Running a blog – Are You Exposing Oneself To Legal Liabilities?

In November 2006, Blogging Asia: A Home windows Dwell Report produced by Microsoft’s MSN and Home windows Are living Online Products and services Organization exposed that 46% or almost fifty percent of the on the internet population have a site [Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia available at PRNewswire.com].

Blogging Asia: A Windows Are living Report was performed on-line on the MSN portal across 7 nations in Asia namely Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Curiously, the report located that 56% of Malaysians blogged to specific their views, whilst 49% blogged to continue to keep mates and relatives current.

This short article focuses on Malaysian regulation having said that as the World wide web transcends boundaries and jurisdictions as a result the guidelines of several international locations might utilize. In Malaysia, bloggers face authorized threats that carry civil or prison liabilities these as
(a) copyright
(b) trademark
(c) defamation and
(d) sedition.

Other than the above, a blogger ought to consider other authorized challenges these types of as fraud, breach of confidentiality and misrepresentation which will not be resolved in this post.

Copyright safeguards the way artists or authors convey their concept or truth on a piece of do the job but not the underlying strategy or simple fact alone. Copyright protects originality of the do the job and prohibits unauthorised copying. Copyright defense is qualified for the adhering to works refer to Part 7 (1) of the Copyright Act, 1987:-
(a) literary is effective, this sort of as written will work, novels, source codes in computer method and website pages and material in multimedia productions
(b) musical and extraordinary operates, this sort of as musical score, performs and television scripts
(c) creative operates, these types of as drawings, sculptures and pictures and
(d) sound recordings and movies, this kind of as movies (conventional celluloid and many video formats), information, tapes and CDs of tunes, drama or lectures.

Regretably, a lot of the copyright infringement developing on the World-wide-web goes undetected. New blogs at occasions use current blogs for its information and this is performed by way of copying or linking. Apart from that, submitting copyrighted pictures, styles, products photographs or solution packaging from an additional website is also unlawful.

There are “regulations of thumb” to observe when making or submitting contents this kind of as:- (a) create one’s very own initial graphic, graphic, code and words (b) use certified is effective within the scope of permitted use laid down by the owner and (c) use free photos off the World wide web as extensive as the terms of the creator of the picture are followed.

The similar “principles of thumb” implement when publishing programming scripts as it is normally a violation of copyright regulation to proper programming scripts from third events. With regards to postings on one’s web site by third get-togethers, the blog owner may receive an implied licence to the postings designed by third parties. When giving podcast i.e. recorded and dowloadable audio file to be downloaded from weblogs it is very best that the podcast do not have any copyrighted music belonging to many others hence safeguarding oneself from any copyright infringement satisfies.

If copyright guards the way ideas or points are expressed, trademark on the other hand protects phrases, designs, phrases, figures, drawings or photographs involved with products and solutions and providers.

A trademark owner enjoys unique appropriate to use his mark in relation to his solutions and services refer Area 35 (1) of the Trademark Act, 1976. Trademark safety grants ideal to the trademark proprietor to avoid others from working with equivalent trademark with similar merchandise or equivalent products that is possible to result in confusion to the community refer Segment 19 (1) and 19 (2) of the Trademark Act, 1976.

How does a blogger infringe trademark belonging to one more? One illustration is when a blogger posts links on logos belonging to a trademark operator. When a customer clicks on the trademark it will immediately lead the customer to the blogger’s web site as a substitute of directing the visitor to the trademark owner’s site.

These types of linking may cause confusion or deception as it raises significant danger that the web site is in some way related with or similar to the trademark owner‘sproducts and products and services.

Generally, the phrase defamation refers to a untrue assertion designed about someone or an corporation that is detrimental to their track record. The particular person publishing the statement will have to have identified or ought to have regarded that the assertion was false. When the Web offers the arena in which defaming statement can be built or released, there is no precise laws that offers with defamation on the Web in Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the Defamation Act, 1957 applies to publications in printed components and broadcasting by way of radio or tv. Due to the fact the legislation applies to revealed or broadcast elements, for this reason in basic principle it applies to elements this sort of as blogs and web-sites published on the Net.

