ONLIN LAW Seeing Your Way Past a Cloudy Outlook
Two lawyers walked into cyberspace. They immediately began arguing.
“The law’s the law,” said the first, carrying a large, leather-bound book. “Online or not, our
transactions and interactions have a perfectly applicable set of laws and regulations. We
don’t need to rethink everything.”
“I respectfully disagree,” replied his ethereal colleague, scanning email on his Smartphone.
“Being online changes everything we understand about business, finance, relationships …
everything.”
“No way,” declaimed the grounded attorney. “You’re just waving ‘the cloud’ around as if it’s
a game-changer. ‘Online law’ is nothing but a catchall phrase that includes much of what
we already do, just in a different venue.”
Hovering higher and higher in the air, the first responded, “You couldn’t be more wrong,
my digitally deprived friend. Cyberspace is an entirely new frontier, and those who
misunderstand that will see their practices grounded forever.”
And then, they billed.
IN THIS ISSUE
This month, our talented authors explore a wide variety of topics that encompass what we call
“online law.” The great information they provide reveals, as you might guess, that both of our
fictional lawyers are correct: Cyberspace changes quite a bit, but our accumulated law often
provides a serviceable analog for our cloud-based interactions. But knowing when that’s true—
and when it’s not—could mean the difference between cyberspace and office space (available).
Our topics range from social media, to copyright infringement, to estate planning and even
cyberbullying. But cyberspace is vast, and you may think of something else we should cover in
a future issue. Write to us at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.
16
The Social Media Checklist
for Companies
BY ASHLEY KASARJIAN
22
Crowdfunding, Kickstarter
and the JOBS Act
BY NICKOLAS C. JENSEN
26
Copyright Infringement, Pinterest
and User-Generated Content
BY CONNIE J. MABLESON
32
The New American
Way of Censorship
BY DEREK BAMBAUER
