Blogger Be Wary...

I recently stumbled across an article that would make most bloggers who were critics, creative ranters, and whatnot, feel the need to be wary...

The article was titled "Bloggers Beware: Postings can lead to Lawsuits..." 

It went on saying: "A false sense of Internet security can mean legal quagmires for critics who are careless about facts. The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits." Read More: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/23/nation/la-na-blogger-suits-20100823 [Link is no longer active] 

When I first read it, I was like "Holy shit! What does this mean? Now you can't even say what you want to on your own blog without possibly violating some poor innocent individual's rights?" 

Well, not exactly, but it is possible under the right circumstances. You'd think most people could distinguish an opinion from a fact, but then again, I have no idea what some of these people get their self into. This is just sad, in all aspects of the term, but oh well... This is the direction that the majority evidently wants to go, into the land of a complex law book where if you sneeze wrong you could "offend" someone's code of existence. Do they write stupid how-to articles for that, too? Ha! Anyway...

Well, I must say, after reading that 2 page article, it seems like it more or less boils down to you're risking lawsuits by posting or commenting on blogs/websites using defamatory remarks and libelous slander - especially if you insult the wrong person. For the most part, even hate sites full of critics should be fairly safe by what I read. You get into trouble, though, when you start posting opinions as facts or make death-related threats or insults that could harm someone's, uh, whatever. 

However, if things get too strict when it comes to blogging or online comments, it looks like they would need to have millions of bloggers thrown in the slammer, since there is so many debatable subjects online that lead to arguments and name calling. It doesn't appear that exchanging petty insults on forums or comment fields are at risk, in general, but even that could change as time marches on. The bottom line, blogger be wary...

---End of Post