1. How much freedom do we have when writing critically of others or others’ work before we become liable for defamation or copyright infringement?

 

• Blogs are essentially on copyright lockdown
• Defamation comes in relation to reputation; if your accusations harm another’s professional reputation then you will be open to defamation charges. Personalizing (naming) in a blog is dangerous
• Separating opinion from writing un-bias in your blog can help to avoid defamation charges
• In some defamation cases, truth as a defense is acceptable, however in certain cases it is not a sufficient defense
• It is not a criminal matter until it is brought to a court; copyright and defamation are civil offences, so unless you’re caught you cannot be charged
• Imbedded YouTube videos in your blog have implied liability with the host site, i.e. YouTube hold liability for that content if it breaches copyright
  • YouTube have algorithms that run similarity reports to check if there are any copyright violations, and videos are automatically taken down – YouTube is kind of safe in this sense
• It’s up to the original creator and/or copyright holder to police the breaches in that copyright
• • E.g. if a band’s song lyrics are used in a video, or a cover of the song, etc. it is up to the musicians to police that and press copyright charges
• If you slander someone based upon gender, race, religion, sex, etc. it is illegal; there is no freedom of speech protection in Australia (America is the only country that has enshrined freedom of speech as a protection)
• Intent doesn’t matter; if it is offensive to someone then your intent doesn’t matter, it is still offense. The same applies to copyright, whether or not you intended to sexist, racist, etc. if someone interprets that as such, then it is.
• Opinion v. Criticism; criticism comes from a learned perspective. Opinion has no such backing (a mechanic critiquing a car vs. an everyday person)
• If someone comments on a blog you host and that comment has links to illegal content, you are responsible as the host for that content

 

2. Copyright protects published content, however this protection does not extend to the ideas or concepts that this content was based on. At what point does content or “fact” become an idea? And vice versa?

 

• You can patent a way to create a certain way, combining various elements to create something like a drug or medicine
• E.g. Microsoft has trademarked the word ‘Windows’ however windows companies don’t have to pay Microsoft when they use the word in their companies because it’s a different context