By: Edward Amartey-Tagoe, Accra-Ghana.
I must admit I discovered my passion for blogging through a colleague of mine not too long ago. And since then my interest in this activity has kept on escalating by the day. What I however never considered was the fact that I could be held liable for every single word I put on my blog. I am sure a few other bloggers too didn’t have this knowledge. It makes this activity a little bit scarier; I however am in support of holding everyman responsible for his utterances in one way or the other .
In the United States, the First Amendment was adopted on December 15 1791, and states that;
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.
The other section of the debate is defamation of character. Defamation of character is often used to describe accusations of slander, libel or both. Whiles slander involves verbal derogatory statements, libel involves written ones. Despite the freedom of speech regulations in place to encourage as much free expressions as possible from the public, we should still be concerned about what we say or write because such statements could end us up with heavy fines.
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Lawsuits against bloggers increased from just 13 in 2003 to 106 in 2007 in the US. To date there have been about $17.4 million in trial awards against bloggers, according to the Media Law Resource Center in New York. Bloggers are feeling so comfortable writing about almost anything that comes to mind, therefore there is the temptation to venture into areas where even Angels fear to tread.
It is so amazing to know how many blogs come up every day. There are blogs that talk about almost everything, from exciting Ghanaian experiences to secrets hidden in the bedrooms of African women. As much as we have legal instruments supporting us to express ourselves in every creative way we can, we need not forget that we can be held liable for every character we put on our blogs.
It is very interesting though; this trend has created a business model for some legal and insurance firms to make a few dollars. Insurance companies are now insuring bloggers, promising to shield them against lawsuits in this direction. Bloggers pay between $200 and $350 per year to be protected from such court drama.
At the same time, companies are increasingly employing automated technology to scour the Internet for copyrighted materials and negative remarks. Because of this, sites that are in the business of rating everything from college best Viagra sale centers to doctors and contractors are being sued by recipients of unfair reviews. Sometimes the problem has to do with using copyright materials such as pictures, templates and diagrams on our blogs without proper permission. In worse cases bloggers are sued for directly plagiarizing an article authored by someone else and making it look as though it were their own. Here are nine copyright myths I knew almost nothing about.
I recently discovered a very interesting Copyscape tool that would be of immense assistance to bloggers who are interested in avoiding plagiarism and also finding out who is stealing their ideas. I am throwing in an advice to my fellow bloggers all over the world to be very careful about the kind of posts they come up with, unless of course one has a few bucks to waste on legal fees.
..with freedom comes a lot of responsibility. everyone (bloggers included) should learn to use these freedoms protected by the U.S. constitution and the Bill of rights responsibly.
ReplyDeletemany in South Africa for instance failed to manage the freedom they enjoyed in the post-apartheid era responsibly; and we've all seen what's happening to the rainbow nation. Highest murder rate in the world, 22% HIV rate infection, etc. Freedom is a dangerous thing. (if handled irresponsibly)
One key hallmark of the social media revolution, of which blogging occupies a central place,is the opportunity placed at the doorsteps of ordinary folks to freely air their views on a wide array of issues. What we as individuals must then do is to use this power responsibly just as we should when we speak in public about other people or write about them. The Inernet has only makes us do good and evil better because it offers a bigger platform. The ball is in our courts.
ReplyDeleteI am actually more fascinate by the fact that an insurance company has used this as a revenue model. I think is quite entrepreneurial. But the question is why insure yourself when you could have avoided it easily?
ReplyDeleteNice post Edward, against the backdrop of a recent rise in internet/citizen journalism (e.g. blogging which you emphasize) perhaps the role of the first amendment in communication has to be re-considered. Consider what is happening in Iran now, raw individualized reporting despite high handed clampdowns by the Ahmadinejad and Khamenei administration. But as you, DK and Gameli point out, this freedom comes with responsibility which taken for granted can present bloggers with serious problems.
ReplyDeleteLike any emerging phenomenon, there’s the tendency to overlook certain important aspects (some of which you mention--plagiarism, copyright etc) so thanks for bringing such issues to our attention. While the blogosphere has now become a central part of the news and information world, it carries within it certain risks and responsibilities (both existing and new ones) which should not be taken for granted.
I agree with you Etse, but the problem is that sometimes ignorance is the real issue. Some writers just don't know when or how to cross the line.
ReplyDeletehere comes the scare!?
ReplyDeleteno! every man needs to be aware of him/herself in this whole situation.
every man???? (him/herself)???? man????
for me i knew exactly that this whole internet blogging thing is no different from publishing a writing
on a wall put up by a pretentious friend in a market place when i set out to blog! so there would be
no disappointment no matter what i find my self in! responsibility is my keyword!!! i'm responsible
for whatever i put out!
another scare here from me: what if someone hacks into your account and publishes something that would be
put your nice neck on the line????? hmmmmmmm! "don't be scared, for i'm with you" or so the Bible says for
those who believe in it!
we may want to do something like Kow does on his blog: http://thechixfiles.blogspot.com/ (check the copyright note/disclaimers under some of his posts of his). or you may get a digital signature too! but be 'scared' that the hard fact out there is that every security move has a counter move! anyway!
yes! you must be lucky to be sued! right? wrong? in other jurisdictions you don't get
the opportunity to stand before a judge! you would be whipped well well! or you would
have government secrete agencies 'do' you terror to your horror! name them: Morocco, China,
Iran, Lybia, just name them! even Vladimir Putins Russia is not a freeland!
yet a man must believe in something, i choose to believe in freedom of speech! freedom for the use
of words to express my opinion on whatever issue under and above the sun!
cheers to all!