Bloggers are awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit in which one of their own was sued for comments posted on his Web log or "blog."
State College-based blogger Aaron Wall was sued in August for defamation and revealing the trade secrets of Traffic-Power.com a company that helps Web sites boost their rankings on search engines.
But the firm isn't taking Mr. Wall, 24, to court for what he said about them -- but rather, for what readers of his blog posted as comments. The case has raised the ire of bloggers across the Internet, outraged and fearful that companies that don't like what is written about them can sue. So much for that freedom of speech thing.
Traffic-Power.com served Mr. Wall with legal papers, he hired a lawyer and posted the lawsuit documents on his blog. Despite his legal woes, Mr. Wall said he won't stop blogging. He has raised money, via his Web site and from links to his blog from other sites. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal reports that Traffic-Power.com was removed from Google and Yahoo's databases for questionable tactics in helping its clients appear higher in Web-search results.
Reed Smith attorney Chris Soller, who specializes in First Amendment issues, said bloggers, like journalists, should be careful about what they are writing and who they are writing about.
The casual, informal tone of blogs, is a potential minefield of legal liability. The First Amendment doesn't mean that bloggers are free from writing without repercussions. "In every state there are defamation and libel laws that apply," Mr. Soller added.
Will bloggers be treated like newspaper reporters, protected by the First Amendment but subject to libel and defamatory laws, or will they be treated like "common carriers," such as telephone companies, and not held liable for what other people write and say? Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act protects Internet service providers and Web sites from liability for information posted by third parties. But the courts have yet to decide if bloggers enjoy those same privileges.
Let me know if you would like to contribute to the newly formed PowerBlog! legal defense fund.
Full Story
By Corilyn Shropshire,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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