Meerkat was the media darling of the 2015 South by Southwest (SXSW) event – Twitter’s Periscope launched on March 26, 2015. Both apps enable users to live stream video content from their mobile device. The video content goes live in real-time as you capture it and share a link on your Twitter channel so viewers can tweet back, allowing for real-time interaction and conversations. Meerkat streams only live video; Periscope archives streams for 24 and 72 hours.
The ability to live stream video content presents some interesting potential market value for law firms. Legal marketers could live stream CLE conferences and events as they evolve via a smartphone. Law firms and legal marketers will no longer have to spend large sums of money to secure video services if they wish to record lawyers speaking and presenting at events. Video content easily created and shared gives law firm marketers the ability to deliver highly engaging, visual content to their target audience in a seamless fashion.
But is it legal to record with Meerkat or Periscope? The legality of live-streamed video hinges on the same factors as other video and photographic content. As legal marketers, it is important to be aware of the potential legal issues.
Copyright: To avoid copyright issues, focus on your own content, use music and works that are licensed for your own use, such as appropriately-licensed Creative Commons works to avoid unwanted attention.
Privacy: To avoid privacy issues, get a legal release signed by everyone who will be in the live-stream video. If you are live streaming an event and want to show some audience members ask them to sign a release.