How to Write a Blog Disclaimer?

A blog disclaimer is becoming more and more necessary to have nowadays. Especially with all the suing going on and not to mention our natural behavior to rebel against any system or law. As much practice you put into responsible blogging, you will stumble upon unavoidable situations where you happen to offend someone.

So how to write a blog disclaimer to cover your a** and help save your skin? What will you need to write in the blog disclaimer to protect yourself from any angle? To be honest, I’m no lawyer but here are some blog disclaimer writing tips and tricks to help you write your own blog disclaimer.

Let’s first have a look at some blog disclaimer samples I’ve found:

Single line blog disclaimer
This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. Source: Alex Barnett’s blog

Single paragraph blog disclaimer
The following is the opinion of the writer and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. The views of the writer are his own, and do not in any way reflect the views of the site they are posted on, other sites affiliated with this site, the staff involved with the site, or any other members of this site. Furthermore, they do not necessarily reflect the views of the the people who live in the author’s neighbour hood, city, province, country, continent, hemisphere, planet, star system, galaxy, or universe of orign. Please also note that the fact the piece is written in English is in no way meant to malign other languages or linguistic entities, nor to malign those who are illiterate or visually impaired and thus are unable to read the piece. Furthermore, the individual letters, words, and punctuation marks involved had no option but to be placed into the story, and should not be held accountable for the writer’s statment. Any spelling or grammatical errors are not the responsibility of the the schools the author attended, the teachers the author was taught by, the regional governments who did or did not fund the author’s educational system, or anyone else involved in the author’s education. In point of fact, the author takes full responsibility for his actions and opinions and does not hold his parents, siblings, other relations, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, people in any proximity, or that strange guy he talked to on the bus three weeks ago responsible for anything in the following work, or for anything else the author may or may not have done. The author freely admits that his views may not be the same as those of his religious group, eithnic group, neighbourhood watch program, bowling league or other club. Source: Writing.Com: Disclaimer

Malaysia blogger blog disclaimer
On Blogging Posts
Any views or opinion represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blogger minishorts and do not represent those of [company name]. Everything you repeat and say that has been previously said in this blog may be an infringement of copyright law, and may be used against you.

On Blogging Comments
Any view or opinion represented in the blog comments are personal and is accredited to the respective commentor / visitor to this blog. This blogger reserves the right to moderate comment suitability in support of respecting racial, religious and political sensitivities, and in order to protect the rights of each commentor where available. Everything the commentor says in explicity or expressed in defamatory statements is bound to sedition laws from the commentor’s country of origin, and may be used against the said commentor. Source: Minishorts.net – Disclaimer

So what do you need to write a blog disclaimer for your own blog?

1. Proper English, average grammar and sentences that make sense.
2. Declaration of not offending anyone or any party involved directly or indirectly.
3. Declaration of not blogging to defame, purge or humiliate anyone or any party involved directly or indirectly.
4. Declaration of your blogging is the personal feelings of your own during or after an experience which may, have or had affected your mental state.
5. Declaration of comments left by comment authors is the sole responsibility of the comment authors.
6. Declaration of comments left by comment authors may be bound to the laws of the commentor’s country of origin.
7. Request for individuals or involving parties to contact you directly via email or phone in order to consolidate the removal of information deemed sensitive or harmful to them.

I guess that pretty much would sum up quite a lot of the angles someone would take the time to try and sue you, if they wanted. However, if you feel the blog disclaimer tips above only cover content driven blogs and not other genres like photography blogs then add:

• Declaration of images are the intellectual or personal property of the blog owner; [name].
• Declaration of image usage (hotlinking) is strictly prohibited without the written consent of the blog owner; [name]. Failing which may result in possible legal action against the involved party using the image.
• Declaration of editing or removing the watermark on image(s) is strictly prohibited and automatically qualifies as breach of intellectual property of the blog owner; [name].

Like I said, I’m no lawyer and I definetely didn’t study law while I was in Lim Kok Wing College (before it became a university). Oh yeah…and if you’re lazy to write up a blog disclaimer of your own, you could display the README link. It’s a blogger’s disclaimer written by a blogger to allow people to share a disclaimer called; README.

I hope the the tips on how to write a blog disclaimer above comes in handy either as a reference or as a guide for you to write your own.

Question of the day: Have you written your own blog disclaimer?

[tags]Blog disclaimer, Blog copyright[/tags]