A couple of weeks ago I attended an Own-IT event all about the legal side to blogging. I was introduced to the event by Improbulus and a huge thanks there as it turned out to be a very educational evening.
It started with a presentation from Dan at MindCandy and then moved on to a chap called Robert Lands from legal firm Finers Stephens Innocent LLP . (Incidentally Robert, the invitation to speak at the London Bloggers Meetup still stands. If you’re interested do please let me know when you’re available).
I found Robert’s presentation very engaging and his relaxed style made it easy listening. No disrespect to the legal profession, but they are not known for their humour..
So what are the top 10 tips I took away from Robert’s presentation**
2. Yes you can get fired if you blog about your job, employer or other employees, even if you change the names involved. If it’s possible for readers to interpret what you’ve written as being about your employer, you’ve had it.. and there are plenty of examples of this.
3. As a blogger you are seen by the law as a professional journalist and publisher. Therefore anything you write about a person or company in a defamatory way leaves you open to being sued for libel (this is more relevant in the UK than the US as apparently we have tighter controls on freedom of speech).
4. If your server is in India how can I be sued by someone in the US? Well it seems you can, the law of the land where your media is consumed is most important. So in the understanding that nobody knows the laws of every land, you might want to add a ‘terms of use’ page to your site stating something like ‘if you read this blog you agree to be bound by the laws of (your home country)…..’ or words to that effect. Contact your local legal beagle for advice on this, or if you’re in the UK contact Finers Stephens Innocent LLP.http://www.fsilaw.com/.
5. If someone takes a disliking to the content on your blog / web 2.0 site, probably the first you will know about it is when you get a letter asking you to take down the content. It might help to have a page on your site with “Notice and Take Down Policies” i.e. telling people how you will deal with any complaint.
6. With copyright, you can get done for linking to a site that infringes someone else’s copyright. Incredible if you ask me, but I don’t set the rules. So be careful what content and blogs you link to as they may be putting you at risk. It’s called ‘making available’.
7. Don’t ever blog about the intellectual property you are generating at work e.g. technology you are developing for your employer, or content you are writing. This will land you in hot water as they will own all this content and you giving it away is not a good thing. Equally, make sure your own employees know your policy here.
8. If you are publishing content written by others, either who you have paid or not, make it clear who owns the content. Get it down on paper with each writer to avoid any problems later on with intellectual property rights.
9. If you write about a company don’t be tempted to include a copy of their logo in your post (I’ve done this a lot). If the company doesn’t like your content you could be done for things like Dilution of the brand, or incorrect usage of a Trade Mark.
10. remember, you are seen by the law as a professional journalist, so you should be prepared to be treated as one. Get some legal advice or do some research so you understand your legal position, before it’s too late.
So there you go. If you haven’t realised why I started on point 2, it’s because point 1. is below. Hope all that was helpful.
** disclaimer. These comments do not constitute legal advice and you should consult a qualified legal practitioner before using any of this advice (point number 1. do not offer advice you are not qualified to give..)
I have read in the past about people being sued for embedding YouTube videos that break copyright laws. I found this quite odd that the blogger could be held liable when after all, embedding is only a link.
We are still in the early stages of the web and each case is different. I can see many of these laws being set in stone for the entire world to follow.
6 is the strangest one of the bunch. If it’s already publicly available to anyone with a browser I’m puzzled as to how linking to it is a legal issue. I’ll have to read some more about it, scary.
8 holds true for any agreement but is good information here. 9 should also be common sense but I see lots of blogs using logos – probably without permissions. Same goes for pictures.
Disconcerting but excellent article – I appreciate all your hard work.
it’s already publicly available to anyone with a browser I’m puzzled as to how linking to it is a legal issue. I’ll have to read some more about it, scary.
Some interesting stuff hey. I was as surprised as you three when I heard that you could get done for linking to someone who has infringed copyright.
I guess an analogy would be if you have a friend who makes his entire music back catalogue available on LimeWire and you broadcast this to the world. Not only are you telling everyone he’s doing it and therefore promoting it for him, but you also make money from it for example through Google ads on your blog…
In Canada, we are allowed to download as much music as we want, it is completely legal. However, it is illegal to upload music and share it with others, which is perfectly fine by everyone here. We take and don’t share.
