Becklee’s Blog

It was drizzling when I woke up on Saturday morning and had to drag myself out of bed to attend the eLawyer Law Conference 2009 on Blogging & Law.  It was held at the Auditorium Tun Mohd Suffian, University of Malaya Law Faculty.  Traffic was a bit chaotic at the KL Gate of the university and I missed the turn off to the Law Faculty… it was a one way road, so I had to make a big round before I got into the car park.  Was I pleased when I saw this banner because I knew for sure I was at the right place.

After registering myself, I walked around as I was about half an hour early. 

I saw this tree somewhere near the entrance of the building.

As expected (Malaysian time), the conference started fifteen minutes late because several guests were late.  But can’t complain because admission to this conference was free.

The first topic was on Blogging and Intellectual Property Law in Malaysia and the speaker was Mr Foong Cheng Leong who is a KL lawyer and blogger.

The main intellectual property issues concerning blogs are trade marks and copyright.  I learnt that I should not download videos from Youtube without permission/consent.  I have the copyright over all pictures taken my me.  The people in the pictures can’t ask me to remove the pictures from my blog.  If I got someone to design something for me, I should have an agreement or something in writing stating that I am the owner of the copyright.  And I should pay the designer some money even if it’s just RM1 or RM2 as consideration.

The second topic was on Blogging & Defamation Law in Malaysia and the speaker was Mr Nizam Bashir, a Malacca lawyer and blogger.

Mr Nizam said that bloggers are liable for defamaton (civil and criminal), investigation & prosecution under the Sedition Act, Detentions under the ISA and are also subject to the Communications & Multimedia Act 1998.  I learnt what amounted to defamation and the remedies available.  It was interesting to note that linking to other websites could land me into trouble and also comments made on my blog. 

There was a question and answer session after the talks and also presentation of prizes for some contest organised by eLawyer.  There was light refreshment before we left the conference with more knowledge about blogging and law in Malaysia.  The main thing I learnt is that freedom of speech and expression comes with responsibility.  And that I should moderate the comments I get on my blog.