That there are a lot of people out there in the blogosphere playing fast and loose with the copyrights and trademarks of others is no secret. Just punch into a search engine the terms “trademark violations on blogs” or “copyright violations on blogs” and you’ll be greeted with so many results (I got over 1.5 million as of the day of this writing) you’d definitely consider not reading most of them.
In the course of my work, as I go through different blogs I catch what seem to me to be good cases for either copyright or trademark violations. During those visits, it occurs to me that even though the United States has the most lawyers in the world, if only a small portion of these cases were pursued, the lawyers would all have a difficult time keeping up with all the infringement cases out there. It also occurs to me that many of these bloggers probably don’t even realize that they are committing these no-no’s because they think that they are on the electronic equivalent of the American street corner talking with friends and can say anything, anyway, they like. They don’t realize that they are actually in the publishing business.
Bloggers are actually publishers, and should be subject to the law of publishing.
Now, understand this. I’m not a lawyer. I’m just a layman with a very keen interest in this issue. Having read a great deal on this topic, and having conferred with my company’s legal counsel on these issues more than once, I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding of the topic. Some sources I’ve used may be found here and here. Of course, you could always get off the web for a while and read a book. One book I’ve found a lot of answers in can be found here.
I take great care to see that my company doesn’t make the same, and I’ll use this term benevolently, “mistakes” as other blogs out there. What I recommend is that you do the same. If you’re considering using social media, and blogs in particular, I recommend a little sit-down with your company’s legal counsel.
Now you may think, “Aw come on, Rich. It’s only blogging. It’s just the web. Nobody takes this stuff seriously.” Well, if “they” don’t take this stuff seriously, why are you on the web in the first place?
It’s not just blogging. Company employment of social media is the usage of another marketing communications medium and should be approached with the same seriousness and devotion to resources as any other project which your company would undertake.
Many other company projects begin with consulting legal counsel. Why shouldn’t corporate blogging?
Doing so can not only make your blogging effort more effective, it will also let you sleep at night.
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