At its simplest, ‘blogging’ involves an individual maintaining and updating an online diary – a weblog. Many are personal and intimate, but others have public or political intent and have become astonishingly influential. The success of the medium has tempted commercial websites to join the bandwagon to attract users. It is not unusual for mainstream online publishers to offer links to independent blogs, or to publish their own. But since the very nature of blogs is that they should be personal, irreverent, even iconoclastic, publishers must consider carefully the potential legal pitfalls involved.
The underlying principle of online publishing is simple: all the same legal constraints apply as in print. Within this framework, however, the law is complex – in crossing any number of jurisdictions – and evolving quickly.
