Warning for Bloggers

I subscribe to a small business magazine. Amid the articles about dealing with personnel, fringe benefits and other conversations that are far beyond my limited efforts there's those articles that do apply to my endeavors.

There was an article in this month's issue that quite frankly scared the hell out of me. A woman who runs a small business used her blog to express her displeasure with another business only to find herself being sued for $20 million!!!

I posted my thoughts on my blog here: Are you blogging yourself into a lawsuit?

and would suggest to anyone who is running a small business selling their crafts or other products or services check out both my blog and the original article. The whole thing leaves me in a quandary about just when a blog becomes a corporate blog and when a blogger is protected by the laws governing free speech.

If anyone here knows a US-based lawyer, I would really like to hear their thoughts on when a blog transforms from a personal one to a "corporate" one. When a blog becomes a "corporate" blog would appear to be the heart of the matter and was unfortunately not part of the original article.

Wow!!! That is a very interesting read, thanks for posting this.

wow that is very interesting. The fact that they included a members only form in it as well makes me wonder. I will be watching to see how this plays out.

Yes, the members-only forum made me wonder too. Seems like that would be protected speech somehow.

I posted a comment on the magazine's website and I do hope that they further explain why this blogger could be sued and was not protected under free speech and/or what at least appears to be a factual accounting of her experience.

I've been searching one of my favorite reference sites - IVAN HOFFMAN, B.A., J.D. Attorney At Law and haven't seen anything that relates. If you haven't been, this site is owned by a copyright lawyer and he has tons of great articles that explain the law as it relates to copyrights, intellectual property law, Internet law, small businesses, artists and others. It does cover complex legal cases but most of them are written for regular folk and offer a great deal of useful information.

I had planned on posting about my former webhost and my problems with them. After reading this article, I guess I'll just have to move on and not discuss it further.

I do hope that the magazine posts a follow-up but I fear the case may be settled and sealed and the magazine will simply move on to something else.