Legal Issues Shortlist for WP Devs. & Bloggers

William A. Adams, APCNORTON, MOORE, & ADAMS, LLP

525 "B" Street, Suite 1500San Diego, CA 92101Ph: (619) 233-8200Fx: (619) 231-7595

Email: wadams@nmalawfirm.com

Disabled Access

• Top 5: – Alt Text for images– ReCaptcha – Descriptive hyperlinks– Consistent page layouts & proper use of header tags– Navigation links

• Plugin – wp accessibility• http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/25-ways-to-make-your-wordpress-website-more-accessible/

and http://www.evengrounds.com/

Disabled Access

• ADA lawsuits against Bricks & Mortar businesses

• NFB v. Target (http://www.evengrounds.com/articles/section-508-lawsuits)

• ADA, Unruh & DPA, Sec. 508 (for Gov.)– $4,000 plus plaintiff’s attorney fees ($400/hr)

Copyleft

•Copyleft?

Copyleft

• Open Source Licensing – FOSS: many licenses, apache, BSD, GPL

• Wordpress: FSF GNU GPLv2– a foundation, an animal, a license– Richard Stallman, MIT, 1983, Unix, Linux– Frustration with proprietary software

• Copyright vs Copyleft: Copyleft derives from copyright to accomplish opposite: allows holder to control use & distrib’n via licensing

Copyleft

• Applies only if you distribute• Must provide source code under the terms of

the GPL. – So they may modify and redistribute it under the

terms of the GPL– Version 2.0 or later

• Free not required – you can sell.• Viral – positive or negative?

Copyleft• The GPL requires that I distribute the "source code" of my files.

What does that mean for a web application? • The "source code" of a file means the format that is intended for

people to edit. What that means depends on the file in question. PHP, JavaScript, CSS – files themselves, without any compression or obfuscation.

• For images . . . production version of the file as a PNG or GIF, or original high-resolution JPG, or a Photoshop, Illustrator, or GIMP file. The "source code" is whichever version is intended to be edited by people.

• For Flash files, the source code is the editable FLA and AS files, and any other files needed to build the final SWF. The SWF file itself is the "object code" version, not the source version.

Copyleft

• GPL on code applies to any code that “interacts” with it. (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html)

• Enforcement: – Software Freedom Law Center– gpl-violations.org (Germany)• FortiOS, D-Link

Employment

• Hourly vs Salary.• Meal periods, rest breaks, overtime, off-the-

clock.• Interns - Pay

Employment• Pursuant to California overtime laws, an employee may only be considered exempt from overtime pay

under the Computer/Software-Related Professional Exemption if the employee meets all of the requirements set forth by California Labor Code §515.5. An employee in the computer software field is considered to be exempt under the professional exemption, only if all of the following apply:

• The employee is paid an hourly rate of at least $40.38 per hour (effective Jan. 1, 2014) or a salary of at least $7,010.88 per month ($84,130.56 annually).

• The employee is primarily engaged in work that is intellectual or creative.• The employee is engaged in work that requires the exercise of discretion and independent judgment.• The employee is primarily engaged in duties that consist of one or more of the following:

o Responsible for applying systems analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software or system functional specifications.o Responsible for designing, developing, documenting, analyzing, creating, testing or modifying computer systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to user or system design specifications.o Responsible for documenting, testing, creating or modifying computer programs related to the design of software or hardware for computer operating systems.

• The employee is highly skilled and proficient in the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized information to computer systems analysis, programming and software engineering.

• - See more at: http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/hrqa/pages/california-minsalarycomputerexemption.aspx#sthash.bKxASEey.dpuf

Contracts

• Yes – for clarification, not legal necessity.• Scope – expectations • Attorney’s fees, Arbitration, Choice of Venue,

Indemnification, Compliance?• Change orders• Client’s responsibilities• Images, see above.

Copyright & Trademark

• Trademark – opposite of SEO – affordable, do early

• Copyright – applies to “original work”– Text, images, art, etc.– Life of author + 70 years– Exceptions• Fair use, public domain (e.g., U.S. Gov. sites),

permission (including commons licenses)

• Evidence (trolls, screenshots, etc.)

Taxation

– Sales tax • Seller pays - http://blog.taxjar.com/sales-tax-for-california/

• Digital goods – based on state, not in California

• Out of state sellers – “Amazon Tax” – – affiliates, nexus, – 23 states

– VAT• Chris Lema: My site will be changing…all because of VAT - http://chrislema.com/vat

/ - On January 1st, 2015, new legislation in Europe stipulates that VAT must be applied (regardless of how much money your online store makes) to electronic goods and services.