Some Legal Notes
Brand New SOB Franke James sent me an email yesterday. It held a link for Aviva Directory article on U. S. Blogger law. The article a resource for bloggers that I want to share with you.
Great Find: 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know
Permalink: http://www.avivadirectory.com/blogger-law/
Target Audience: All bloggers
Content: This article was posted May 1, 2007 and received over 1500 Diggs. It outlines 12 U.S. laws that bloggers should know. Each law is defnined and described. Then appropriate defensive actions are outlined following that text. Here is a summary of the 12 laws.
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1. Bloggers must disclose when they are being paid to review a product.
2. Courts have declared that some deep links to posts — rather than links to the changing front page of a blog — are in violation if anchor text and the text around the link misleads the reader into thinking the information is part of the original document.
3. Inline linking, or hot linking, which pulls an image from another site to appear on a blog is considered risky. Using thumbnails created new for the purpose of using a fresh image on your blog is considered fair use.
4. Any original work is under copyright protection the second itââ¬â¢s created. No form of record or registration is necessary.
5. The Uniform Doman Name Dispute Resolution Policy has made domain name dispute handling more efficient. It also tends to favor trademark holders.
6. It’s best to avoid revealing private information about readers, and to avoid collecting any data that you don’t absolutely need.
7. As stated, “By including a terms of service which spells out that you will have a license in all content posted in the site and more specifically that you will not have a duty to modify or withdraw posts but you may do so if you choose, you can ensure that you have effective control over the user-driven content on your site even if you do not have actual ownership of the content.”
8. The law is unclear on whether and how to handle comments on your blog that might be considered offensive, libelous, or otherwise in approrpriate.
9. If a you run a business selling goods that sells in a state or local area, then you must collect sales tax from customers in that area.
10. Forming an Limited Liability Company (LLC) rather than a corporations is the way to go for almost every blogger. An LLC carries all the same legal protections as a Corporation.
11. Your newsletter could be illegal spam.
12. Whether a blogger will be legally permitted to shield his sourceââ¬â¢s information confidential if subpoenaed isnââ¬â¢t clear yet.
Many links follow the discussion of the laws as references and further intormation. To read the entire article, click the title below.
Thanks, Franke, for passing this on.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Jen / domestika says
May 6, 2007 at 7:40 AMThat is indeed a great find. Even though these are American laws, where the USA goes the world will tend to follow, so the rest of us would do well to take note of the intent of these laws, if not the ‘letter’ of them!
Also, since much of the data of non-US bloggers is carried on USA servers, I have a suspicion that the laws would indeed apply to us in the letter as well as in the spirit — can anyone with deeper knowledge of internet law, etc., confirm or corrrect this?
ME Strauss says
May 6, 2007 at 9:35 AMHi Jen!
Great to see you here!
There was a list serve that carried some comments. I was uncomfortable including them in the post, however I don’t mind passing along what they said.
From a professor at the Miami School of Law:
Most of the laws say be transparent and honest. Don’t lie.
#5 “If your use is utterly non-commercial,
and you’re not a cyber-squatter,then under US law you are allowed to register a name that happens to coincide with a trademark. And if the mark is not famous, and you’re not a competitor and can’t be mistaken for one, it often won’t matter even if your use is commercial.”
#7 “You can always delete comments on your blog unless you have affirmatively promised not to — and even then there may be exceptions.” [via listbox.com]
HART (1-800-HART) says
May 6, 2007 at 6:00 PMI don’t recognize that authority or any legal aspect of that list .. however, I was entertained reading it, and some of it falls under “common sense”.
Are all bloggers incorporating themselves now?
HART
PS: // Don’t forget how that article ended …
To clarify further, you may not rely upon this information as legal advice, nor as a recommendation or endorsement of any particular legal understanding, and you should instead regard this article as intended for entertainment purposes only.
GP says
May 6, 2007 at 8:30 PMa worthy recipient of “SOB” 🙂 Thanx for sharing this
GP in *yes SUNNY * Montana
ME Strauss says
May 6, 2007 at 10:17 PMHi HART!!
I hadn’t really thuoght of it. I don’t suppose that all bloggers are incorporating themselves now. HART LLC Just doesnt’t do it for me. But I sure know a lot of blogger with that set of letters.
That italic disclaimer is one every American childrens to say before she or he goes to bed. Didn’t you know that? Oh that’s right, you are Canadian! 🙂
ME Strauss says
May 6, 2007 at 10:17 PMHi GP in SUNNY Montana!
I bet that alle could care less about the the 12 U.S. laws. 🙂
Jeremy Jacobs says
May 7, 2007 at 5:05 AMSounds like regulation via the back door.
ME Strauss says
May 7, 2007 at 6:33 AMHi Jeremy,
Great to see you again!
I’m sure why you’re calling it back door. It looks pretty front door to me. 🙂