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Why Good Laws Go Bad

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In Florida, the state legislature wanted to crack down on what it felt was a growing problem of Internet cafe gambling. To do so, it felt that the best way was to place steep restrictions on the types of machines that would be considered legal in the state for gambling-like activities.

As a result, they passed a new law that such said machines had to comply with three different rules:

  1. All machines had to be coin operated, no dollar bills, credit cards, etc.
  2. All games had to involve an element of skill, not just be pure chance
  3. No machine could offer a cash prise, only merchandise, and only of a value up to 75 cents.

With the law passed, the police began to move in on Internet cafes that offered gambling services and it seemed that the law was effective, shutting down the intended target.

But then some of those cafe owners began to cry foul saying that the law was being unfairly applied to only them. According to them, the law also makes Chuck E Cheese equally illegal.

Though many recoiled at the idea of a children’s arcade being an illegal den of gambling, upon closer inspection, the argument makes sense. The chain not only offers prizes with over 75 cent value, some going up to $20 or more, but it also has several games that are pure chance.

In short, a law that was intended to shutter Internet cafes widely considered to be shady, may have accidentally banned a popular destination for kids.

But it wasn’t the first or last law to go bad. The law of unintended consequences can be brutal and many times legislators are the first to feel its sting. [Read more…] about Why Good Laws Go Bad

3 Self-Gifts to Protect Your Blog Legally

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Present ImageThe holiday season, for most, is a time for giving gifts to others. However, it’s also often a time of being generous to oneself and enjoying the finer things in life that, often times, we deprive ourselves most of the year.

When it comes to your blog and the laws that govern it, it’s no different. Many of us ignore the basic steps that we can take to protect ourselves legally thinking that it’s too expensive, too time-consuming or generally not worthwhile. However, the moment a legal crisis hits, we often begin to regret that thinking.

So, with the holidays upon us and, perhaps with a little more time on the clock and income in our pocket, the time has come to reevaluate how we protect ourselves legally and maybe take a few extra steps to ensure a brighter future for our sites and ourselves.

On that note, here are three legally-minded gifts that you can give yourself right now and better protect you and your work for years to come. [Read more…] about 3 Self-Gifts to Protect Your Blog Legally

5 Laws Bloggers Can Be Thankful For

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When it comes to blogging and the law, we hear a great deal about what the law prohibits us from doing.

Bloggers are quick to gripe when they can’t post the music they want on their site, say what they want about another person or generally do all of the things that they want to do. For the most part, blogging (at least in the US) is governed by traditional mass media law and that law and that law was designed, mostly, to protect others from the media, not the other way around.

But that’s not to say that there aren’t parts of the law that protect bloggers and give you both powers and tools to make your life easier and your site better.

So, with that in mind, since it is nearly Thanksgiving in the US, we’re going to stop and give thanks to five laws (or sections of laws) that you can be thankful for this holiday season and beyond.

Because, while the law may mostly be a confusing morass of restriction, that doesn’t mean we can’t be grateful for the bright spots it does have. [Read more…] about 5 Laws Bloggers Can Be Thankful For

The Problem with the Law and the Internet

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One of the constant quips that people have about the law when it comes to the Internet is that it always seems to be behind the technology. That, before a bill has been passed, it’s already out of date.

Most of the time, that’s very true.

Even legislation that attempts to be forward-thinking, such as the DMCA, is often out of date before the ink has finished drying on the its signature.

People like to believe that this is because legislators and others in government are out of touch with technology and either don’t understand how the Internet works or, even worse, fear it. But while that’s certainly a problem and likely a factor in some of the worse bills, it’s not the larger issue.

The truth is that, even if legislators were the most tech-savvy people on the planet, the law would always be behind the cutting edge of tech and the problem is only going to get worse.

The problem, as it turns out, lies not with the legislators, but with the process that we write, pass, enact and enforce laws. It’s not a problem that voting alone can cure.

If there’s a way to fix it at all, the solution is going to require a major rethinking of the process by which laws come to pass and the way government is organized. [Read more…] about The Problem with the Law and the Internet

Avoiding the Legal Perils of Video Blogging

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YouTube LogoBlogging is increasingly becoming a multimedia activity with more writers also adding images, audio and video to their sites.

But while video blogging, or vlogging, is a great way to reach out to a new audience and engage your existing audience in a new way, it brings with it a whole new set of legal risks and challenges that have to be overcome.

This is not only because you’re working with a different medium, but because you’re working with different hosts and using different systems to get your work out there.

In short, even if the laws don’t really change that much when you make the jump to video, the practical realities do change a great deal. If you’re not ready for them, you could be dealing with having your videos muted, pulled offline or even losing your whole account.

Here’s a few quick tips for avoiding the biggest legal pitfalls when it comes to video blogging. [Read more…] about Avoiding the Legal Perils of Video Blogging

Google’s Pirate Penalty Adds Another Reason to Not Plagiarize Online

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Skull and CrossbonesIf you didn’t already know that it wasn’t a good idea to plagiarize content on the Web, you missed a lot of reasons to not do it.

Not only is it ethically dubious, almost always illegal and prone to serious duplicate content penalties from Google, but it’s also a quick ways to make enemies of people you should probably be trying to work with rather than fighting against.

However, if none of those reasons are compelling to you, then Google has provided yet another. Late last week, the search engine announced that it will begin factoring in copyright notices it receives, a so-called “pirate penalty”.

What does this mean? Simply that Google will begin demoting sites that are the subject to a large number of copyright notices. This makes it so that copyright holders, in addition to possibly being able to shut down your site, they can also seriously hurt your search engine ranking more broadly.

Though the move is largely targeted at websites that traffic in pirated content, plagiarists and spammers should be given at least some pause for concern as this new clampdown could easily impact them as well.

The devil is in the details and Google has been very stingy with those to date. However, there is a little that we do know. [Read more…] about Google’s Pirate Penalty Adds Another Reason to Not Plagiarize Online

What the Law Says About User-Generated Content

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Red vs BlueMost sites these days are a mixture of content created by the site’s creator and content uploaded by those who visit it.

The exact formula changes depending on the site itself. For example, a less-travelled blog may have thousands of posts by the author and only a handful of comments by readers. On the other hand, a popular forum may have thousands of times more posts by the community than the admins.

But this mashup creates a serious problem legally. Your rights and obligations vary wildly depending on if the content on your site is from your hand or the hand of a visitor.

These distinctions are going to be getting a lot more attention in the coming months as Digg relaunched to strongly feature content from its editors, changing the dynamics of that site.

So, if you’re running a website, whether it’s a blog, forum or something else altogether, it’s important to understand the differences legally and what you need to do to protect yourself from the various legal threats that come with each type of content. [Read more…] about What the Law Says About User-Generated Content