Law.com has this article discussing what potential legal liability bloggers may face.
While it may seem like an eye-rolling "what next?" moment to all us little bloggers out here, there could be liability issues for others, particularly bloggers for firms, businesses, and bigger political bloggers.
Lawrence Savell outlines a few questions that will end up being answered in court at some point:
A threshold issue is whether blogs are any different from more traditional means of communication. Among the questions that the courts have yet to answer fully are:
--What is the significance of the increased immediacy of blogs?
--Are blogs more likely in the defamation context to be construed as protected "opinion"?
--Are they more likely in the copyright or trademark context to be construed as a permissible "fair use" of the intellectual property of others?
--Do traditional communications law principles apply and, if so, in what manner?
--Are bloggers journalists, such that both the privileges and the responsibilities of journalists are applicable to them?
This is all new territory, legally speaking, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the courts. Read the rest of Savell's article to think about some of the issues facing blogs today.
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