In a huge legal precident that could have some immediate repercussions here in Virginia, Maryland’s highest court ruled that websites do not have to readily reveal anonymous commenters’ identities in defamation suits:
[T]he court used the case to recommend a strict, five-step process for judges to follow “to balance the First Amendment right to anonymous speech [...]
While that’s not the full question in play in Waldo Jaquith’s recent legal troubles it certainly is a large one as Thomas Garrett and his lawyers try to get information from Waldo about his commenters and their private information. From the Motion To Compel:
[W]hile Virginia recognizes a qualified repotter’s privilege, see Brown v. Com., 214 [...]
Andrew Keen, author of Cult of the Amateur and previously mentioned on J’s Notes here, here and here, argues that Obama’s plan to provide all American’s broadband internet access could be very dangerous:
Imagine if today’s radically unregulated Internet, with its absence of fact checkers and editorial gatekeepers, had existed back then (in the 1930s). Imagine [...]
Kottke applies the “broken window theory” to websites:
Much of the tone of discourse online is governed by the level of moderation and to what extent people are encouraged to “own” their words. When forums, message boards, and blog comment threads with more than a handful of participants are unmoderated, bad behavior follows. The appearance of [...]
Eric Fehrnstrom gives an account of what Republican candidates faced from netroots activists in 2008 and in closing asks:
Where are the online gatekeepers? Gatekeeping is the most important function for the offline media. Editors decide which stories get published. They make sure rumors aren’t printed. Sensitive information is double- and sometimes triple-sourced. Gatekeeping serves an [...]
Publish2 has a post up about the rumored heart attack suffered by Steve Jobs and how CNN’s iReport and other citizen journalism outlets can be gamed and hurt the credibility of all:
When we first conceived of Publish2 as a platform exclusively for journalists, we worried that we would take a lot of flack for trying [...]
Over at Social Media Today, Matt Rhodes found a recent judgment that muddies the water on whether online defamation is slander or libel:
To date it has been thought that defamatory comments in online communities, bulletin boards and other chat on the internet are libel. They are published and a permanent record is kept. That’s why [...]
Doug over at Below the Beltway has a good roundup of what’s really going on with the Associated Press’s “attack” on blogs and fair use.
Oh, look, another blogging ethics kick. But I’ll keep it brief.
I can understand people surfing the web using proxy services. Don’t want folks to know what you’re doing and all that, that’s fine, privacy rules. But commenting by proxy just stinks to high heaven.
J’s Notes will not allow proxy comments. I’m sorry. You can comment [...]
Scott White asks bloggers: how far are you willing to go for full disclosure? The question is important and reminds me that I have no disclaimer here on J’s Notes, even though the issue has come up in the past during conversations I’ve had with others.
Scott uses Mitch Radcliffe’s ZDNet disclosure as an example [...]
4:50 p.m. NOTE: After receiving notification from readers seeking some clarification I realize that this post might be a whole lot vague. For starters, this is concerning a pseudonymous political blog. I do know what blog is being discussed but want to avoid naming names as everyone else has. That said, I think by reading [...]
First, my apologies to Preston Yancy for if it appears as if I’m piling on him. I’m not, you just happened to make a post that re-inspired my thoughts on this matter.
Every now and then the blogosphere seems to be faced with a question on commenting and the responsibilities of a blogger to his readership [...]
David Hazinski calls on traditional media to regulate it’s “citizen journalism” content:
Having just anyone produce widely distributed stories without control can have the reverse effect from what advocates intend. It’s just a matter of time before something like a faked Rodney King beating video appears on the air somewhere.
Journalism organizations should head that off. Citizen [...]
12:25pm Update: Style Weekly editor Jason Roop responds in the comments and clears some things up.
Yesterday John Sarvay noted that Style Weekly has changed their content management set up to where he can’t find Style’s stories a day before the issue hits the stands. To do this, Style hired Copeland Casati Media to do the [...]
Oh, boy, is there a throwdown happening at Ben Tribbett’s blog Not Larry Sabato! Ben Tribbett started it by having the balls to attempt to call out Washington Post’s Tim Craig for supposedly failing to cite a blog source:
Lowell had a great scoop earlier that Mark Warner’s primary challenger has a criminal record. [...]