Eeek! What can I publish safely?

Well, first off, you can showcase your original works that don't contain anyone else's copyright or enrage the petty paper-pushers of Peleliu or Egypt, while you're still within their legal range. Then look for material in the public domain, which varies from country to country. The average remains 95 years in most western nations.

In the US, copyright on post-2002 works expires 70 years after the death of the author. For corporate works, the limit's 95 years after publication or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first. Disney has been instrumental in pushing those limits back, as it struggles to keep control of Mickey Mouse, born in 1928, as well as the slightly younger Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck.

Chris Sprigman, Counsel to the Antitrust Group, points out that public domain works foster creativity. Shakespeare borrowed the plot line of Romeo and Juliet, for example, later re-envisioned by Leonard Bernstein's in West Side Story.

Ironically, many of Disney's animated films are based on Nineteenth Century public domain works, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Pinocchio, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Alice in Wonderland, and The Jungle Book (released exactly one year after Kipling's copyrights expired).

Borrowing is ubiquitous, inevitable, and, most importantly, good. Contrary to the romantic notion that true genius inheres in creating something completely new, genius is often better described as opening up new meanings on well-trodden themes.

Be mindful of your image and video sources, but also of deploying others' words. We've talked a lot about the power of quotes. They can illuminate your material, connecting it to the larger world. Just make sure you don't tread on any toes in the process.

The US, like many western nations, has a fair use exemption. This allows commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. It's a complex thing, which trips up even IP lawyers. So I'll shared the super-general rule-of-thumb hammered home in my media law class at university: Don't quote more than 25 consecutive words of an article, attribute the comment and you'll probably be OK.

Watch the ratios, however. Twenty-five words of a 50-word blog post could land you in big trouble. Twenty-five words of a 5,000-word New Yorker manifesto's safer ground. If you're in doubt, just ask. The web's has made seeking permission a lot easier than tracking down an author via a busy publisher in days past...

Always be extremely careful when borrowing material, even from an open content site. Read the fine print. For instance, both GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) and Creative Commons ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) require a republisher to list the license conditions, and give credit to the original author.

Web pioneer Brad Templeton wrote a brilliant article, 10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained. Go read it. Need reassurance? Skip down to number 11 (yes, eleven, he couldn't resist the base-five headline, like so many suckers before him).

Wrap up this legal stuff, already!

We're almost done. In the meantime, here's a transformative derivative work: It's A Wonderful Life in 30 seconds, reenacted by cartoon bunnies.

Bloggers need to treat lightly around libel also. I'll nutshell, since we're all weary here: don't talk unsustainable smack about identifiable people outside the realm of public interest. That means go easy on Uncle Wilfred, but be more frank about Britney, George W, Mick Jagger and so forth. Here's another area where epithets and nicknames prove useful: protecting the privacy of your family, friends and colleagues. Still, be careful that you haven't revealed so much about yourself that their identities are easy to infer, should they not want Internet infamy...

Now for the good news

Legislators are protecting bloggers' right to freedom of speech – and anonymity too, at least in the States.

As this Wired article points out, "the ruling effectively differentiates conventional news media, which can be sued relatively easily for libel, from certain forms of online communication such as moderated e-mail lists".

One implication is that DIY publishers like bloggers cannot be sued as easily.

"One-way news publications have editors and fact-checkers, and they're not just selling information – they're selling reliability," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "But on blogs or e-mail lists, people aren't necessarily selling anything, they're just engaging in speech. That freedom of speech wouldn't exist if you were held liable for every piece of information you cut, paste and forward."

And that's about where the good news stops. Because as media converges online, bloggers increasingly break stories. As they act like professional journalists, they're being treated accordingly. Take the recent case of Christopher Elliot.

After the would-be underwear bomber, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a security directive. Among other short-lived measures, it required passengers hands to be empty – no books, no knitting and also no in-flight entertainment – for the last hour. Elliott published the full text on his travel blog. Shortly thereafter, a federal agent knocked on his door.

"I got a 'C' in media law class," the writer mused at a 2010 Seattle Consortium of Online Travel (SCOOT) meet-up. "But I still remembered to ask for a supoena."

Elliot – also a MSM reporter and National Geographic Traveler's reader advocate – stood firm, refusing to reveal his source.

"I learned a very tough lesson. The public has a right to know, but the people who publish the info are unprotected. I was really quaking during this event."

From Texas to China to Azerbaijan, more and more bloggers are winding up in jail – just like professional journalists, but with far fewer resources to fight back. The World Information Access Report claims that blogger arrests around the world tripled between 2006-2008.

Media Blogger Association president Robert Cox observed that lawsuits against bloggers more than double each year now. "Bloggers have a tendency to believe myths—like that they are judgment-proof," he told the The San Francisco Chronicle.

So be careful out there. Check your facts. State your sources. Don't steal. And play nicely with others.

Wait, that wasn't quite enough legal jargon...

Read the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Guide for Bloggers, then, you glutton for punishment!