EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

[Kire]

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

Version current as of June 8, 2005
Updated July 6, 2005

Whether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn't use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That's why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

To be clear, this guide isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you're being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.

http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/

[displacedtexan]

1. This is a really important document!

I posted a link to it in the DU Blog Box column a while back.

We bloggers are always somewhere on the steep learning curve, and having a handy guide really helps.

For example, I got a snarky email from maja, with a threat if I didn't stop stealing bandwidth.

Until now, I had no idea what bandwidth really meant. I spent an entire day going over my individual posts' code for the past month, and I found 2 photos I had uploaded using blogger.com's free service (URL link), instead of Photobucket (which is offline sometimes). Note: I never really paid attention to where online photos came from; I just right clicked the image and let blogger.com do the rest a few times.

Anyway, ONE of the 2 photos was linked from maja.

Boy, did I feel intimidated. I deleted the link and uploaded the photo to photobucket.

Live and learn!