100 Essential Legal and Privacy Guides for Bloggers

Blogging offers a great way to publish online, but many bloggers don’t quite know what they are getting into when they get started. The legal issues, privacy violations, safety concerns and other problems require lots of thought and often, action. In these guides, you’ll learn all about the legal and privacy issues that concern bloggers.

Legal

Get a lowdown on blog law through these resources.

1. Legal Guide for Bloggers: Read this guide for a comprehensive look at important legal issues for bloggers.
2. Citizen Media Law Project’s Legal Guide: Know your legal rights and responsibilities as an online publisher by following this guide.
3. Guia Legal del Blogger: This resource offers a Chilean legal guide for bloggers.
4. The [Linknotated] Law of the Blogger: Check out this artfully crafted piece to learn about blogger laws.
5. No Safety in Numbers: Read this resource to learn about the liabilities of coblogging relationships.
6. Online Defamation Law: Get an overview to online libel law and how it relates to bloggers.
7. Podcasting Legal Guide: Read this guide to learn about legal issues for podcasters.
8. Virginia Blogger Targeted with Outrageous Subpoena: Learn about the misuse of subpoena power against a Virginia blogger here.
9. 10 Things You Need to Know Before You Blog: Read this guide to get a quick look at important issues bloggers need to know about.
10. Bloggers beware: You’re liable to commit libel: Find out about your responsibilities under defamation law from this resource.
11. Election Law: In this guide, you’ll learn about the legal issues that relate to blogging about political campaigns.
12. Lawsuits Against Bloggers: Read about the legal issues that some bloggers have faced through this guide.
13. 12 Important US Laws Every Blog Needs to Know: This post explains 12 laws that are important to bloggers.
14. Adult Material: Read this FAQ to find out about the legal issues surrounding publishing adult oriented content online.
15. Blogging Can Get You Sued: On this post, you’ll learn about a blogger who got into legal trouble.
16. Blogging Threatened by Impending Legislation: Find out how legislation has attacked blogging from this post.
17. Dutch Legal Guide: Dutch bloggers can benefit from this legal resource.
18. Blog, Interrupted: Find out what can happen when you put your dirty secrets online.

Blogging Rights

Follow these guides to learn about your rights as a blogger.

19. Reporters’ Privilege: Find out how you’re protected when you report news from confidential sources from this guide.
20. Blogging Rights and Obligations: Read Ivan Hoffman’s guide to learn about the important rights dealing with blogging.
21. Freedom of Information Act: This guide covers the Freedom of Information Act that gives you the right to request information that is kept by federal government agencies.
22. Bloggers’ Rights: Get a basic guide to the legal issues you may run into as a blogger here.
23. Blogger rights hazy: This quick snippet offers a look at the problem with blog rights protections.
24. The Bloggers Rights: Read this post to learn about some of the rights bloggers have.
25. Fenwick & West Defends Blogger’s Free Speech Rights to Parody: This post shares the story of a blogger who was targeted for using parody.
26. Section 230 Protections: This guide provides information on Section 230 protections that apply to bloggers.
27. Libel: Blogging Rights and Wrongs: In this guide, you’ll learn about some of the rights and responsibilities of blogging.
28. The Net Democracy Guide: Questions & Answers on Blogging: This guide offers a look at campaign blogging laws.
29. The Blogger Rights: This post follows the story of a young blogger that is being targeted for starting an Orkut community.
30. Just a Reminder About Freedom: Blogging Comes With a Price: Check out this article to learn about the problems bloggers in China face.
31. Media Access: You can find out about getting access to public records, government meetings, and press passes for newsgathering from this guide.
32. Know Your (Blogging) Rights: This post encourages readers to get educated about blogging rights.
33. Blogger Rights: Find out how an Illinois newspaper is trying to protect confidential bloggers, while ignoring the rights of commenters.

Privacy

Find out how to protect your privacy with the help of these guides.

34. Sharing Yourself Online: Privacy While Blogging: This essay will tell you how to be more private while sharing your thoughts online.
35. Writing FAQ: Blogging Privacy: Learn how to make a healthy separation on your blog.
36. Big Brother is Reading Your Blog: Business Week explains how your blog is not as private as you may think.
37. Blogging privacy and liability: This guide asks you to consider your privacy and liability when blogging.
38. How to blog anonymously: Through this guide, you will quickly learn how to blog anonymously to protect your safety.
39. Blogging in the USA: Defamation and Privacy/Anonymity: Learn about cases and privacy issues for bloggers in this guide.
40. Privacy, Blogging, and Conflict of Interest: This post considers memory, technology, and more in private blogging.
41. Bloggers’ Expectations of Privacy and Accountability: An Initial Survey: Find out more about bloggers’ sense of privacy and perceptions of liability from this survey.
42. Blogging & Your Privacy: Read this guide to learn about some of the things you can do to protect your privacy.
43. Privacy FAQ: Find a discussion on the privacy of the people you blog about from this FAQ.
44. Blogging and privacy: are any expectations reasonable ones?: This blogger writes about privacy expectations while blogging.
45. Private Blogs: Read this WordPress guide to learn how to make your blog more private.
46. A technical guide to anonymous blogging-a very early draft: In this guide, you’ll learn about the technical details of anonymous blogging.
47. Blogging Privacy and Safety: This guide encourages parents to be thoughtful about the information you share about your family on your blog.

