Whilst not necessarily the question, this is certainly a question that all bloggers are having to ask themselves. Where blogging (and this probably applies to the web as a whole) once promised an escape route from the earthly confines of jurisdiction and law, bloggers are waking up to the fact that what they write may expose them to risks and liabilities that are all-too-familiar from the world outside.
There is no doubt that, at least in some parts of the world, blogging can be a risky business. Iranian bloggers were taken to prison and fined for "insulting the country's leaders and making anti-government propaganda"; Chinese bloggers using Microsoft's MSN Spaces site will find themselves censored if they try to use words like "democracy" and "freedom". Even in the US and UK, there have been some salutory reminders that a post on a blog is a publication that can give rise to real world consequences. First there was the sacking of air hostess "Queen of the Sky" for posting pictures of herself in uniform; then Joe Gordon, writer of the Woolamaloo Gazette, was sacked by Waterstones for comments he made about his employers; then Apple forced bloggers to reveal their sources for leaks about the company's new technology.
The indignant members of the blogosphere, habitual champions of free speech, don't like it at all. A number of them have decided that it is better "to take arms against a sea of troubles,/And by opposing end them". There was a groundswell of support for Joe Gordon (and satisfaction when he was offered his job back and able to turn it down in favour of Forbidden Planet). The Committee to Protect Bloggers "is devoted to the protection of bloggers around the world" and is guided by a "belief in the free exchange of ideas". There is even a new "adopt a Chinese blog" website that attempts to undermine the restrictions imposed by the Chinese government.
Bloggers should, though, consider the legal risks and liabilities of writing publicly. Employees must remember their employment obligations before they post; in the UK, bloggers should also remember the laws on defamation (which has rather more teeth than in the US), and copyright. Far from being a private refuge from the laws where we live, blogs are public documents and may be used in evidence against us. In the light of the recent actions by the BPI to expose the names of P2P music sharers, it may be only a matter of time before the likes of Typepad and Blogger are forced to reveal the names of their subscribers as part of an action for defamation or breach of copyright.
In the context of the apparent risks of blogging, it is perhaps unsurprising that so few UK lawyers have so far taken up the baton (it didn't need the Law Society Gazette to point out that blogs written by UK lawyers are few and far between). This is, though, in striking contrast to the US, where an entire website is devoted to indexing the many on offer.
In fact, lawyers should be better positioned than anyone to understand what can and can't be posted on a blog - which is one of the reasons why we set up Naked Law.
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