LAW O FF IC E S

HOWE & HUTTON , LTD .

ST. LO U IS O FF IC E : 2 0 NOR TH WAC KER DR IV E WAS H IN GTO N, DC O FF IC E :

1 4 2 1 B U C K H U R S T C O U R T S U I T E 4 2 0 0 1901 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N.W.

B A L L W I N , M I S S O U R I 6 3 0 2 1 C H IC AGO, ILLINOIS 60606-3191 S U I T E 1 0 0 7

T E L E P H O N E (6 3 6 ) 2 5 6 -3 3 5 1 TE LE PH ONE (3 1 2 ) 2 6 3 –3 0 01 W A S H I N G T O N , D C 2 0 0 0 6

FAX (636) 256-3727 FAX (3 1 2 ) 3 7 2 – 66 8 5

TELEPHONE (202) 466-7252

www.h o weh u t t on . com

FAX (202) 466-5829

__________

h h @ h oweh u t t on . com

©Copyright 2012. Howe & Hutton, Ltd. Chicago, IL, St. Louis, MO, Washington, DC. All rights reserved under

both international and Pan American copyright conventions.

“Legal Issues In the Virtual Atmosphere”

By:

Barbara F. Dunn, Esq.

We often focus our time and attention to legal issues involving face to face meetings.

From hotel and convention center contracts to accidents and emergencies while onsite at

meetings, legal issues can abound. So it might follow logic that with virtual events, the legal

issues would be far less. That logic is, unfortunately, not true. In fact, when groups enter the

“virtual atmosphere” for their events, the legal issues can be many and be unexpected. So what

legal issues should groups focus on when planning and managing their next virtual event?

Copyright

Copyrights are one of the primary types of intellectual property. Copyrights protect

original works of authorship such as presentations, articles, software, songs, and pictures just to

name a few. While often confused with trademarks (trademarks are a word, picture or symbol

which identify a source - such as your organization’s name or logo), copyrights are very

different. For those who create copyrighted works, United States law provides very favorable

protection. The work of the copyright owner is automatically protected under copyright law

from the moment it is created and owners are afforded a “bundle” of rights to do the following:

reproduce work, prepare derivative works, publicly distribute copies, publicly perform, and

publicly display the work.

When it comes to virtual events, just as it does with face to face meetings, organizations

will heavily on speaker content to drive attendance. As such, it is important to ensure that the

corresponding copyright issues have been addressed. Unless the speaker is an employee of the

sponsoring organization (in which case the sponsoring organization owns the copyright to the

work), the speaker owns the copyright to the presentation and all related materials. As such, the

sponsoring organization must secure permission from the speaker to display and use the

speaker’s oral presentation (via audio or videotape) as well as any written handouts, slides, etc.

The legal term for getting permission for use of copyright is license. In order to be most

effective, the license should be in writing and signed by the speaker. The license should also

seek to secure as many of the “bundle” of rights as outlined above in case the sponsoring

organization chose to expand its use of the speaker’s materials in the future, such as translating

the speaker’s materials into Spanish (which would be considered to be a derivative work).

When the speaker’s material is displayed on the virtual events website, it should be displayed

with the appropriate copyright notice such as the following:

“©Copyright 2012. Susie Speaker – Nowhere, Land, U.S.A. All rights reserved.”

It is also important the people who attend and use the virtual event acknowledge that the

materials included in the virtual event are owned by others and that they may not reproduce or

forward the materials to anyone else without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.

Meeting Apps

We have all heard the saying, “There’s an app for that,” to refer to just about anything

from Angry Birds to airline flight trackers. But many organizations are creating apps for their

own meeting – both face to face and virtual. Here again, many copyright issues are raised as a

result since these apps are original works of authorship and thereby protected by copyright law.

Often, the apps are created by outside vendors. As such, the vendor will own the copyright to

the meeting app unless it assigns or transfers its rights in the work to the sponsoring

organization. Upon transfer, the sponsoring organization would own the “bundle of rights” to

the work. If the vendor is unwilling to transfer copyright ownership to the work (it may want to

retain its copyright ownership so that It can reuse the work for another group), the sponsoring

organization will need to secure a license as noted above. In either instance, it is important that

the agreement between the sponsoring organization and the vendor be noted in writing.

The agreement should also address the functionality of the app and the right of the

sponsoring organization to have any functionality problems with the app corrected immediately.

Finally, the agreement should also address any confidential information the vendor may collect

(such as names and address of meeting attendees) and ensure that the vendor will not use or

forward this information to any other party.

Indemnification

With any activity, including virtual events, there is the possibility of liability due to the

negligence or wrongdoing of another. In the case of virtual events, there is the possibility that

the sponsoring organization could be brought into a lawsuit relating to copyright infringement or

defamation, among other things. For example, if a speaker used someone else’s copyrighted

work in their presentation without that person’s permission, such use would constitute copyright

infringement and the sponsoring organization could be sued as a result of displaying the

materials as part of its virtual event. Given this risk, indemnification provisions should be

included in every contract relating to virtual events and meeting apps. The essence of

indemnification is that the person or company takes financial responsibility for their actions – if

they have done something wrong and the sponsoring organization gets sued as a result, it will

hold the sponsoring organization harmless, i.e., they will not be harmed from a financial

standpoint, as a result of the wrongful act. The indemnifying party will be required to hire legal

counsel to defend the lawsuit on behalf of the sponsoring organization and to have any damages

awarded against it paid by the indemnifying party.

Insurance

As with any type of meeting-related activity, it is important to ensure that the sponsoring

organization has appropriate insurance coverage in place to protect itself from any possible risk.

Typically, the sponsoring organization’s comprehensive general liability insurance should cover

claims such as those for copyright infringement and defamation but it is important to check the

policy. In other instances the sponsoring organization will need to secure publisher’s liability

insurance to protect itself from claims involving virtual events. And it is also important that

when working with any vendor, the sponsoring organization verifies that such vendors have their

own insurance coverage in place o protect them against the vendor’s wrongful actions.

Summary

In summary, while the legal issues involved many differ, virtual events can be as risky as

face to face meetings. But with proper planning, sponsoring organizations can ensure they have

addressed these legal issues in a proper manner so as to prevent liability to the organization.

***

Barbara Dunn is an attorney and partner with the law firm of Howe & Hutton, Ltd. She can be

reached at bfd@howehutton.com or (636) 256-3351.