How to Legally Protect Your Blog from Lawsuits and Content Theft

In this day and age, It is critical that you legally protect your blog from lawsuits and theft. The internet has only complicated copyright laws and freedom of speech. This means that it’s even more important that you cover your rear when it comes to any legal liability.

Case in Point

In 1992, Stella Liebeck visited a McDonald’s drive-thru and ordered a 49 cent cup of coffee. Her grandson pulled into a parking space to allow her to add cream and sugar to her cup of Joe. It sounds so innocent, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, Ms. Liebeck didn’t have access to a cup holder and was holding her cup between her knees. As she pulled the lid off, she dumped the entire cup in her lap. The incident resulted in 3rd-degree burns and an infamous lawsuit.

You may be wondering at this point, “Why is she talking about coffee?” There is a point. I promise.

Although Ms. Liebeck only sought $18,000 in injury and losses, McDonald’s refused to pay. When it went to court, it was determined that McDonald’s was guilty of “gross negligence” and the judge awarded her $600,000.

Is coffee hot? Yes. We all know that. It’s supposed to be hot, right? The problem was that McDonald’s didn’t write “Caution: This is hot!” on the cup.

Would this have prevented the incident? Probably not. However, it would have placed the blame on Ms. Liebeck instead of McDonald’s. A few words on styrofoam would have saved McDonald’s over half a million dollars.

In this post, I’m going to discuss how you can prevent being held liable for physical or financial injury. I will also discuss how your brand can suffer damage if you don’t take proactive steps to prevent it.

*This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you make a purchase after clicking on a link I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more information, click here.

The Real World

I have had my fair share of jobs that involve strict adherence to laws and regulations. I have worked for the government, a bank, and was a technical writer for a major manufacturer.

What have all of these positions taught me? You have to protect your assets! You have to be upfront with customers and explain to them the consequences of their own actions, even if you think it is obvious.

You may also have to be able to PROVE that you were up-front with them, just in they are harmed by the information you provided or a product you suggested.

 

How Liability Can Impact Your Blog

You can be held liable for a number of reasons. A reader could potentially do something after reading one of your blog that causes a physical injury. They may suffer from financial or physical losses from a product you recommend.

The possibilities are endless.

The fact is, you can be held responsible for their actions. It’s a reality for any business. Just because your brand exists as a virtual business does not mean that you are exempt from liabilities and lawsuits.

You need to legally protect your blog from potential damages, regardless of how silly they may seem to you.

What Do You Have to Do to Protect Your Blog?

The answer to this question is pretty simple. You need to behave ethically and provide documentation to fall back on so there is no possibility of confusion. You must provide your readers with statements in writing to cover any potential legal issues.

“What does this have to do with blogging?” You might ask. The short answer is everything!

You may have started a blog as a hobby, but it has evolved into a side income. That means you are now operating a business. As a business owner and operator, you are responsible for keeping your audience informed of their rights, as well as your own.

The best way to do that is to create several statements and make them easily accessible and visible from every page of your blog.

I am going to review the statements you need as well as some other legal liabilities you should also consider in this post.

Protect Your Content

In a perfect world, when you write something, no one would steal those words and use them as their own. With that being said, our world is not perfect. Far from it.

People will steal your content, which is copyrighted from the moment it is published. They may even try to pass it off as their own.

No, this is not cool.

You work hours to craft unique content and someone takes credit for it? Yeah, you should be angry. The good news is that if you plan ahead, you can save yourself a lot of stress when filing complaints.

To protect yourself from this type of theft you will need to write a permission statement before any problems arise. This little statement will be worth its weight in gold if your content is ever used without your permission.

A Permission Statement

A permission or terms of use statement will protect your blog and its content in the event of theft. Anyone who visits your website should have access to this statement which lets them know how they can use your content.

The Permission Statement informs the visitor that all of the content, including written content, graphics, and any media on your website is your property.

In this statement, you need to outline your terms of use and include how others are allowed to cite or use your work.

Blogger Peg Fitspatrick has been through several situations in which her content was stolen. She specifies how her content can be used in her legal statement.

It is an excellent example of the things that you should consider when drafting your own permission statement. Be sure to include your graphics, logo, content, and all other portions of your blog within your permission statement.

If you are in doubt about whether to include something, include it just to be safe. You can never include too much. Be Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory cautious.

Write a Legal Disclaimer

If you are affiliated with any organizations and are compensated for affiliate links or other promotions, you must inform your readers. You are running a legitimate business, so it is important to be transparent with your audience.

In your legal disclaimer, you will need to remove yourself from any liability associated with your affiliate products. For example, one of your affiliate products causes physical or financial damage.

You don’t want to be held liable for damages as a result of a faulty product simply because you recommended it. Play it safe. If in doubt, add it.

