Gamers: Time to score big – specials galore on Steam
Gamers: Time to score
big – specials... 		Fire at authorize.net grinds e-commerce to a halt
Fire at authorize.net
grinds e-commerce to... 		Some really cool laptops, too bad they're just concepts
Some really cool
laptops, too bad... 		BREAKING: Shots fired at Apple store in Virgina – one wounded [VIDEO]
BREAKING: Shots fired
at Apple store in... 		Lori Drew case dismissed, and why it's a good thing
Lori Drew case
dismissed, and why... 		Video: Seann William Scott pitches the "GiPhone"
Video: Seann William
Scott pitches the...
Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: September 21, 2008
Tags : , ,
Subscribe: Tech Feed, Email, Twitter

Media Bloggers Association launches blogging insurance program


    StumbleUpon Digg Reddit Mixx del.icio.us MySpace Fark Facebook TwitThis Propeller Wikio Yahoo! Buzz

The often criticized Media Bloggers Association may have just found a way to redeem itself in the eyes of many by launching the first comprehensive insurance product for bloggers.

The BlogInsure liability insurance is offered through Media/Professional Insurance, a business unit of the Select Markets Division of AXIS Insurance. The insurance will cover costs and damages for claims of defamation, copyright infringement and privacy violation. Under the program, insured bloggers will have access to a new legal hotline beta program and web extranet where they can submit queries and get answers to legal questions before problems arise.

Coupled with the insurance is a new course offered in partnership with The Poynter Institute’s News University, Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers, co-authored by David Ardia of the Citizen Media Law Project, which is jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media and Geanne Rosenberg of the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism and Baruch College. The course is being offered for free, and those who successfully complete it will be offered discounts on BlogInsure.

The full details aren’t available on Media/Professional Insurance’s site, so extent of liability, cost or coverage isn’t yet available from what I can find, but those points aside, any step to offer this sort of insurance for bloggers is a positive step forward. The course itself certainly can’t do any harm, and those in the United States in particular who are making any significant sums from blogging, and therefore in harms way in terms of copyright, defamation or other legal issues would be wise to at least check it out.



You might also like



  • Its probably worth mentioning that the EFF also has some great online resources regarding blogger's rights. There a certain rights and protections bloggers legally have, regardless of whether they're paying for insurance or not.
  • Adam,

    EFF, Citizen Media Law Project and others have some great resources for bloggers. We work with these groups and others and link them from our site. And of course bloggers have rights. As newspapers and other traditional media organizations learned long ago, it is not simply a matter of having rights but being able to DEFEND those rights. If a blogger cannot afford to put on a defense the plaintiff wins by default. The sad fact is that most bloggers cave right from the outset and most litigants know this. Bloggers need a credible threat in order to deter potential litigants and few have the financial or legal resources to do so. That is why we went out two years ago looking for an insurance company willing to create this new type of insurance.

    We recognize that many bloggers will not see the need for insurance or believe it to be an unnecessary cost. That's fine. We're not selling insurance (the MBA does not make a dime, directly or indirectly, from the insurance program). We just want to make sure that for those who DO want it, its' there. We are convinced from hard won experience helping more bloggers than any other organization respond to legal threats that the long-term sustainability of citizen media depends on bloggers having access to the same sorts of legal resources as the often deep-pocketed, highly-motivated plaintiffs going after them.

    The Media Bloggers Association has helped bloggers in hundreds of cases since 2004. Not only are we offering a program to obtain insurance from Media/Professional, the largest media liability insurance company in the world, but we have greatly expanded our network of law firms willing in our MBA Legal Referral Program where MBA members can get a free consult including some simple do's and don'ts of responding to a legal threat, risk assessment, and a review of potential costs of mounting a defense and the potential size of a judgement in the event the case is lost.
  • jacob2020
    Blog Insurance sounds like a much needed protection for we bloggers. Where can I buy a Blog Insurance policy? -- how much does it cost?
blog comments powered by Disqus
King.com (Midasplayer.com Ltd.)