Bloggers unconcerned by legal pitfalls on-line!

Still the debate rumbles on about the accountability of bloggers and people making comments on web-sites. It doesn't suprise me that only 1/3 of posters have actually read the legal T&C's of the forum they are posting on, it actually sounds quite high to me. Web publishers must take the moral high ground and have some kind of system for moderation or a suitable reporting procedures for unsutiable comments so that they can be removed as soon as possible.

DLP Piper are a digital media law specialist company.

DLP Piper offers some useful legal pitfalls relating to user generated content:

• Defamation: This country has tough libel laws and from the earliest Web 1.0 bulletin boards posters have got into difficulty with defamatory comments -- as have the online services that carry them.
• Offensive messages: There are a range of laws from the Protection from Harassment Act to specific restrictions in the Telecommunications Act that can be invoked.
  
• Incitement: There have been high profile cases relating to terrorism but any encouragement of others to commit unlawful acts can result in prosecution.
• Intellectual property: There is a copy and paste culture online, but using other people's material (whether it's an article, photograph, logo or even another blog posting) can cause problems.
• Linking: Bloggers need to think about what is on their own site, but also keep an eye on the links they provide to other pages (eg to offensive or illegal material).
• Reporting: The law of contempt and other statutory reporting restrictions carry strict penalties if breached.
• Corporate blogging: The legal pitfalls can be even more pronounced in the case of corporate blogs where additional commercial concerns will apply.