Comments on: The Legal Issues with Comments

By: A comment policy for your blog « onecoolsitebloggingtips

A comment policy for your blog « onecoolsitebloggingtips — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:25:15 +0000

[...] one hand, you are not legally responsible for the content in comments posted on your blog – all comments belong to their authors. On the other, everything posted on your blog [...]

By: surveillancesystems

surveillancesystems — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:22:16 +0000

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By: google.23

google.23 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:15:30 +0000

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By: money.cnm

money.cnm — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:00:30 +0000

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By: storesonline023

storesonline023 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:59:02 +0000

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By: musee.99

musee.99 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:20:53 +0000

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By: brogller

brogller — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:40:06 +0000

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By: blogmaster420

blogmaster420 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:04:31 +0000

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Its a better blog and the blog having some helpful tips for the readers like me,Thankx stay tune with us.

By: devonjon

devonjon — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:38:27 +0000

Its a better blog and it always presenting measure cases legal issue with comments is one of them,so its a good job no doubt and thanks to you.

By: protector102

protector102 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:54:07 +0000

Thank U very much for the tips and its very fruitful for me, I’m agree with “Tish Grier “.

By: Chris Tindal

Chris Tindal — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:51:01 +0000

In Canada there is a defence known as “innocent dissemination,” meaning that you can claim you’re not responsible if you didn’t know the alleged libel had been published. There’s a similar defence in the US as well. The publisher still needs to act responsibly, however. (For example, if a comment is brought to their attention, they need to act promptly as appropriate.) IMO this is an important and fair defence, partly because without it only those with the resources and legal knowledge to moderate comments would be able to turn them on. Look up “innocent dissemination” in Wikipedia.

By: Philip John

Philip John — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:07:11 +0000

I’m only just getting into the legal issues of blogging (long after I should) and found this post very helpful, thanks. I’m in the UK so still have a lot of digging as I’m not sure us British bloggers get the same protection from the law as Americans. Though, the comments on British Columbia are concerning to me.

One thing I picked up on, which I hope you can clarify is this matter of having knowledge of the infringement. Personally I wouldn’t accept a blogger saying “oh I didn’t see that comment.” I think that would be a pretty lame excuse. That’s like our PM saying “oh I didn’t know what my closest aide was up to.” (See Damien McBride scandal.) So would that really wash with a court, or am I mis-interpreting the point you make?

By: Does Your Blog Have A Comments Policy? : The Blog Herald

Does Your Blog Have A Comments Policy? : The Blog Herald — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:09:44 +0000

[...] on the Blog Herald, Jonathan Bailey covered “The Legal Issues with Comments”, confronting bloggers with their responsibilities for copyright and more regarding the comments [...]

By: Plagiarism in Your Own Ranks : The Blog Herald

Plagiarism in Your Own Ranks : The Blog Herald — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:21:51 +0000

[...] As we discussed previously, the law offers a site a great deal of protection whenever works are posted to it at the sole direction of its users, such as with comments. [...]

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:06:04 +0000

Chris,

That’s something I kind of glanced over under Libel/Defamation. It is global and, yes, you can be sued just about anywhere, that is especially dangerous with Libel law as the defamation takes place where the other person is. Compare that to copyright infringement where the infringement takes place where you are.

It’s a scary thought and, though what happened to you is bad enough to send chills up my spine, it could have been worse. Imagine, for a moment, if the suit had been in Britain, or in Russia. It could have been much worse.

I am glad that you are fighting the suit and please keep me up to date on how it goes! I will be very interested to hear what comes of it.

By: Chris Tindal

Chris Tindal — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:31:21 +0000

Jonathan -- One other angle I'm not sure you've considered. Since the internet is global, bloggers are vulnerable to the "lowest common denominator" of libel law. Just because they're protected by US law doesn't make them safe. I'm currently being sued in the courts of British Columbia (on the grounds that I'm responsible for alleged libel that takes place on sites linked to in my blogroll) even though I live in Ontario. The same individual is also suing American companies Wikimedia Inc., Google, MySpace, Yahoo!, and more, using BC law. As I understand it, anyone, blogging anywhere, could be sued in the courts of BC on the grounds that their blog was "published" there via the internet.

By: Tish Grier

Tish Grier — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:43:29 +0000

Hi Jonathan,

thanks for replying to my comment (and also for coming over to my blog and commenting) And I compleley understand about not being in it for the money ;-) Thanks for clarifying your point of view on this–and I see it much clearer. Ther is, I’m sure, ways that we can discuss the important legal issues (and you’re right that they’re important) with also understanding the community aspect of blogging. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so tough in my critique–because, perhaps, we are in many ways on the same page.

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:33:56 +0000

Tom: I agree that Akismet is wonderful but lately I’ve fallen in love with reCAPTCHA. Though I usually hate CAPTCHA systems because they don’t work, reCAPTCHA actually does and it has benefits beyond preventing spam. Since I installed it two weeks ago, I’ve had exactly zero spam.

Tish: Good point there. I probably should have mentioned the conversation element more directly. As far as the “jaundiced view” that really comes more from my background on copyright and search engine optimization than money. Believe me, if I were in this for money I would have picked a different field ;)

But yes, you are correct, there is a huge conversation element to it and I was remiss to leave it out. My apologies.

In my rush to discuss the legal issues, or at least some of the larger ones, I omitted something important. I hope you can forgive.

By: Tish Grier

Tish Grier — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:23:41 +0000

Jonathan–I think you’re confusing personal blogging and business blogging. Allwoing comments has *always* been integral to blogging. That’s why we blog. Business bloggers–as in those blogging for a corporation, not just for your own consulitng concern–have much more to think about regarding comments (much more than you cover here) And comments are NOT about giving someone “free content”–that’s a jaundiced view of comments that reeks of someone who beieves that blogging’s all about makng money for himself. Comments are usually about having a conversation with the blogger. If you’re going to be paranoid about comments, then don’t blog.

By: Tom Clarke

Tom Clarke — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:45:25 +0000

Yeah, I think the potential benefits of allowing comments on a blog (mainly the much higher return-user rate) by far outweighs the possible downsides. I find Akismet to be very reliable and while I do occasionally find the odd comment which has been erroneously marked as spam, it pretty much never happens the other way around.

On the legal side, a firm editorial grip should ensure that any problematic comments are assessed quickly and dealt with as necessary.

By: Linker Barn: Tuesday, August 14

Linker Barn: Tuesday, August 14 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:35:37 +0000

[...] On the legal issues with comments. [...]

By: Cool Links 8-13-07

Cool Links 8-13-07 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 01:25:40 +0000

[...] The Legal Issues with Comments [...]