerill - August 2010]

10. So what are the risks? Infringement of Intellectual Property rights Defamation – libel Breach of privacy / data protection Distinguishing nature of the internet - lack of control/responsibility? - speed of publication/republication?

11. Liability (eg Defamation) What is defamatory? Vicarious liability Carried out in the course of your employment Importance of social media policy / guidelines

12. User Generated Content Copyright - E-Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations (2002) Defamation - E-Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations (2002) - Section 1 Defamation Act 1996 Privacy - PCC (Scottish Sunday Express case)

13. What if something does go wrong? PR v Legal Factors to take into account - Sense of perspective? - Who is the information reaching? - Is the information likely to go viral? - Might any legal action be publicized and criticized? - Is the information already out there? - Do you need to act now? - Is there a realistic chance of success? - Legal costs?

14. Questions and discussion Mike Patrick Associate 020 3375 7115 michael.patrick@farrer.co.uk Alastair Cotton Associate 020 3375 7112 alastair.cotton@farrer.co.uk