Erkan recently posted news of an article titled 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know .
They write: "While the Internet still retains some of the “wild wild west” feel, increasingly Internet activity, and particular blogging, is being shaped and governed by state and federal laws. For US bloggers in particular, blogging has become a veritable land mine of potential legal issues, and the situation isn’t helped by the fact that the law in this area is constantly in flux.
Postscript: Peter, from Antwerp Calling has left an interesting comment regarding this post. It's worth checking out.
Most professional advice.
ReplyDeleteBut as non-US bloggers (on US blog platforms) these issues may become rather more trivial than they may appear when reading the '12 laws':
1- enforcement:
with over +100 million blogs the “wild wild west” is still very much alive and kicking: most smaller blogs do as they please - who cares?
Even big-time frauds (like the harvesters that copied my entire blog and added their Ads by Google) can go unnoticed for ages. And when they do get noticed, they start over somewhere else.
2- Different jurisdictions:
The US liability laws are much stricter, while the US 1st amendment protects far reaching free speech that is completely outlawed in many other countries.
It is often unclear which jurisdiction governs certain posts,
especially when they consist of fair use quotes from different sources and/or countries.
3- scope and real impact:
Lets be bold and watch the results :-)
Try posting a very critical item about (eg) the US Department of Homeland Security. I did. They visited my blog and read it. I mailed them asking a copy of the data they stored on me based on the US Freedom of Information Act.
They actually replied (!), asking my personal details ;) (I assume they thought I was a US citizen)
But when it comes to real liability issues that can get you into trouble in the US blogosphere, remember that they are basically much more obsessed with those posting nudity/porn or content that may interfere with business/trade or cause financial losses.
Thanks Peter. I added a postcript to my post.
ReplyDelete