There are currently 50 lawsuits in the USA against bloggers, or people who have commented on blogs. You can expect to see a substantial rise in that number in the coming months, as well. Bloggers are covered by the same laws as people writing in printed publications. So if you write blogs you can be accused of copyright infringement, defamation, incitement to racial hatred and a host of other legal issues. Software will soon exist to trawl the Internet for possible breaches of the law, automatically helping to file claims against bloggers. The answer is to stick within the law – and if you don’t know the law, don’t say anything on a blog you wouldn’t say to an individual face to face. And don’t copy anything you find elsewhere on the Internet – make all your blogs your own work. Follow those two simple rules and you should stay clear of any legal problems.
Your spare time goes into the ether
Internet users are spending most of their spare time online, compared with watching TV, playing sports, gardening or simply lazing around. According to the strategic marketing research company Media Screen, in the USA half of
