EFF updates blogger legal guide

Rebecca from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "EFF has revamped its legal guide for bloggers, adding new FAQs about, for example, disemvowelling. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn't use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. So consult EFF's roadmap of the legal issues and blog away!"

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers.
But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn't use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That's why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

Legal Guide for Bloggers (Thanks, Rebecca!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

Is that Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) typing away?
Takuan

well of course, if you are going to use JAPANESE monkeys! For the gods sakes, we are using English here!
Takuan

it’s as if Teresa wrote most of that.
IamInnocent

After eight years of English Monkeyism and you are still a believer Tak: you’re such a romantic.
dxtr666

I thought I came up with the word disemvowel in 2007 when I was editing an old user name to not be associated with it on search engines anymore, apparently I didn’t. I felt so clever, too.
Takuan

funny how money and laws go hand in hand. Or “control”rather than law. This looks good but is yet another spy database on the obverse:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/stopthepresses_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003940234
TroofSeeker

I think if Boing Boing wants to disemvowel blogs they find offensive, they should. It’s their chat room, and they’re free to make their own rules. Don’t like it? Go away, or learn how to play nice.
Ugly Canuck

Thnk Gd fr dsmvwllng!
IamInnocent

Disemvowelment judged on fair use… mmm… I don’t know, since it is rather a non-use.
Anyway, better stay safe since the EFF advice is more futurology than prevention, more anticipation than prophylaction: keep the commentator’s vowels safe, in some Purgatory, for an eventual refund. I don’t think that they need to be classified in any order though, like by date or post or even sequence, except by poster obviously.
But his as only my illegal advice.

If this comment doesn’t make sense to you you may disemvowel it and then put a thousand Japanese monkeys at work for a few thousand year re-emvoweling it. They may do a better job than I, for a change.