As defamation law is intricate there is a will need to distinguish no matter whether a defamatory statement is a libel (written kind) or slander (spoken words and phrases). In a circumstance of libel, if it is decided that the statement is defamatory then there are presumptions against the writer or the publisher. In the circumstance slander, there is often the prerequisite to proof precise damages or specific damages experienced due to the defamatory statement. That’s why, slander legislation does not use to weblogs as it does not fall inside of the ambit of broadcasting the slanderous terms by indicates of radio or tv.

Owing to quick modifications to the Internet and the convergence of systems, a person will question no matter whether the courts will apply the libel legislation or slander regulation when weblogs converted from textual content to speech structure are transmitted on the World-wide-web. Having said that, all this is dependent on proving defamation and acquiring the id of the blogger which can be an enormous task because of to the anonymity of the World wide web and its globally scope.

An additional legal chance is when blogs are utilised to disseminate bogus,incomplete or misleading data relating to racial disturbances or contents that cause hatred or contempt in the direction of the federal government or the ruler. In Malaysia, several offences are delivered for in the Sedition Act 1948 this sort of as it is an offence for any person to print, publish or distribute any seditious publication- see Area 4 of the Sedition Act, 1948 for other offences. Whether the provisions in the Act implement to publications on the World-wide-web have not been judicially established.

In Singapore the sedition legislation was used in 2005 where by the Singapore court docket jailed two customers for submitting seditious remarks on the Internet- Two jailed for ‘sedition’ on world-wide-web, South China Morning Post, Saturday, October 8, 2005. The South China Morning Article noted that the situation is thought of a landmark situation underscoring the government’s attempts to regulate on line expression and crack down on racial intolerance. The two scenarios represented the 1st time Singaporeans had been prosecuted and convicted for racist expression below its Sedition Act.

Arising from the case of the racist bloggers, on 8 November 2006 the Singapore Federal government proposed improvements to its Penal Code having into account the effects of know-how this kind of as the Online and mobile phones- refer to Singapore Ministry of Household Affairs, Session Paper on the Proposed Penal Code Amendments at web page 2. The amendments address offences fully commited through electronic medium such as Part 298 (uttering words, and so on with deliberate intent to wound the religious emotions of any man or woman) to go over the wounding of racial emotions as nicely, Part 499 (defamation) and Area 505 (statements conducing to community mischief) to expand and include things like these “printed in prepared, digital or other media” see Singapore Penal Code (Modification) Invoice at internet pages 8 and 20. These amendments when handed empower the law enforcement and condition prosecutors to prosecute all those with offending blogs- Cf.Sections 298, 499 and 505 of the Malaysian Penal Code (Revised 1997).

There are factors why the authorities are taking running a blog seriously as fifty percent of the folks that took element in the Blogging Asia: A Windows Stay Report survey imagine that website contents are as dependable as common media and a quarter of the respondents think weblogs to be the fastest way to study about news and latest affairs.

With this sort of reliance on weblogs, contents containing fake, incomplete or misleading facts posted on blogs not only may possibly bring about worry, anger, contempt or political scandals it may possibly also result in political and economic instability.

The Internet presents problems to existing rules that are gradual to provide sufficient protection to a occasion with regard to the use and articles of blogs. Presently, codes of exercise for Online people together with bloggers have not been proposed as portion of the Web regulatory routine at present functioning in Malaysia.

Rather, bloggers will need to practise self-regulation and comprehend the lawful implications of blogging to assure that their weblogs are written in a dependable and lawful manner. In buy to shield them selves, bloggers might offer conditions of use and appropriate disclaimer to present some diploma of convenience and defense from 3rd functions postings on their weblogs.

For those people bloggers who are not self-informed of the authorized threats, initiatives need to be produced to teach and elevate recognition to people bloggers. Most likely the social duty lies on the World-wide-web company providers and website provider providers to produce a blogger’s code of ethics to educate its bloggers to be moral in direction of their visitors, the men and women they compose about and the authorized ramifications of their steps.

Initially Released at Current Legislation Journal April Aspect 2 [2007] 2 CLJ i

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