Last year, actress Katherine Heigl filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy chain Duane Reade for sharing a photo of her leaving one of their stores with a shopping bag bearing the brand name.

Heigl claimed that by using her photo for free promotional material, the company was using her image for financial gain. The actress eventually dropped her $6 million lawsuit against the drug store chain.

Today, attorney Scott Sternberg with the New Orleans law firm Baldwin Haspel Burke & Maye explained at a panel titled “The Entrepreneur and The First Amendment” that these lawsuits frequently fail because there is no consistent argument on whether readily available photos shared on social media can or cannot be used.

The panel held during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week explored how entrepreneurs can be faced with a number of media, intellectual property and privacy issues while building and marketing their product.

In addition to the Heigl example, Sternberg explored how social media is used to cross-promote brands and how celebrities are frequently the source of cross promotion.

Sternberg mentioned how Lady Gaga, who was in New Orleans over the past week, posted photos of herself and a friend who was getting married in a wedding dress bought at a local bridal boutique. The boutique reposted the photo on Instagram.

One of the other major pitfalls new business owners frequently find themselves in is in how to manage negative reviews online.

“When someone defames your product, do you sue the person, the place they posted the bad review, or both?” Sternberg asked.

To be on the safe side, he recommended that business owners and companies should not edit comments online or they could be held liable if they change the meaning of what is said online.

“Adopt, maintain and enforce a policy for your comments and state your policy clearly under your terms and conditions on your website,” he said.

He recommended the following resources for business owners interested in learning more about policies and issues related to online media: Electronic Frontier Foundation and the First Amendment Center.

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