[Dean's World] Ron Coleman: Hands off blogs

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Posted by Ron Coleman:
Hands off blogs
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1170703993.shtml


   I published an op-ed on blogger disclosure in the [1]New Jersey Law
   Journal (subscription required) of last week. Now you can read it
   [2]here. Excerpt:

     Blogs are an effective and powerful new medium. The key to their
     development is not to protect them from themselves but rather to
     permit them to be what they are: free and unfettered. Blog readers
     and regulators alike need to trust the market and their own common
     sense, and reach for the opiate of regulation last, not first.
     Consumers of blogs have to be skeptics and take advantage of the
     opportunity for self-education provided by the blogosphere in
     unprecedented scope.

     Those who disclose more, and more accurately, will be more trusted
     on that account. Ultimately all a blogger, a lawyer, a politician
     or anyone else has is his persuasiveness, his intellectual honesty
     and a track record of trustworthiness. In the pure market of
     expression, that is all the regulation needed.

References

   1. http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1169806049066
   2. http://www.likelihoodofconfusion.com/?p=785