Legal Resources for Bloggers

If blogger A insults blogger B, does the first amendment prevent blogger B from suing blogger A? In a court of law, will a first amendment defense prevent blogger A from being found guilty of libel, defamation, or invasion of privacy?

Here's the text of the First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In an academic context, all schools, whether public or private, do have to deal with the ethical principle of academic freedom, so that, for instance, a professor isn't pressured to fail a student who writes a politically incorrect paper. But if a student posts a comment that's critical of Microsoft, and then later applies for a job at Microsoft, the company is perfectly free to say, "We didn't hire you because we Googled you and didn't like what we found." (Well, they probably wouldn't actually come out and say that...)

Ranting about general stress and workload is one thing, but naming names and getting personal is another matter. No employer wants to hire people who use their blogs to complain about their co-workers or employer, so few employers will be impressed by student blogs that complain about their felow students or professors.

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

Whether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published....[I]n many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging.