Blogs present myriad legal issues that companies must confront regardless of whether they’re participating in the latest Internet trend.
There are an estimated 9 million blogs – short for Web logs – where discussions happen online every day on every topic imaginable, including business. A Boulder-based CEO is blogging. Apple Computer is battling bloggers. A Delta Air Lines flight attendant lost her job after blogging about work.
Blogs can be a minefield for the uninitiated. Employees, or outsiders, could be posting information on blogs that a company wants to keep private. Or employees could be blogging on company time or computers, making the company potentially liable for what they say.
Even in the more controlled atmosphere of a company-sanctioned blog, the potential legal pitfalls are many.
“The more prudent companies are waiting to see how these issues play out before they jump in,” said Lee Reichert, a partner with the Denver law firm Kamlet Shepherd & Reichert. Corporate clients are calling Kamlet Shepherd and other firms for advice on how to handle the growing number of issues posed by blogs.
Legal experts say companies should make sure blogs are covered in workplace policies along with e-mail usage and Web surfing. Companies also should be sure that employees understand what kind of company-related information, if any, is appropriate to post on blogs. Finally, companies should monitor what’s being said about them in the blogosphere.
In Apple’s case, the company is suing three bloggers to reveal their sources of information about Apple products. The case could decide whether bloggers have the same protections as journalists.
Many companies are taking advantage of blogging. They realize that executives who aren’t paying attention and participating in the dialogues are missing opportunities to learn about and shape public perceptions of their companies.
Terry Gold, whose Boulder- based Gold Systems develops speech-recognition software, is one of a handful of Denver-area chief executives who write their own blogs.
“If someone blogs something bad about us, it is probably a symptom of a bigger problem,” he said. “I do sometimes have to think about what I write … but I don’t worry too much about it.”
He says he may soon set up blogging for his employees.
In a handful of cases, companies have fired employees for what they’ve posted on blogs.
Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was fired last fall after posting on her blog photographs of herself in uniform in an airplane cabin. Online search giant Google fired employee Mark Jen in January after he discussed life at the company in unflattering terms on a blog.
“People often say things on blogs without reflection or examination of what they’re saying,” said Phil Weiser, an associate professor of law and telecommunications at the University of Colorado. “Somehow, they’re feeling a sense of intimacy and safety where they never would do that with their name in an op-ed in the paper.”
In Colorado, an at-will employment state, employers have broad powers to fire workers – but typically not for legal activities outside the workplace. However, if an employee complained about company management on a personal blog, it’s possible the employee could be fired.
A whistle-blower statute protects workers who reveal employer violations of laws and regulations.
Staff writer Greg Griffin can be reached at 303-820-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com.
