Bloggers and the law

If ignorance is no excuse, then read on before allowing employees free reign over corporate blogs

Reality Check, By Ephraim Schwartz
May 03, 2005

In a recent column, I called on companies to follow the lead of Sun Microsystems (Profile, Products, Articles) and liberalize their corporate blogging policies. This week I spoke with no fewer than two law firms and three attorneys to get the skinny on where your life as an employee stops and your life as a private citizen starts, according to the law.

As you might guess, there are few hard-and-fast rules. However, Richard Neff, an attorney in the intellectual property and technology practice for Greenberg Glusker, opined that there are a few areas where a company could be liable for what its employees blog.

Suppose, for example, an employee says very negative things about a competitor or publishes an unfair product comparison. If these opinions are stated as facts and they are not true, it could lead to a “trade disparagement” suit. Similarly, if an employee says bad and untrue things about an individual, both the employee and the company might be liable.
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http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/05/03/19OPreality_1.html?source=NLC-BUS2005-05-04