As far as linking goes, I believe most lawyers will contact you with a notice to remove the infringing material first before any lawsuit. As long as you remove it immediately and it’s not something you do often, I don’t ever see it going to court.
I can never understand legal matters. I took many computer science and logic classes in College, and always excelled in them. However I also had to take a few legal courses. I barely passed both of them with a D. To me, once you get into complex legal matters, the laws don’t seem to make much sense.
It seems to me that laws often favor companies, as opposed to individuals. Copyright and Intellectual Property laws are an example of this. Sure, individuals can have these things, but it is much harder for individuals to obtain these things, and also protect them because of the amount of money that lawsuits cost.
Online information can be easily stolen. I think of us should be responsible to deal with this. But is there a law as of the present in terms of stealing for online properties?
Hmm.. I’m in a puzzle. There are so many points for blogger which should not be done.. Linking with some site or posting about something is becoming so hard.
Blogging is becoming so hard.
I am new to blogging, and I have to admit reading the rules which will keep me out of trouble make it all seem confusing. Many of the rules seem to be broken by bloggers on a regular basis. I guess I don’t worry too much about it, I just keep blogging.
We are still in the early stages of the web and each case is different. I can see many of these laws being set in stone for the entire world to follow.
I am trying to find some interesting information about cool blogs and blogs owners and here I find first of my looking
May be and the second 
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/departments/journalism/faculty/rosenberg.html – CUNY Prof. Geanne Rosenberg has put up an online course for bloggers and media practitioners with the http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk – 10 things you need to know to stay out of court.
So am I all right making fun of crappy youtube videos?
http://blog.luxuryproperty.com/worst-youtube-real-estate-videos-1/
http://blog.luxuryproperty.com/worst-youtube-real-estate-videos-2/
http://blog.luxuryproperty.com/worst-youtube-real-estate-videos-3/
So many rules, so little time
Those are all things I wouldn’t think about, like using someones logo in a post where you mention them. I would have thought that would be nice, but I’ll be careful in the future. I think the numbers 2 and 7 should be a no brainer for most people. I would hope so anyway!
I like what you did with comment number 1, you had me as I was about to leave a sarky comment saying “hey you missed out number 1″
I seem to be so lucky to sit in Thailand, with my server in Thailand too. As long as I don’t put any dirty pics online, or get involved in local politics, and apply some common sense, I think I’m out of danger here.
However #9 seems to be an issue here too, if local big companies are involved.
Martin,
What do you define as common sense? I know of people blogging in Thailand who are scared to write about certain subjects like corruption for fear of not only what might happen to them legally but what might happen to them physically.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Thailand for all it’s messed up stuff as much as the next guy but it is not a open press sort of place. Even Thai Visa forums will remove anything that is too negative about Thailand for fear that the gov will shut them down.
BBKK
Been looking for a long time for information like this. Copywrite laws scare the you know what out of me.
I can’t believe you can get done for linking to someone elses infringement. Surely the copyright owner should be going after whoever is putting the content online instead of the people who are linking to it.
Is this the same in the UK?
Lol I like the disclaimer for point #1 at the end. Real good advice here and a must read for any blogger.
May I also add if you don’t know whether or not what you are doing is legal you should always seek the advice of others. Whether it is a knowledgeable friend, read lawyer or forum like http://www.internetlawforums.com to ask your question. Beats getting sued over something stupid.
Interesting information. Never knew about this. Thanks for sharing. Blogs are a taking over the internet – it’s important to know the ins and outs.
Don’t forget about purchasing domains that are protected by trademark law. This happened to me a few times and it was really annoying to find that I had absolutely no legal footing to stand on at all. I had a site called rolexnow.info and I was contacted by the lawers, Rabinovich, Rabinovic and Rabinovich!!!
No way in hell I was going to take on three jewish lawyers from NY!!
To clarify my above comment I was contacted by lawyers representing ROLEX.