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Relevant Background: I'm not a lawyer. My legal experience comes through business (book and software publishing, media, real estate, manufacturing, services, etc.), writing contracts, and occasional litigation. Previous legal writing (all for the public, not lawyers) includes the book Dancing with Lawyers: How To Take Charge and Get Results, the online guide Fighting Slander, and hundreds of articles and columns for newspapers, syndicates, and magazines, the latter having been translated to eight languages with permission and featured in major venues around the globe without permission. I've also done several hundred or perhaps a thousand law-related radio/TV interviews ranging from Smalltown to the BBC, investigations into legal and corporate corruption, and acted as technical advisor in Internet-related lawsuits (when I agree with the ethics). The first computer to suffer my code was a Honeywell 360 processing Fortran, Cobol, and Lisp. I later worked with both proprietary and open source software in data and information structures, information retrieval, online communications, and information architecture and design. Before and since the Web I've participated in bulletin boards, Usnet groups, Genie, Prodigy, and various virtual communities.
FAQs
Q: How do I post comments?
A: I don't expect to be adding comment posting in the immediate future; if you feel that an article contains an error or oversight, by all means email me, and I may add it as a comment. Please tell me if it is OK to add your comment to the website, and what name or handle to list. I will not post your email address.
Q: I am a lawyer, why do I want to read this?
A: If you practice Internet law, perhaps you don't. If you're in another area of law, and are not inclined to read case law, statute, or practice manuals, Law of The Blog is a fairly painless overview of the legal landscape of blogging and general online law. The final manuscript was sliced and diced – but never skewered – by lawyers in libel, personal injury, child rights, criminal, intellectual property, etc. Despite that there is no reliance, of course. Or equitable estoppel. I'd like to think the issue dies with this comment by David Cheifetz, author of Apportionment of Fault in Tort.