Comments on: Number One Rule in Blogging: Play Nice or Pay

By: Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers From WordCamp Israel, Sicks, Tackles WordPress.com Marketplace, Content Thieves, and Kicks Blogging Ass « Lorelle on WordPress

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:43:55 +0000

[...] Number One Rule in Blogging: Play Nice or Pay is about the responsibility that comes with “publishing” and freedom of speech. [...]

By: Brian Carnell

Brian Carnell — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:02:39 +0000

Yeah, that darn freedom of speech. How dare people go around invoking it like its a fundamental right of a free people or something. The next thing you know, they’ll be claiming police can’t search their homes without a warrant. Sheesh.

And then you get just nonsense like James Farmer’s rant. I understand why people turn comments off, but I think they’re essential.

Anyway, this sort of generic advice here is not very helpful since a lot of this is *very* different depending on your location. In the United States, for example, we have very liberal libel and slander laws which make it extremely difficult to successfully bring such lawsuits. We also have that First Amendment which means that stupid law Bush signed is pretty much guaranteed to be found unconstitutional.

OTOH, in the UK we know you can get sued for calling a Holocaust Denier, well, a Holocaust Denier.

Frankly, life’s too short to tiptoe around the truth. If you’re sitting there worried that you’re going to get sued for every inflammatory thing you say, maybe you should take up some other hobby like maybe knitting.

By: Coen Jacobs » Blog Herald doet duit in zakje in zaak auteursrecht | Blogging & Wordpress

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:36:59 +0000

[...] jongen’ zich ermee gaat bemoeien. De Blog Herald schrijft met een pakkende titel; “Play nice or pay” een artikel over de startende dreiging die het kopieëren van andermans artikelen met zich [...]

By: Zach

Zach — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:21:59 +0000

That Freedom of Speech is something that I thought a lot about before starting my blog. And since my topic has such potential to be the target of a lawsuit, I make sure that anything appearing there is either true or labeled as opinion and is an opinion that is reasonably arrived at based on fact.

By: pelf

pelf — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:48:00 +0000

“Freedom of speech” is indeed one of those phrases that bloggers overuse (including political bloggers). When faced with an impending lawsuit, or when somebody mentions the word “sue”, bloggers get all defensive and question the democracy behind “freedom of speech”.

What they do not understand is that, like any other things, “freedom of speech” DOES come with “terms and conditions” :)

By: J. Lynne

J. Lynne — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:12:50 +0000

People so often play the “free speech” card and get outraged when it has a backlash, but I’ve said time and time again that the right to free speech means we can say what we want but it doesn’t protect us from the consequences of what we say. That’s why when you open your mouth, put your pen to your paper, or press that publish button, you better be ready for the reaction.