Author: Joy R. Butler
ISBN: 978-096729402-5
Publisher: Sashay Communications, LLC

Click Here To Purchase The Cyber Citizen's Guide Through the Legal Jungle: Internet Law for Your Professional Online Presence

Do you actively participate in blogging, podcasting, contributing to a social network site or operate a website? Perhaps you operate some kind of an enterprise and you wish to market your product or service through the Internet? Are you aware that it is very important to stay legal and protect your online interests?

If you have replied in the affirmative to any of these questions, then Joy R. Butler's The Cyber Citizen's Guide Through The Legal Jungle: Internet Law for Your Professional Online Presence is a must read.

This book is a clearly written guidebook that addresses a multitude of legal issue that arise during the process of setting up and maintaining your online presence. One caveat, however, unless otherwise noted, the manual covers only principles of US law. Furthermore, as Butler states: “Each principle of law is subject to differing interpretations and may have numerous exceptions.” As the book provides a broad overview of the law, it may not cover the interpretation or an exception that may be applicable to a particular situation.

The book divides itself into three sections. Part one deals with Establishing Your Online Presence: Part Two with Knowing Your Online Rights and Responsibilities and Part Three with Engaging in Specific Online Activities. Each chapter of the book is in turn divided into succinct segments. And there are two ways you can use this book: you can read it from cover to cover for an excellent grounding in Internet law that affect your professional online presence or you can jump directly to a particular section that addresses a question you may have at a particular moment. It should be noted that the beginning of the book begins with an extensive checklist that poses short questions and brief replies about particular Internet activities. The checklist then points the reader to a particular chapter or section of the book that goes into more detail concerning these topics.

Among the many scenarios explored that may lead to potential legal issues are: What should you do if someone is using your content without your permission? Who owns the copyrights to your site if you hired someone to construct it for you? What are the legal ramifications if you own a blog to which visitors contribute comments, articles, images, and other materials? Does your site contain technology that you wish to protect? Are you using a domain name that includes your trademark or your personal name? Are you using a company name, trademark, or celebrity name as part of the domain name for your fan site, gripe site or criticism site? What happens if someone impersonates you online? Are you incorporating someone else's content into your site? Is it permissible to use ideas and facts from another website? What are the legal implications if you use music on your site? What are the legal ramifications if you permit others to post material on your site? Privacy issues also crop up if you mention people by name or discuss actual events on your site. Have you posted an online privacy policy? How about children-have you targeted your site to them? Are you sending email announcements to existing and potential clients? There are also specific online activities that may have legal implications such as reporting news online, exchanging files online, talking about your job on your blog or on other social network sites, writing or posting online reviews of a product, and do you have copyright when you post original content on a social networking site. These are only a sampling of the many issues that Butler deals with and that are sure to crop up during the process of setting up and operating your online presence.

At the end of the book you will find invaluable appendices that contain resources and tips and sample forms for registering the copyright in your online work, tips and sample form for registering your domain name as a trademark, sample DMCA Takedown notices and counter notices, sample website development agreement and sample terms of service for a website. There is also a glossary of terms and a comprehensive index.

The Cyber Citizen's Guide Through The Legal Jungle is an intelligently and extensive overview of working your way through the maze of problems that can arise when dealing with Internet law that will certainly appeal to law practitioners, as well as anyone who is an active Internet participant. It is a splendid introduction to a relatively new and important branch of law that I am sure we will be hearing more about in the years to come.

Joy R. Butler is a Harvard Law graduate and a transactional business attorney. Her expertise includes copyrights, trademarks, commercial licensing, entertainment law, private equity financing, and mergers and acquisitions. She is also the author of The Permission Seeker's Guide Through the Legal Jungle: Clearing Copyrights, Trademarks and Other Rights for Entertainment and Media Productions.