The Digital Millenium Copyright Act

Liabilities

A blog is online editorial. Judges have ruled, however, that blogs do not qualify as journalism. Regardless of first amendment debates, blogs are very visible and can land you in the world of civil law maneuvering much quicker than you think. Furthermore, if your blog has multiple authors, your actions with regard to their content could determine whether you have liability. Before we get into this, we have to understand a couple of key laws that apply to cyberspace. Let’s start by discussing The Communications Decency Act .

The Communications Decency Act

Passed in 1996, The Communications Decency Act (CDA) originally addressed pornography and obscenity online. What is significant about this federal law is Section 230 which provides immunity to Internet Service Providers and Internet Content Providers.

As a blogger, you are held accountable under the law for what you write and are responsibile for respecting the copyrights of others. Section 230 provides you protection from two areas of potential liability, however. The first is from the statements made by people who comment on your blog. If someone posts a comment that is considered slanderous, defamatory, or anything else for that matter, you are not responsible for it as long as you play by the rules. More on that in a moment. The second area is if you host a blog with multiple authors, you are not responsible for their publications. There are some exceptions, however. Before we go there, we have to discuss The Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Let me provide you a quick review.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act

Signed into law in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) heightened the penalties for copyright infringement amongst other clarifications that have become very important in the copyright world. This law is significant as it gives individuals and corporations alike certain rights as to copyrighted material which includes written copy, digital images, video, and music. Copyright items covered in the DMCA are exceptions to the safe havens provided in Section 230 of The Communications Decency Act.