Meetings and the Law: Must Knows for the Digital Age

1. LAW OFFICES
HOWE & HUTTON, LTD.
ST. LOUIS OFFICE: 20 NORTH WACKER DRIVE WASHINGTON, DC OFFICE:
1421 BUCKHU R ST CO UR T SU ITE 4200 1901 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N.W.
B ALLW IN, M IS SO UR I 63021 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60606-3191 SU ITE 1007
TE LEP HO NE (636) 256-3351 TELEPHONE (312) 263–3001 W ASH ING TON, DC 20006
FAX (636) 256-3727 FAX (312) 372–6685 TELEPHONE (202) 466-7252
www.howehutton.com FAX (202) 466-5829
__________
hh@howehutton.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

2. 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

3. 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.