LIVE BLOGGING: Blogging Pitfalls: How NOT to Get Sued
Posted in Connect SF 2008 By RealEstateCafe, Wednesday, July 23, 2008.Got a question about what to say, what not to say on your blog? Now is the time to add them to this Blogger Connect discussion of legal and copyright issues.
Post them below, and we'll try to get the panelist below to address them during this important session or ask them to respond later to this community discussion:
Blogging Pitfalls: How NOT to Get Sued
What to say? What not to say? Dealing with legal and copyright issues.
Moderated by: Joseph Ferrara, Publisher, Sellsius
Panelists:
Ardell DellaLoggia, Author, RainCityGuide.com
Melanie Wyne, Senior Technology Policy Representative, NAR
Russ Cofano, Vice President and General Counsel, John L. Scott Real Estate
Todd Carpenter, Founder, Bizomi Consulting
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Submitted by RealEstateCafe on July 23, 2008 - 11:18am.
DISCUSS:
BEST PRACTICES: When "user generated content" becomes "LOSER generated content," how do you elevate the discussion? Or, do you just let it go, even if comments go downhill?
Submitted by Steven Groves on July 23, 2008 - 11:31am.
I read a recent article about how the journalism community was providing bloggers training on how to avoid lawsuits as citizen journalists.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1442421~Training_helps_bloggers_hone_professio... (don't know how to make this a link - sorry)
The article reports that there have been more than 100 legal judgements rendered against bloggers in the last three years and awards of over $17M made. The judgements were made 60% of the time for defamation, 25% for copyright violations and 10% involved a violation of privacy.
I'll suggest that when you are blogging, or have decided to have someone on your team blog for your company, you need to be aware and refer to a simple set of guidelines.
These are just a starting place for your consideration, but you may want the guidelines to read something like this -
1) Do not defame competitors, associates, prospective clients and current clients; might be best to just not talk about them at all - I never do
2) Do not use content you have not have rights to; this includes pictures and images, but also includes writing from other blogs and news articles. You can use a reference from another writers work, but you must attribute their words to them
3) Do not write / comment about items / issues that might otherwise be considered confidential to a person.
How you phrase these to your people is up to you, but I do not think you cannot afford to not participate in social media in real estate today.
Submitted by David Barnhart on July 23, 2008 - 12:05pm.
Well, the only way to completely avoid getting sued for something you say is to never say anything. As my attorney taught me years ago, "Anybody can sue anyone for anything."
I could relate my true and factual bad experience with a company's product or service and they could sue me to shut me up.
I think the best rule is a variation of Shel Israel's 'Living Room Rule": Don't say anything about someone you would not be wiling to say to their face in their own living room.