Julie's Web Journal: Some good advice for bloggers

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Dear Author, the folks who broke the plagiarism train wreck tale I've been following, has just posted a very interesting piece on law and defamation.

I have SO added this site to my RSS reader.

One of the things Jane points out is the difference between libel and slander. Lots of people get confused on this point. Herewith I offer you a quick and dirty way to remember the difference:

Slander is spoken defamation; libel is written defamation. Remember S for spoken.

I learned that in a college law class. I'm not a lawyer, I don't play one on TV, but I did take a couple of classes. Doesn't make me an expert, I know. But those classes gave me some good foundation in what constitutes free speech and how easy it is to attempt to chill free speech. Even though my classes were back in the pre-Internet days, I was astounded at the number of lawsuits that involved free speech issues. I can only guess that number has significantly risen along with the number of online publications and bloggers.

At any rate, that makes for some very good reading.

Tags: Writing, Legal
Filed under: Writing Legal

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Julie's Web Journal

Est. 2002