If you are American you can find out if your blog is within federal/state law. Go to www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/ and read the Electronic Frontier Foundation guide.

The EFF only has a guide for Americans; this is pretty useless as far as I’m concerned, and the majority of the world. The EFF does seem to be US focused, perhaps understandable as they are based in San Fransisco.

Internet-based law is still in its infancy and there is still very little legislation or case law that is concerned solely with electronic media. This means that blogging law has to fit into the general legal framework that already exists.

So if you are British, here’s a brief guide of some of the laws that could affect your blog:

Reporting Restrictions: Only applies if you are connected to the case or are paid to publish the information that is restricted.

Race Relations (Public Order Act 1986): It is an offence to display, publish, or distribute material that is threatening, abusive, or insulting if the publisher intends to stir up racial hatred. If racial hatred is actually stirred up, this also falls under the definition.

Data Protection (1988): See www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=34

Libel: Defamatory libel, Blasphemous, Seditious, and Obscene libel. (One publication could be the subject of both civil and criminal proceedings and the defamer could be sent to prison and made to pay damages.)

Defamation: The law of defamation protects the reputation of individuals from any unjustified attack. It tries to balance the individual’s rights with freedom of speech and the freedom of the press.

Copyright: This area of law protects intellectual property and does not have to be registered. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 protects literary, dramatic, artistic work, music, TV, cable or radio broadcasts, film, sound recordings and page layouts.
To protect your copyright, it must satisfy the following tests:
- It is original
- Some work must have been put into it by the copyright claimant
Copyright does not protect slogans, facts, news, ideas or information, but it does offer protection in the way the above are expressed.

Enforcement: Internet publishing means the potential readership is truly worldwide and means that claimants can often choose the easiest jurisdiction in which to bring a claim. The law is complicated but bloggers should be aware of the fact that they may be sued in:
- the country where they reside or are based;
- the country where their server is situated;
- in the case of defamation any country where the damage is done to a person’s reputation;
- in the EC, the country where a consumer lives.
The situation outside the EC is particularly uncertain as laws and protection given to claimants and defendants vary widely.

The only official legal guide that I have found from the UK government is from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The guide is in PDF format and can be downloaded from: www.e-democracy.gov.uk/knowledgepool/retrieve.asp?pk_document=358&pagepath=http://www.e-democracy.gov.uk/knowledgepool/&doc=1

Sources:
www.media-solicitors.co.uk
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
www.e-democracy.gov.uk

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