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Getting serious about hyperlocal: Legal issues
As a follow on from my blog post about legal issues for hyperlocals I wanted to get a discussion going.
In the post I ask; "All very good talking about it but what are we going to do? Well, I’m not exactly sure how to go about it. We’ve got to get the legal advice from somewhere and that’ll cost… so how much is it and who funds it? Who’s likely to fund it? Is there someone we could ask to fund it? Could we collectively fund it? Do we allow anyone to access that advice and guidance? What else could we provide? I don’t have the answers but if we club together maybe we can come up with them, so what say you? Let’s get talking about this."
If you're on Twitter, get chatting with the #HLA hashtag, too!
In the post I ask; "All very good talking about it but what are we going to do? Well, I’m not exactly sure how to go about it. We’ve got to get the legal advice from somewhere and that’ll cost… so how much is it and who funds it? Who’s likely to fund it? Is there someone we could ask to fund it? Could we collectively fund it? Do we allow anyone to access that advice and guidance? What else could we provide? I don’t have the answers but if we club together maybe we can come up with them, so what say you? Let’s get talking about this."
If you're on Twitter, get chatting with the #HLA hashtag, too!
Tags: comments, defamation, hla, hyperlocal, hyperlocalalliance, law, legal, libel, moderation
Views: 5
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by James Hatts on -
Yes, we'd certainly want to participate in any such shared legal advice system. A great idea.
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Permalink Reply by Michelle Ferrier on -
Just wanted to share this resource from the Journalism That Matters collective (www.journalismthatmatters.org):
NEW RESOURCE: Free legal advice for online journalism ventures
: I am delighted to announce the public launch of the Berkman Center's Online Media Legal Network (OMLN), a new pro bono initiative that connects lawyers and law school clinics from across the country with online journalists and digital media creators who need legal help. Lawyers participating in OMLN will provide qualifying online publishers with pro bono and reduced fee legal assistance on a broad range of legal issues, including business formation and governance, copyright licensing and fair use, employment and freelancer agreements, access to government information, pre-publication review of content, and representation in litigation.
The idea for the network came out of CMLP's work over the last 3 years helping online journalists understand their legal rights and responsibilities. During this time period, we've published and updated our legal guide and legal threats database, blogged on topics of interest to online publishers, partnered with like-minded organizations on a variety of educational projects, and filed amicus briefs in cases with significant implications for online speech. While we are proud of the impact we've had and the success of the CMLP website, we also recognize that many online journalists and bloggers need more than generally applicable legal information—they need their own lawyers to tackle their own individualized legal issues.
The new Online Media Legal Network aims to fill this need by making it as easy as possible for online publishers to find legal help. If you know of anyone that could use our help, please direct them to the OMLN website (www.omln.org). Conversely, if you are a lawyer and you want to help, please sign up!
More info on the launch is available here (and Mac Slocum has a nice writeup the network on the Niemen Journalism Lab.)
-David
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David Ardia
Director, Citizen Media Law Project
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Harvard Law School
23 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617.384.9103
Fax: 617.495.7641
dardia@cyber.law.harvard.edu
Skype ID: David.Ardia
www.citmedialaw.org
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Permalink Reply by Phil Green on
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I know that this link is in Philip John' blog post mentioned above, but thought it'd be an idea to have the link here as well, (should perhaps also go under resources, if not there already?):
Libel Reform Campaign are having a push to get more people signing their petition before the forthcoming general election. Sign the petition via
www.libelreform.org/sign -
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