Safety

Keep yourself safe by following these guides.

48. Tips on Keeping Your Blog from Being Hacked: Read this post to learn how to help prevent keeping your blog from being hacked.
49. Be a Safe Blogger: Read this post to consider who exactly is reading about your daily life.
50. What to Do When Your Blog is Attacked: Find out how to deal with attacks on your blog from this guide.
51. When Blogging Can Get You Locked Up: Learn about bloggers who landed in trouble for their writings here.
52. How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else): The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s guide reminds bloggers of simple precautions to take for your personal privacy.
53. Egypt police beat, detain blogger: This post shares the story of a blogger that was attacked for his writing.
54. Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents: Find out how to stay anonymous and safe while blogging from this handbook.
55. Teens’ Guide to Safe Blogging: This guide encourages teen bloggers to be careful about what they share online.
56. The Committee to Protect Bloggers-Risking Your Life for Your Words: Learn about the risks of blogging through this resource.
57. Blog Stalkers-Personal Safety for Bloggers: Learn about blog stalkers and how to deal with them from this post.
58. A common sense approach to Internet safety: This resource from Google shares information about online safety.
59. Blog Sites, Profile Sites, Diary Sites or Social Networking Sites: This post dicusses some of the parental concerns on blog and diary sites.
60. Childnet Blogsafety: This site offers information about blogging and social networking for parents.

Blogging & Your Life

These resources will show you how blogging can affect your career, education, and more.

61. Blogging Consequences: Get an overview of some of the legal liabilities and unforeseen consequences of blogging here.
62. C|Net’s Guide to Workplace Blogging: Follow this FAQ to learn about the repercussions of workplace blogging.
63. Google blogger: ‘I was terminated’: Check out this post to learn about how one blogger got fired for writing about Google on his blog.
64. Blogging and Privacy: This post offers tips for corporate blogs, and employees who blog.
65. Labor Law: Read about the laws that surround workplace blogging from this guide.
66. Employers, employees should understand blog rights: Get an overview of the rights that employers and employees need to know about when it comes to blogging.
67. I was fired for blogging: Here you can read the story of a woman who was fired for blogging.
68. The beginning of Blog Rights?: Read this post to find out about a Court of Appeals decision that could signal the beginning of blog rights for employees.
69. Employee Blogs Pose Potential Problems for Businesses: Read this post to learn about the harm employee blogs can bring.
70. Asserting Your Workplace Rights: Find out about your rights in the workplace from this guide.
71. Corporate Violation of Employee Blogging Rights: This post explains how some companies have peeped into personal online journals.
72. Fighting for Blogging Rights: Watch this video, and you’ll learn about the push for better workplace blogging rights.
73. FAQ: Blogging on the job: Read this FAQ for a good guide to blogging without losing your job.
74. Friendster fires developer for blog: Check out this post to learn about a Friendster employee who was fired for blogging.
75. Corporate Blogging: Seize the Opportunity, but Control the Risks: Learn about the legal issues involved in blogging for companies.
76. FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus: School bloggers should follow this guide to free speech.
77. Blogging Rights: Learn about some of the issues surrounding student and faculty bloggers from this guide.
78. Northern Illinois University’s Guide for High School Journalists: Check out this guide to learn about libel, copyright, obscenity, and privacy.
79. Student Bloggers: Find out about some of the legal issues in student blogging from this guide.
80. Dating a Blogger, Reading All About It: The New York Times explores what can happen when the people in your life find your blog.
81. Privacy and Blogging: This blogger shares a strategy for identifying friends on a blog.

Copyright & Intellectual Property

Learn about copyright, intellectual property, and related issues for bloggers from these resources.

82. 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained: Brad Templeton explains copyright myths in plain words.
83. A Practical Guide to GPL Compliance: Learn about effective compliance with the GNU General Public License from this guide.
84. Do You Know Your Garden Blogging Rights: Copyright Infringement: Read this post to learn about copyright infringement as it relates to your blog.
85. Crash Course in Copyright: Get a quick look into copyright from this course.
86. What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content: Here you’ll find an excellent resource for protecting your content.
87. A brief intro to copyright: Learn the essentials of copyright from this introduction.
88. Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States: Check out this guide to learn about the terms for copyright and public domain.
89. Fair Use: Wikipedia offers a guide to fair use here.
90. The Growing Trends in Content Theft: Find out about image theft, feed scraping, and website hijacking here.
91. How to Attribute a Creative Commons Licensed Work: Follow this guide to learn how to give proper attribution to Creative Commons licensed works.
92. Copyright: Read this guide to get an in-depth look at copyright.
93. Stolen Content: A How To Guide: Find out what to do when someone steals your content by following this guide.
94. Intellectual Property: Follow this guide to find out about some of the issues that arise when you use materials created by others on your blog.
95. Copyfraud: Find out what copyfraud is from this guide.
96. What to do when someone steals your original content: This detailed guide will help you stop a content thief.
97. Finding Stolen Content and Copyright Infringements: In this guide, you will learn about how you can protect your content.
98. How to Use a Work with a NonCommercial License: Find out about non commercial use from this guide.
99. Intellectual property: This Wikipedia guide explains the legal concept of intellectual property.
100. Biggest Copyright Infringement in the World But Nobody Cares Enough: This blogger writes about the apathy of copyright enforcement.