Blogging can be all fun and relaxing way to voice out the opinion about something to the browsers located across the planet. But you must always bear in mind that blogging is not entertaining and fun always, there are various legal complications that lurks behind thoughtless working. Advancement in technology has allowed people to voice their views and opinions through blogging from the comfort of their home. But just because an individual has freedom of speech and expression, he or she cannot misuse the freedom of writing anything that comes to the mind. There are several legal factors that you need to be considerate about before you finally post anything in the internet.
Defamation: This can be described to be false statement or comment which may be harmful or embarrassing for another person or entity. No blogger would want to be entangled in a vicious and never ending legal dispute, so experts suggest that you must always verify the sources of information so that you can write something credible. In case the honourable court demands to see sources from where you have gathered information, you should be able to provide with tangible proof and evidences. Even when you know that you are speaking the truth, proving the same can be really difficult. So before you tap the “post” button, bear this fact in mind.
Intellectual Property: You should be respectful towards someone’s intellectual property just as the way you cannot intrude into someone possessions in real life. Intellectual property here can refer to a host of various things like videos, images, logos or even texts which are secured by copyrights. You should always stay away from publishing anything that is not yours or that you don’t have an absolute legal rights on. In case you would have to post something that doesn’t belong to you, make sure that you include necessary links along with the right acknowledgement of the author.
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Copyrighted Pictures: This is yet another component of intellectual property and it is very common to post images that is relevant to the content of the post. This aids in breaking up the monotony of words and capture the interest of the readers. But even if by mistake, you post an image that is owned by some other blogger, you may head up for a trouble. So whenever you select pictures for your blog post, you got to ensure that they are licensed under creative commons license. In case it’s not licensed to be reused, you may be sued by the authorised owner at any point.
Plagiarised Content: As with the risk that comes with using images owned other person, you should also be thoughtful about the inclusion of copyrighted content on the blog. When you are dependent upon other writers to develop content for your website, you must ensure that it is not used by other writers. Even if you have no intention to plagiarise a content, there remains a chance that it can be quite like a post which is already there online. So you must always check the content through a reliable plagiarism checker like Copyscape before you put it for readers. This can assure you that you wont be into trouble for plagiarising somebody else’s content.
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Trademark Infringement: You should always refrain from using images of somebody’s logo or trademark. In case you do this and get caught, the other person may sue you for infringement. In case you have to do this, you must seek permission of the authority. Even if you include an image of other’s logo for promotional activity, the owner of the logo can take up legal steps against you.
Thus, these things should be taken care of to help avoid legal disputes in relation to the blog you own. Even if you have committed some mistake unknowingly, you should admit your fault and seek for apology without any delay. This would serve two purposes at a time – you can bargain for mercy if any legal action is taken against you along with attracting loyal readers who would appreciate your integrity.