If you are still uncertain, Jackie of Jade & Oak is a blogger and attorney who offers awesome legal advice for bloggers on her blog about this type of a disclaimer. I highly recommend that you read her post and use it as a basis for creating your own disclaimer.

Privacy Policy

If you have an email list, track your analytics, or use cookies to collect any information, a privacy policy is a must. It lets your audience know what information you will collect, how it will be used, and how you plan to protect that information.

For example, you must ensure your email list that you won’t spam them and will only provide them with the emails they have requested. Also, inform your readers that the cookies on your website are used to help create better content for your readers and that you are not sharing that information with outside companies.

Bloggers own the information they receive, so it can be sold or shared with others. This is a sleazy part of the industry that you should avoid. The privacy policy must reassure your audience that you won’t do that.

Your privacy policy will go a long way to reassuring your readers that you are the real deal and not some scam artist trying to make a buck with their info. It will also legally protect your blog from any allegations that you misused reader’s information.

 

Other Considerations

 

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

If you use any content from another website or individual, you must have permission or link back to their original post. When you do use content or graphics, use them within reason. Don’t use large amounts of text and expect the copyright owner to be okay with a small link somewhere in the text.

If in doubt, contact the copyright owner to ask for permission and explain how you wish to use their work. Most will be okay with and even pleased that you are using their content. If the copyright owner says no, simply avoid using it. It’s that simple

Remember; When in doubt, throw it out. There is no sense in risking the loss of all of your hard work by using one piece of content. If you violate copyright, you risk being asked to remove the content (aka a cease and desist) or your web hosting service may have to remove the post or your whole website to comply with legal orders.

Your Email Communications

Almost every website has a newsletter or some form of email list that you can sign up for. This is a great way to market your blog posts and communicate with your readers directly on a regular basis. In short, these are your peeps.

Emails, however, require certain legal disclosures to legally protect your blog. In a guest post from Jackie of Jade & Oak on Gemma Bonham-Carter’s blog, she mentions that you should always include a PO Box or physical address for your email communications as well as an opt-out feature.

This is not optional. It’s the law. You can get into serious legal trouble if the recipient has no way to contact you or opt-out. This prevents spam and protects your audience from being spammed.

The good news is that most email services include this in their templates, although you can remove them. One of the reasons I love MailerLite is that it saves my info for this section, which makes this part of my email marketing a breeze.

This is yet another reason why I love their service and joined their affiliate program. I absolutely love and stand by their service.

 

Use Copyright-Free Stock Photography

Don’t go to Google Images and download any image you like and use it on your blog. Most of those images are copyrighted and you can’t use them without permission.

If you have done this in the past, don’t worry too much about it. Simply, remove as many of those images as soon as possible to legally protect your blog from potential future liabilities.

Going forward, only use stock images that are free of copyright. Note that you may have to provide a caption to credit the source on some of these stock images.

Where to Obtain Stock Images

I am going to mention a few companies that I have no affiliation with, in this section. They are simply well-known companies you may use for high-quality stock photography.

I personally use Pixabay and Unsplash for free, high-quality stock images. Their images are completely free and rely on volunteers to submit images others can use free of copyright. These images do not require any citation, making them easy to use for bloggers.

Paid websites such as Shutterstock also provide copyright-free images. The benefits of using a paid site are that your images will not be as common and you will have many more, professionally styled options.

Canva, a free photo editor, also sells copyright-free images and graphics. Their images are very inexpensive (usually around $1) and are great for the new blogger who doesn’t want to shell out a ton of cash.

Be sure to pay attention to any licensing when you purchase images. Some may allow for use one time, unlimited use, and commercial use. Do your research to prevent legal complications.

Make It a Priority to Legally Protect Your Blog

It is important to legally protect your blog by writing legal statements that will make your intentions and responsibilities clear.

Disclosures and statements will legally protect your blog in the case of stolen content and if anyone ever tries to sue you for damages. Therefore, these short disclosures should be a priority.

Provide links to these disclaimers on every page of your blog and in the footer. You need your readers to have quick and easy access to these disclosures. In the event of a legal conflict, it will help to rule out any possibility that your readers were not properly informed.

Once you have these forms active, go back to older posts and link to these forms whenever appropriate. This will help create additional awareness of your policies and clarification.

A Penny for your Thoughts?

If you have any additional suggestions about how to legally protect your blog, please leave those suggestions in the comments below. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to sign up for the email list below.

If you sign up, you will receive a free instant download of my Blog Post Checklists to help you plan, draft, edit, and market your posts faster and easier.

Subscribers will receive notifications of future posts, additional content, and links to freebies as they become available.

Thank you so much for reading!