Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 4 May 2007 19:54:54 -0400
Begin forwarded message:From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin () law miami edu>
Date: May 4, 2007 6:01:13 PM EDT To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: Re: [IP] 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know Reply-To: froomkin () law tm [for IP]While being over-cautious will certainly keep you out of trouble, there's over-cautious and waaay over-cautious.
Most of these rules could be summarized as "Don't lie. And be very honest and transparent." Which is good advice, but could be said more simply.
Rule #5 is very problematic. If your use is utterly non-commercial, and you're not a cyber-squatter,then under US law you are allowed to register a name that happens to coincide with a trademark. And if the mark is not famous, and you're not a competitor and can't be mistaken for one, it often won't matter even if your use is commercial.
Rule 7(1) contains nonsense. You can always delete comments on your blog unless you have affirmatively promised not to -- and even then there may be exceptions.
Missing from the list is the tricky question of whether your liability for your blogging is protected by your homeowner's insurance. Short answer: read the fine print. In many cases, if you make money of the blog, it won't be covered; if it's a non-monetary hobby it is more likely to be covered.
-- http://www.icannwatch.org Personal Blog: http://www.discourse.net A. Michael Froomkin | Professor of Law | froomkin () law tm U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA +1 (305) 284-4285 | +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) | http://www.law.tm -->It's warm here.<-- ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know David Farber (May 04)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know David Farber (May 04)
- Re: 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know David Farber (May 05)
- Re: 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know David Farber (May 05)