"Who Knew You Could Be Committing a Crime for Having a Blog? "

“Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site.” (By Town Internet) As we all know each and every person in MCOMM 72 has a blog, but can you actually go to jail for having one? You bet your ass you can! Apparently to USA Today , courts are cracking down on bloggers, IF you have attacked someone online. Many who are victims of these attacks have filed libel lawsuits, “a false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation.” More than 50 lawsuits have been filed in our nation and are gradually increasing. Legal analysts are challenging these lawsuits with the argument that bloggers are “judgment proof” meaning most bloggers are just ordinary citizens and are neither journalists nor newspaper reporters. Eric Robinson, a Media Law Resource Center attorney, claims that bloggers do not understand that they can be liable for libel lawsuits because for the most part, bloggers usually takes whatever on their mind and posts it. One example of this case is DontDateHimGirl.com, where Todd Hollis, a criminal defense lawyer in Pittsburgh was accused of having herpes, infected a woman with herpes and is apparently a homosexual. Hollis, says even though if he wins his case, he loses because these false information are there for everyone to see.

I decided to check this website out for myself. On their “About Us” it stated “in online community of powerful women from around the world who choose to exercise their rights to free speech on the Internet by boldly sharing their bad dating experiences with other women.” To me in a nutshell, it’s a website where women can bash on men and tell other women to “watch out” for these “scumbags” Pretty clever, I’d must admit. While I was searching through the website, I could not view everything because I had to be a member to view some sections of the website, but the ones I got to see (the forum and profiles), was hilarious. Even though each person is entitled for freedom of speech, if I was in the position as Hollis, filing a libel lawsuit would highly cross my mind. This topic is very controversial because the Internet is huge. I’m sure there are plenty of websites bashing or stating false statements. One example of this is celebrity gossip. Are we really going to take any blog or website to court for this? Also, who’s going to get sued, the person who wrote it or the website server? Don’t get me wrong, I am all about freedom of speech, but there’s a thin line between stating your beliefs and making someone’s life a living hell. Words of advice for all bloggers, if you choose to put up false accusations about someone, ask yourself this question, would you want untrue accusations all over the internet about you? Come on, let’s follow the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”