Legal aspects of blogging

Can you get into trouble for blogging? Of course you can.

I quote the EFF’s legal guide for bloggers:

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office. The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in 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.

A legal workshop for bloggers will be held soon, organized by Derechos Digitales. The event is fully booked. It would be good if they published a guide like the EFF’s, adapted to the situation in Chile.

I think every blogger should find out how the laws of their country affect or protect them in this respect.