EFF Law Guide for Blogs and Bloggers

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has a useful online

Legal Guide for Bloggers

which contains extensive FAQs (frequently asked questions [and answers]) covering blog and blogger liability and the legal rights and obligations of bloggers relating to:

IP (Copyrights, DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act], Trademarks)
Right of Publicity
Defamation [and Libel]
Section 230 [see below]
Privacy
Reporter's Privilege
Election Law
Labor Law
Adult Materials [Pornography]

With respect to the above, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA), [which is part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, see p. 78 in that linked pdf, Title 47 of the United States Code (47 USC § 230)], contains a very important provision. We cite the EFF comment thereto:

Section 230 says that " "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." This federal law preempts any state laws to the contrary: "[n]o cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section." The courts have repeatedly rejected attempts to limit the reach of Section 230 to "traditional" Internet service providers, instead treating many diverse entities as "interactive computer service providers."

As the EFF writes further:

"Bloggers can be both a provider and a user of interactive computer services. Bloggers are users when they create and edit blogs through a service provider, and they are providers to the extent that they allow third parties to add comments or other material to their blogs. "

"Your readers' comments, entries written by guest bloggers, tips sent by email, and information provided to you through an RSS feed would all likely be considered information provided by another content provider. This would mean that you would not be held liable for defamatory statements contained in it. However, if you selected the third-party information yourself, no court has ruled whether this information would be considered "provided" to you. One court has limited Section 230 immunity to situations in which the originator "furnished it to the provider or user under circumstances in which a reasonable person...would conclude that the information was provided for publication on the Internet...."

[See the Wikipedia for a good short discussion of the CDA as well as Section 230, and note that some but not all of the CDA has been found to be unconstitutional. Some online sources give a false impression in this regard. For CDA cases involving libel and defamation see Internet Law.]

Keep in mind that the EFF expressly states that these FAQs apply only to bloggers in the USA:

"I'm not in the United States - do these FAQs apply to me?
No. This legal guide is based on the laws in the United States, where there is a strong constitutional protection for speech. Many other countries do not have strong protections, making it easier to sue for speech. (See, for example, the BBC's guide, How to Avoid Libel and Defamation.) However, US courts are reluctant to enforce foreign judgments that would restrict your freedom of speech. So if you are sued in the United Kingdom for defamation, you might lose your UK case, but the winner would have a hard time collecting in the United States. If you know of a similar guide for your own jurisdiction or feel inspired to research and write one, please let us know. We can link to it here. We don't have the expertise or resources to speak to other countries' legal traditions, but we'd like to work with those who do. "

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Reposted from LawPundit.