Font ResizeWhen Courtney Love fell into a dispute with a clothing designer earlier this year, she aired her beef on MySpace and Twitter.
The designer sued Love for libel after the rocker claimed on her blog and in tweets that the designer was a thief, liar and drug dealer with a record of prostitution, according to court documents.
Love's case is one of the high-profile libel lawsuits involving comments on social networking sites. But you don't have to be famous to be sued. As more of us blog or tweet whatever pops into our minds, we run the risk that someone somewhere may take offense -- rightly or wrongly -- and sue. You could end up with big legal bills -- without Love's deep pockets.
For this reason, it may be worth buying insurance to make sure you are covered in case you are accused of libel or defamation.
Cases against bloggers are growing as the number of bloggers rises, according to the Media Law Resource Center, which posts legal actions against bloggers.
Damages, too, can be stiff.
This year alone, a court awarded $129,794 to an Ohio woman after a blogger said her property was haunted, reports Media Law. Another blogger was ordered to pay $1.8 million after referring to someone as a "failed lawyer."
Of course, no one wants to squelch creativity or free speech. Besides, the more controversial or provocative the postings, the more followers you'll have. (Love has more than 29,000 followers on Twitter.)
"People will sue each other if they feel they have been libeled or humiliated or defamed in some fashion," says Peter Spicer, communications manager for Chubb Personal Insurance.
"Blogging has made everybody in the world a potential editor-in-chief. In the past, you might have had a day or two to cool down or ... to shoot that letter via snail mail to (the newspaper). There was someone there who would police what you said. All or some of it might make it into the newspaper," Spicer says. "Today, in a matter of a half-hour you could have set up your blog and gone out and said your piece about any number of issues."
Even if you're careful about what you say, your children might not be. Disparaging remarks they make about, say, a teacher could also lead to legal woes.
A homeowner's policy typically covers you if guests trip in your house and are injured. But you need "personal injury" coverage to protect you against claims of libel, slander and defamation.
Chubb and other insurers catering to affluent households automatically include this coverage in homeowner's policies. You also might be covered if you have an umbrella policy, which generally picks up coverage where your homeowner's policy leaves off.
If you aren't covered under current policies, check to see if you can add a rider or endorsement to your homeowner's, renter's or umbrella policy to get this extra coverage. It's not expensive. State Farm in Maryland, for instance, generally charges $10 a year for $100,000 in coverage and $24 for $1 million of protection, says spokeswoman Maria Jackson.
For casual bloggers earning a few thousand dollars a year blogging, coverage through your homeowner's policy may be enough. Or if you blog or tweet for your employer, you're likely covered by its insurance.
But if you make a living at blogging, consider buying a general liability policy for about $500 to $1,000 a year to cover you against claims of libel or defamation as well as copyright infringement that's not covered under homeowner's insurance, Spicer says.
The Media Bloggers Association teamed up last year with an insurer to provide liability coverage, called BlogInsure, to its members. To get a quote, you must pass an online test covering defamation, privacy rights and copyright infringement, says Robert Cox, the group's president.
The test helps keep premiums lower, which start at $540 a year for coverage worth $100,000 per incident, but no more than $300,000 total, Cox says.
Insurance helps pay legal fees and any judgment against you, but it has limits.
The policy will cover you only for comments you made while it is in force, so older postings could still leave you vulnerable, says Amy Danise, editor of Insure.com.
And you can't purposely seek to damage someone by posting information known to be false and expect the insurer to pick up the tab from the lawsuit.
"You can be critical," says Eric Robinson, a Media Law center staff attorney. "It's not a good idea to make stuff up, especially if it's an allegation that someone has acted criminally or done something immoral."
Cox recommends a free course -- Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers -- at www.newsu.org, to learn your rights and responsibilities.
