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Thursday, July 21, 2005

Annotators' Rights

C|Net has this report on a U.S. Senate hearing yesterday about a proposed media shield law, and whether bloggers should and will be covered by the statute is on the legislative radar: "'The fact is that there are new and different types of people reporting and making information available to anyone around the world,' Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said at the two-and-a-half hour hearing." [Via Genie Tyburski]

There are undeniably differences between bloggers and journalists (and the degree of difference varies from blogger to blogger), but people who make time to annotate their lives and the contents of their heads serve a new and societally important role. What's the best argument for ensuring they are subject to protections traditionally reserved for traditional journalists? And is the "should they be?" question capable of answer in the aggregate and in advance? There's a blogging session this afternoon at AlwaysOn, maybe this is something they can take up.

See also the EFF's FAQ on the Reporter's Privilege.

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