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When Blogging Meets The Law

Tuesday, May 9 2006
Jim Logan
Jim Logan

An Internet search in support of a client project resulted in me reading a post published on Fortune 500 Blogs, a post about a number of recently launched F500 blogs. Looking at the blogs listed — noting style, platforms, organization, etc. — I couldn´t help but notice the legal department´s contribution"?¦in the comment section of each post on their respective site:

By clicking "Post" and submitting a comment, you (i) authorize Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., its affiliates, properties within the Starwood system and third party service providers (collectively, "Starwood") to collect, process, use and display the comment you submit and all accompanying personally identifiable information for any lawful, Starwood business related purpose worldwide in perpetuity, without notice to you and without compensation, including posting your comment and information on www.thelobby.com; (ii) give Starwood the right to store the information at and transmit the information to various locations, either directly or through its third party vendors, throughout the world, whether within your country of residence, the United States, or elsewhere; and (iii) give Starwood permission to contact you regarding the comment or the information you provided. You further agree to indemnify and hold Starwood harmless from any claim or demand arising from your comment or the information you submitted.


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We appreciate your interest in our company, and thank you for taking the time to communicate with us. However, you should be aware that we do not wish to receive information in confidence. Accordingly you agree that this submission is not provided to us in confidence, and that it is made gratuitously and without expectation of compensation. In other words GE will be free to consider and use it without any obligation to you. By this agreement you are not, however, granting GE any rights under existing or future patents.

To proceed with your submission you must first accept the foregoing agreement by checking the I ACCEPT box below.

If you are unclear about these conditions we urge you to consult with an attorney before submitting your information to us. Alternatively, if you would like to know more about GE's Submitted Ideas program, you should consult our website at: http://www.ge.com/en/subidea/


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By posting content on this Blog, you expressly grant Wells Fargo (and its affiliates) the right to use or distribute the posted content in any form, worldwide, and in perpetuity. You also agree to indemnify and hold Wells Fargo harmless against all liabilities, losses, claims and expenses arising from your posting of materials on this Blog (this includes any claim that Wells Fargo´s use of the content or images infringes on someone else´s intellectual property rights). Please read our Comment Guidelines for more information. If you would like followup from us, please use this form


I´m not a blogging purest. I don´t come close to believing there´s a right or wrong way to blog. I don´t even think most business need a blog or could benefit from one. But I must admit there´s something funny about reading those statements in the comment section.

What do you think when you see corporate sites with language like that? Does it seem old school? Does it detract from the blog experience?

Latest Comments in  posts

I consider the legal notices a necessary nuisance. Sad to say, most of the clauses in the legal notices are there because some company has been sued in the past -- for example an ex-husband sees a comment his wife has posted, describing some of the wild parties she's thrown over the past year; the ex-husband uses this information in a custody lawsuit; the ex-wife sues the owner of the blog for publishing information that caused her to lose custody of her kids.
By: Barbara Lamar on 6/7/06 at 12:00 AM
When Blogging Meets The Law
I consider the legal notices a necessary nuisance. Sad to say, most of the clauses in the legal notices are there because some company has been sued in the past -- for example an ex-husband sees a comment his wife has posted, describing some of the wild parties she's thrown over the past year; the ex-husband uses this information in a custody lawsuit; the ex-wife sues the owner of the blog for publishing information that caused her to lose custody of her kids.
By: Barbara Lamar on 6/7/06 at 12:00 AM
When Blogging Meets The Law
Very good site ...
By: VITYA on 7/7/06 at 12:00 AM
When Blogging Meets The Law
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