U.S. Court imposes $2.5 Million judgement on blogger Crystal Cox... saying Cox did not qualify for Oregon's media shield law because she was employed by an established mainstream media outlet. This sends a powerful message to developers of online media... bloggers cannot claim the protections afforded to journalists!
"A federal judge in Oregon has ruled that a Montana woman sued for defamation was not a journalist when she posted online that an Oregon lawyer acted criminally during a bankruptcy case, a decision with implications for bloggers around the country."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/j..."Oregon's media shield law reads:
No person connected with, employed by or engaged in any medium of communication to the public shall be required by ... a judicial officer ... to disclose, by subpoena or otherwise ... [t]he source of any published or unpublished information obtained by the person in the course of gathering, receiving or processing information for any medium of communication to the public[.]"
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweek...%29
What will that mean for RantRaver's and other blogger's?
Keep it positive? and throw away your whistles?
Or just follow in "Goose-Step?"
I think there needs to be some freedom in blog-zone where everything can be taken with a grain of salt or two... it is just someone's opinion and we should all have the right to express that. Where the problem comes in is when a particular blogger becomes big enough to be a "threat" and starts shining a light where it isn't welcome. Can we see the censorship of bloggers or the shutting down of this media all together?
Only time will tell...