Simon McGarr is one of the few lawyer/solicitors out there that understands the law relating to bloggers and libel. The law varies dependant on whether bloggers are counted as editors, publishers, content owners etc... As soon as you moderate comments you become an editor of content published by others. You might be the publisher as you host the content (your writings and comments by others), but your ISP is also hosting for you.
If you don't moderate the comments then you remain the pure conduit to deliver those to the wider world and there is less liability.
There's a whole separate case relating to discussion forums, boards.ie was cited as an example as they have been threated with legal action. There is an argument that forums are similar to phone companies in that they provide the means for others to publicise (i.e. the wires that allow people to make calls) but they they can't track every piece of content (they don't listen to and judge every call).
Damien Blake responded to the talk by saying that bloggers shouldn't get too paranoid about comments, they are an essential part of a blog and (almost) required for it's survival - otherwise it's simply you stating your thoughts there's no 'discussion'.
A disclaimer is a useful tool, it costs nothing to put one on your blog, but you can't rely on just that, it's just an additional layer of protection.
Mick Fealty pointed out that he was once given advice to "treat every threat seriously", when he receives any sort of legal notification he immediately drops the content in question - it's sometimes not worth the hassle and the battle. Simon pointed out that the cost of fighting a legal battle could easily be the cost of a house in Dublin, nevermind the damages you might end up owing at the end of that. Declaring yourself bankrupt is a possibility, but not one that you usually want to go into...
Tags: IrishBlogCon IrishBlogCon1 IrishElections2007
If you don't moderate the comments then you remain the pure conduit to deliver those to the wider world and there is less liability.
There's a whole separate case relating to discussion forums, boards.ie was cited as an example as they have been threated with legal action. There is an argument that forums are similar to phone companies in that they provide the means for others to publicise (i.e. the wires that allow people to make calls) but they they can't track every piece of content (they don't listen to and judge every call).
Damien Blake responded to the talk by saying that bloggers shouldn't get too paranoid about comments, they are an essential part of a blog and (almost) required for it's survival - otherwise it's simply you stating your thoughts there's no 'discussion'.
A disclaimer is a useful tool, it costs nothing to put one on your blog, but you can't rely on just that, it's just an additional layer of protection.
Mick Fealty pointed out that he was once given advice to "treat every threat seriously", when he receives any sort of legal notification he immediately drops the content in question - it's sometimes not worth the hassle and the battle. Simon pointed out that the cost of fighting a legal battle could easily be the cost of a house in Dublin, nevermind the damages you might end up owing at the end of that. Declaring yourself bankrupt is a possibility, but not one that you usually want to go into...
Tags: IrishBlogCon IrishBlogCon1 IrishElections2007
posted by ellybabes at 10/07/2006 02:51:00 pm
1 Comments:
my post http://cyberfrance.blogspot.com/2006/07/dangerous-blogging.html
has links to two free legal guides for bloggers.
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