Statler’s Rogue Valley Views

Legal Guide for Bloggers

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

Updated April 20, 2006

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.

Legal Guide for Podcasting

For those interested and involved in podcasting, this Podcasting Legal Guide has been prepared to provide general information about some of the more common legal questions that get asked in relation to podcasting.

As you may know, the Electronic Frontier Foundation produced a very practical and helpful Legal Guide for Bloggers (http://www.eff.org/bloggers/). This Guide is designed to complement the EFF Guide for Bloggers. Many of the issues that are relevant to bloggers are also relevant to podcasting; for those crossover issues this Guide refers you to relevant sections of the EFF Guide. However, where this Guide tries to carve new ground is in relation to some of the standalone issues that are of primary relevance to podcasters, as opposed to bloggers.