Rights of a Blogger

[Chinmoy]

Blogging is often confused with open journalism, sometimes news reporting while in other cases, people writing their blogs often consider it fair to copy or use contents from over another blog. But blogging should be seen as a privileged platform which allows us to speak freely rather than a tool to launch attacks on things we have personal issues with. This is a comprehensive list of some basic facts about blogging rights, a list of common questions answered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. These are the five things any blogger should understand clearly.

1. Quotes : Quotes from a blog with All Rights Reserved, are NOT seen as a copyright infringement when used for commenting, criticizing, reporting, teaching or research.
2. Images : The use of images is hazy though images have the same copyright as text. Images can be used as thumbnails or parts of images can be used safely in most cases. It is advisable to mention a full credit for the image to the site it is taken from to be on the safe side.
3. Blogging and Journalism : Bloggers are not Journalists but Journalists can blog. A journalist can use a blogging platform to write a journalism blog, but a blogger does not have the same rights as a Journalist.
4. Defamation Claims : A claim to defamation can be made if the information provided by the defamer is false. In case the information is true, it is a defense to defamation only if supported with adequate proof.
5. Trademark : A trademark can be used in any content till :
> it is unique.
> if not unique, is not used for commercial purpose when another being with a trademark on the same product is using it for commercial product.

So, two blogs can have trademark on the same topic abiding by the rules above.
These are just some basic guidelines, not rules or Laws.

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[WingedPanther]

Most of the above is based on US Copyright and Trademark laws. Because these laws vary from country to country, you will have to refer to both your local laws and the laws that apply to your blog hosting service. For example, defamation laws are very different between the US and the UK.

[Chinmoy]

That is very true for the last two points but the first three points are generalized.

[WingedPanther]

Point 1 is directly from US copyright law's definition of "Fair Use".