Idea Lab

New Liability Insurance Program for Bloggers

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Here is a simple, but often ignored, truth: if you publish online, whether it's a news article, blog post, podcast, video, or even a user comment, you open yourself up to potential legal liability. It doesn't matter whether you are a professional journalist, hockey-mom, or an obscure blogger, if you post it, you'll need to be prepared for the legal consequences. So how big are the legal risks? It depends on what you publish and how you go about doing so. If you publish a blog about cute cats, for example, your risks are going to be lower than...

• September 23, 2008
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Primer on Immunity for User Content

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

As a lead up to the launch of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide in January, we are putting up longer, substantive blog posts on our project blog discussing various subjects covered in the legal guide. The first post in the series stems from a talk I gave at the Legal Risk Management in the Web 2.0 World conference in Washington, DC. As the token academic, I had the task of providing a general overview of the liability that publishers might face if they allow users to comment on or submit content to their sites. I adapted my...

• December 16, 2007
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Citizen Media Law Project Launches Legal Threats Database

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

At the Citizen Media Law Project we've finally finished building the interface for our Legal Threats Database, and I am excited to announce its public launch today. (If you would like to read our news release, you can find it here.) The database, which is funded by the Knight Foundation, catalogs the growing number of lawsuits, cease-and-desist letters, and other legal challenges faced by those engaging in online speech. We have already collected legal threats from 35 states and 9 countries, and the database is growing daily. These threats range from copyright infringement lawsuits filed against bloggers to cease and...

• November 7, 2007
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