Legal Advice for Bloggers from EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a legal guide for U.S. residents on issues related to publishing a weblog. The 9-part guide, Legal Guide for Bloggers, is formatted as a series of frequently asked questions:

• The Overview of Legal Liability Issues
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on Intellectual Property
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on Online Defamation Law
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on Section 230 Protections (about hosting information written by third parties).
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on Privacy of those you write about.
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on the Reporter’s Privilege (reporting news from confidential sources).
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on Media Access
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on Election Law (blogging about political campaigns).
• The Bloggers’ FAQ on Labor Law (workplace blogging, including union organizing, protections for political blogging away from the workplace, and whistle blowing).

This detailed resource answers many questions bloggers may have — what is defamation and libel, compared to opinion; the benefits of obtaining a press pass; and an explanation of the legal difference between what you write and what a visitor to your site writes via blog comments or other such tools.

The Bloggers’ FAQ is a very handy guide to the world of publishing that so many of us are now joining.

[Via Web4Lib.]

Note: The original posting was edited on 7 November 2016 to correct links to the sections in the guide.