Comments on: Throwing the book at blogs

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By: Eric Robinson

Eric Robinson — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 22:29:10 +0000

I have corrected and updated the list (http://www.medialaw.org/bloggerlawsuits)

Eric Robinson
Staff Attorney
Media Law Resource Center

By: Juan Paxety

Juan Paxety — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:42:01 +0000

Insurance may be nice to have, but I think it’s more important for bloggers to have knowledge of how to stay out of trouble in the first place. I worked for a TV station that was owned by an insurance company. It regularly had libel classes for the entire newsroom.

The basic thing folks need to remember is that once you say someone else has done something wrong, you are potentially putting your life in that person’s hands. And don’t think attribution is a complete defense - as my old law school dean said, “Tale bearers are as guilty as tale makers.”

By: Carl Nyberg

Carl Nyberg — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:01:29 +0000

When you write about cases you should probably link to the blog in question. Also, since there is good newspaper coverage of my case online, you should probably link to this also. Readers may want more background.

By: Carl Nyberg

Carl Nyberg — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 18:47:46 +0000

Thanks for writing about my case.

I have a correction. Billy Welch was indicted for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver along with Marco Thomas, whom B. Welch was arrested with. B. Welch was not convicted for this arrest.

The feds took jurisdiction of the Marco Thomas prosecution and the State’s Attorney dropped the prosecution of Welch for reasons I consider suspicious. Emanuel Christopher Welch who served as B. Welch’s attorney formerly worked for the State’s Attorney’s office.

Ron Anderson, a close friend and political ally of Emanuel Christopher Welch, was arrested–according to local newspapers–for possession of large amounts of cannibis in March, days before his election to the District 88 school board. While the State’s Attorney prosecuted Jeremiah Norris, Anderson’s brother and co-owner of the house, Anderson was not prosecuted even though the police said the odor of marijuana was so strong it could be smelled from outside the house.

By: Eric Robinson

Eric Robinson — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:20:13 +0000

A clarification based on Seth Finkelstein’s comment: As the list online explains, all these cases are against bloggers (using the wikipedia defenition as a guideline). The list would be much longer if I’d included lawsuits against commenters on message boards and chat rooms.

Eric Robinson
Staff Attorney
Media Law Resource Center

By: ruth

ruth — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:57:03 +0000

Next do we have a case requiring a blog host to disclose information identifying a poster that has been putting up scurilous or other comments on a particular blog? Jeff, who knows who I am, may be called before a grand jury to reveal who I am so that I can be prosecuted if I say something damaging about, say, GM?

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 08:16:03 +0000

Whatever happened to the Media Bloggers Association? (or shouldn’t I ask that question …). Wasn’t one of the goals there some sort of libel insurance?

A little while back, I did some digging on the topic for my own reasons, and found there were various policies in the market (”media liability” seemed to be the key phrase). Getting a group rate and qualification for one of those policies would be a very concrete, useful, thing.

By the way, several of those lawsuits aren’t about “bloggers”, unless anyone who posts anything somewhere on the Internet counts, including e.g. comments in a chat forum.

By: Armed Liberal

Armed Liberal — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:59:28 +0000

Jeff -

In Pajamas 1.0, back when I was involved, we’d actually sourced an insurer who would offer libel coverage (with some significant carveouts) to bloggers who joined up.

I’m guessing that’s not a feature of OSM, but I’d bet that it would cost about $5K to set up a trade association and potentially offer member benefits - pooled legal insurance and maybe even health insurance (!) to the members. My wife, TG, works for just such an organization…worth pursuing? I’d kick in the $5K to make this happen…

Marc “Armed Liberal” Danziger