Yep, you can be sued for what your write online

[gpatt0n]

• Understanding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
• Requirements for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbor and responding to takedown notices
• Dealing with subpoenas for information about people who post on your website

Panelists:

• David Ardia (Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society)
• Joshua Azriel (Kennesaw State University)
• Justin Brown (Winthrop University)
  
• G. Patton Hughes (Paulding.com)
• Amy Sanders (University of Minnesota Law School)

Attorney's, BTW, can earn CLE credits and the rest of us can pick the brains of those attending and presenting.



The site for registration is here.



More information on the conference is here.

If you decide to register, I think you can still type in "Hughes" in the promo code and save $10.00.

	If you are interested in the Internet, journalism and law, here is an event that ought to make you squeal Know that I am. Bottom line though, if you write on the Net or even copy and paste stuff, you may be opening yourself up to legal hassles. I try to keep folks out of trouble and other than a couple of subpoenas that went away, PCOM has avoided the pitfalls ... so far. But part of that is knowing where the snares are and this conference is the place to find out. I will be not only be attending but have been invited to appear on one of the panels at this event. My panel is entitled: Building and Managing Online Communities and runs from 3:30 – 5:00pm on Saturday. The piece describing it says ... A healthy online community can foster discussion and build connections within the community; an unhealthy one can be hostile and negative. Learn about how the safe harbors in the Communications Decency Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act impact the ability of journalism organizations to manage online users and comments.
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[mei lan]

Whatever you do, don't post a story (or link to same) from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Sheesh...

[GRI5TH]

As a matter of fact, you can sue anyone for anything. Now "winning" is another ball game.

[xxrsellars]

WE need a Loser pays law to kill the frivolous law suits.

[LPPT]

Thankfully Pubby stays on top of this.

Because of that sometimes a post will disappear or someone will be strongly urged not to post something.

 

Social networking is relatively new and yes people are being sued for what they say on the Internet.

 

For the average person on our site chatting about issues there is not much worry.

 

It is best to keep in mind that persons or entities with deep pockets can make life very unpleasant should they wish.

 

As JR said you can sue anybody for anything, as for us average folks, do we have deep enough pockets to defend ourselves?

 

You need to ask yourself is it worth it because it took 5 minutes longer than I thought it should to get a burger, or wouldn't it be fun to bring someone down a notch or 2.

 

Or share intimate info just to watch the drama.

 

We are watching to see how these cases are handled so that we can keep you informed and hopefully everyone can enjoy social networking without getting in trouble.

[afriendlygeek]

That should be an interesting conference and I'm glad to see that Pubby is a panelist. There needs to be someone on board that deals with these issues on a daily basis and I doubt that there is anyone more qualified than Pubby.

[bigocobb]

Can you share with us the best way to quote and site news or information from other web sources. If I copy and paste something here from an online source I generally put it in quotes, only quote a portion, include the author/reporter's name when available, and post a link to the original source. This is basically what I would do if I was writing a paper for school. Is that not enough?

Edited September 14, 2010 by cobbobig

[LPPT]

Can you share with us the best way to quote and site news or information from other web sources. If I copy and paste something here from an online source I generally put it in quotes, only quote a portion, include the author/reporter's name when available, and post a link to the original source. This is basically what I would do if I was writing a paper for school. Is that not enough?

 

What you are doing is fine, We sometimes do break links to certain sites, if we do the address is usually left for people to copy and paste in their browser.

 

A mod can better explain to you why a link is broken, I also think we might remove an address if the content of cite is objectionable.

 

An example is someone posted the link to a website in the political forum trying to prove how terrible Obama supporters are.

 

The site was full of graphic pornographic ads, I ask that it be removed.

[mei lan]

Can you share with us the best way to quote and site news or information from other web sources. If I copy and paste something here from an online source I generally put it in quotes, only quote a portion, include the author/reporter's name when available, and post a link to the original source. This is basically what I would do if I was writing a paper for school. Is that not enough?

 

Seems like taht would be fine under the Fair Use statute, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal that I mentioned above is suing people left and RIGHT for posting anything (even stuff that links back to their original story so that they get hits off of it) for a minimum of $75,000. They hired a company to do nothing but that, as I understand it. I'm not gonna look up the story because I don't want them comin' after me.

[gpatt0n]

Mei Lan:

 

That is a mess out there in Nevada. I do think folks have figured out we've always discouraged wholesale copy and pasting.

 

Probably the 'safest' thing to do would be to get the text they include in a RSS link and use that as a guide of how much content from a particular story is definitely allowable. Typically these types of 'feeds' include at most the lead paragraph ... That would be the media creator's assertion of what is 'fair use'.

 

The courts don't have to agree with that and "fair use" is usually is up to the courts.

 

Those who copy/quote more extensively are cautioned to be more careful.

 

Certainly, I think fair use would include more than a single sentence lead and that is an arguable point.

 

By the same token, anything above a quarter or more of the entire article could be more than fair use.

 

Understand that copyright is based on the exact words used. No one owns the information and truth is by definition, in the public domain.

 

The trick then is to tell the story your self ... and don't feel bad about attributing the fact-finding effort to the original source.

 

I must say that I've already benefited from this conference. My personal reading of the DCMA left me with the opinion that there was little protection for pcom in its wording. (This is the law that requires take down of content.). The discussions and materials I've been sent suggest that there may be protection afforded - I thought the protections were aimed mainly at ISP's. I haven't undertaken the process ... yet.

 

But like the folks who gathered the copyrights from the newspapers in Nevada and went to suing willy nilly, the issues could be greater than they appear based on the last fifteen years of customary net usage.

 

pubby

 

And we do allow links to what I'll call recognized news sites. Site that depend on local bloggers that compensate the writer on a per-view basis, however, are not included largely because the temptation

[workingforaliving]

I have learned more about this topic than I ever wanted to know

[solosoul]

I have learned more about this topic than I ever wanted to know

The thing is this has been going on for years. This is nothing new.

[surepip]

So Pubby, if a local pundit posts on his blog, that I, by name, am a Democrat, can I go after him ?

 

I have never been a member of the Democratic Party and in fact HAVE been a member of the Republican Party in the past 5 years. He labeled me by name as a Democrat on his local website.

 

Should I contact my lawyer ?

[LPPT]

So Pubby, if a local pundit posts on his blog, that I, by name, am a Democrat, can I go after him ?

 

I have never been a member of the Democratic Party and in fact HAVE been a member of the Republican Party in the past 5 years. He labeled me by name as a Democrat on his local website.

 

Should I contact my lawyer ?

 

I am sure your lawyer would say.................

 

 

[surepip]

I am sure your lawyer would say.................

 

 

 

Aw come on now, I was just asking for Pubby's opinion. I have met some interesting Democrat related lawyers the past couple of months. Just wondering if I should drop one a line about RR's pundit site. And his friend Ithy?

 

Believe me, I know about obtaining as much justice as you can pay for.

 

 

 

[mei lan]

Understand that copyright is based on the exact words used. No one owns the information and truth is by definition, in the public domain.

 

The trick then is to tell the story your self ... and don't feel bad about attributing the fact-finding effort to the original source.

 

 

Good information there.