Blogging Can Make You Broke
I’ve been meaning to write a post about the chilling effect legal threats, not to mention actual lawsuits, can have on blogging in general, and bloggers in particular. It seems like a good time now that I’m “out,” (so to speak) to write about it. I blogged anonymously for several reasons (personal security and job security mainly), but blogging anonymously is certainly no protection against one of the latest threats bloggers are facing–threatened or real legal action.
Recently, one of Reno’s local bloggers has had to contend with threats of the legal kind. Although Ryan Jerz seems to enjoy poking the proverbial bear (never a great idea), it takes real courage to stand up to someone who actually has a lawyer at their disposal. Ryan Jerz has been doing just that. It’s my guess that many independent bloggers like me and Ryan have felt they have had no choice but to remove material from their sites, or take their sites down altogether because of threatened or actual legal action. Most independent bloggers have few financial resources and risk losing a great deal by defending themselves against such action and risking financial ruin.
For more information, particularly if you are a blogger, check out the following sites:
J-Learning: particularly “Legal Issues for Online Publishers.”
Citizen Media Law Project: A legal guide for citizen journalism.
Chilling Effects: A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics. This OJR article details the great work that Chilling Effects is doing.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation: “the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.”
Similar Posts:
- EFF Wins Another Battle for Fair Use and Free Speech
- What Else Is There to Say? Ryan Jerz Is Not Anonymous
- EFF Wins Round 1 Against AT&T and Bush Administration
Enjoy this post? Leave a comment below or subscribe to my feed. You also can sign up for email delivery by clicking here.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
Comments
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Very good write up! And very timely.
The EFF FAQ’s are very useful. Thanks for these links.
I wonder what the deal is with reposting emails. I think
Ryan J is also pondering that issue??
So many other things I’m now wondering about also. Almost
glad now my blogging will end soon with a specific article
series.
Congratulations (I think) on being outed! Enjoyed the write-up about you and renofabulous looks intriguing, just came back from browsing there.
I’m still in the closet for a couple of reasons - being female and my redneck locale. A bigger city would afford more anonymity (I think). There are only 5,000 people here in this cultural wasteland…Do they really need to know what I think about the Iraq war or who I support in the Democratic primaries, when the only person around here who put an Obama sign in his front yard found…a cross burning in his front yard?!!! Naw, I think I’ll cling to my privacy for awhile longer. (Considering moving, actually.)
Anyway, congrats on the write-up!
Cheers,
PJ
Myrna, you have some comments over here:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3982062499736200183&postID=914598610336422943
Best.