Something that a lot of people have brought up since I made the switch to full-time blogger / web developer is legal liability.  What if someone doesn’t like something I say and decides to sue?  Is it legal to quote that much of a copyrighted article, or to use that picture from the article?  Questions like these become much more important when there is money involved than they were when I was just blogging in my spare time.

In doing research on these sorts of subjects, I came across an excellent legal guide online.  The Legal Guide for Bloggers was compiled by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and outlines the legal issues and rights that come into play with blogging.  They outline six major legal liabilities that can arise from blogging:

• Defamation
• Intellectual Property (Copyright/Trademark)
• Trade Secret
• Right of Publicity
• Publication of Private Facts
• Intrusion into Seclusion

Thankfully, the way I have been doing business online already does a pretty good job of steering clear of these issues.  I don’t make false statements of fact about people or businesses, I make a real effort to ensure that my usage of copyrighted materials (story quotes and images) falls well within fair use, and I don’t even dabble at all in trade secrets or “private facts.”

Obviously it is important to keep these issues in mind whenever I create content online, but so far, I think there’s nothing to be concerned about.  Granted, anyone can sue you for pretty much any reason.  However, if I never posted anything that might possibly make someone upset, I wouldn’t post anything at all.  That’s no way to live, so instead I’ll just be mindful of what my rights are, and be sure not to overstep my legal boundaries.