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Blog Defamation

By Jonathan Bick
March 27, 2007
The age of the blog ' and the blawg (the legal Web log) ' is here.
And with the blawgs has arrived more salient information across the spectrum of knowledge than has ever before been easily available to people ' literally at their fingertips. But with that expanded menu of data bits has also come the potential for indigestion over acid words.

Bloggers can be held liable for defamatory statements posted on their sites, regardless of whether the statements were original comments generated by the blogger or whether he or she republished the statements that someone else made.

The good news, though, particularly for bloggers and counsel who advise and represent enterprises where blogs are likely to be created and used (say, for instance, e-commerce or technology companies that supply or deal extensively with e-businesses), is that just as with traditional print publications, bloggers may raise a defense against defamation claims under Internet communication-protection statutes and the First Amendment.

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