Ask a Lawyer - The Law & You - Orlando Sentinel

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-04-14/news/askalawyer14_1_blog-is-based-post-to-blogs-blog-host

Blog at your own risk

April 14, 2008|By Lawrence H. Kolin, Special to the Sentinel

This week, Lawrence H. Kolin, a partner at Alvarez, Sambol & Winthrop, P.A. gives advice about comments posted on the Internet.

Q.

Has your neighbor used a blog to call you a slob? Has someone called your pastor a racist? Is your startup business being trashed on a Web site?

What can you do about blog or discussion board postings that simply aren't true or are offensive?

A.

A growing number of folks are hiring attorneys to sue for defamation, but court battles over Internet content are still new, so there's no telling how these cases eventually will work out.

People who post to blogs or discussion boards are supposed to follow rules set by the blog or board host. Normally, that means not writing things that are harmful, harassing, abusive, threatening, vulgar or obscene, among other prohibitions. Most times, you can find the policies written in the "Terms of Service" found at the bottom of a Web page.

Break the rules, and the comments may be deleted automatically by the blog host or erased following complaints of abuse. But that might not do the trick. The problem is that once posted, defamatory comments often permanently appear in the search-engine results for a person or entity. This can even occur after providers remove the original offending comment.

Discussion boards usually do not allow authors to remove or update messages already posted. Let's face it; there is no such thing as a formal retraction in the blogosphere.

And that's not where the bad news ends. You might feel tempted to respond to the posting, but in doing so, you may make matters worse.

Think of what might appear when you type your name into the Google search box. Adding to an already damaging string might just cause an additional reference to that harmful content. Search engines reward quantity.

So with all of that in mind, additional damage may have happened to you. What can you do?

Because authors are anonymous, you have to sue and use the powers of the court to figure out who the offender is. That's a big hassle. States have different rules for how lawsuits proceed and how subpoenas are served. You might live in one state while the blog is based in another. Not only does this complicate matters, but it could cost you more money because you might have to hire a second lawyer in another state.