Thursday 19 June 2008

This Podcast Will Save Your Life

Catching up with some podcasts, I got to this one from the "This Week in Tech" stable: "This Week in Law 14", with Denise Howell.

Although subtitled as "Managing the legal risks related for blogging and podcasting", it covers lots of ground, as much of the Web2.0 gamut that they can. If you write a blog, podcast, use photo-hosting, post comments, write on forums, then listen to this podcast ASAP:

http://twit.tv/twil14: Blogger and Podcaster Liability

2 comments:

Alan Sloman said...

I listened to it all the way through yesterday, Duncan.

What an incredibly tedious podcast! As far as I could fathom, as long as you are even slightly careful, the chances of getting sued over the content of your blog are remote in the extreme!

Having been similarly fascinated by the recent discussions over who owns the comments on a person's blog, it again comes down to basic common sense: If someone is having an unreasonable pop at some person, product or manufacturer, then tell them so on the comments; that way you are covered. If he / she continues, then just simply delete the idiot's comments.

It all comes down to what seems reasonable to the man on the top deck of the Clapham Omnibus.

We can too easily be intimidated by what we can or cannot write. You can write what you like as long as it is a sincerely held belief and we can justify it.

AktoMan said...

Ah, true. But some people's blogs/comments may be read by their employers. Look at people writing about their dull jobs at Argos (iirc), or about what happens in the emergency services. There was the "drunken pirate" teacher in the US.

As media changes will the laws fail to keep up with the citizens. Will sharing news be seen as plagiarism as the sharing of copyrighted music gets people into trouble. I quote sources so that people can track back to the original posts - but there is no guarantee that where I read/heard something first was the journalist who spent their time and effort into investigating and writing the exclusive.

If some bloggers are writing, for example, gear reviews, are they opening themselves up to potential court cases, especially if they make money from their blogs.

I honestly don't know. I think that the suggested insurance is going too far, but I can foresee more court cases when people aren't being careful. Whether they ride on the Clapham Omnibus or not.