Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

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For a blogger, even one with a law degree, a letter with legal threats makes you sweat, particularly the first one. I received my first perceived legal threat from an author over a satirical blog piece I did. The email demanded an apology and retraction, the first steps to a defamation suit. [...]

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Do you remember the movie “Election,” with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick? In the first scene Mr. McAllister asks his high school class about the difference between ethics and morals. Ironically, of course, the one student who eagerly attempts to answer the question is also the one who proceeds to make mincemeat [...]

Dear Editor:
I read today on your author, Victoria Laurie’s, website that you have been in discussions with her about a voice mail message that you have received from a blogger called NovelReads about a statement Ms. Laurie made on her website. I felt that Ms. Laurie’s accusations of this reader being a “psycho” and [...]

Dear Ms. Laurie:
I understand that you have had a lawyer send out a cease and desist and takedown letter to a romance blogger based on two things. First, you argue that the comments that the blogger excerpted from your own website (which you subsequently deleted but Google preserved for all time) are somehow unacceptable [...]

MPD Enforcer 2.0 is a blog about the Memphis Police Department and run by an anonymous blogger. The blog has been critical of the MPD, citing examples of sexual harassment and prisoners’ rights violations. The MPD would like to shut down the blog and has filed a lawsuit and subpoenaed the information from [...]

The FEC issued two rulings last week that exempt Bloggers from FEC restrictions identifying bloggers as media-like and thus entitled to similar First Amendment protections.
Complaints in front of the Federal Election Commission accused bloggers of being shills for political campaigns and thus should be subject to the federal election rules. The Daily Kos was [...]

There is a bill being proffered in both branches of Congress which would provide shields for bloggers who have anonymous sources.
“The intent is that bloggers who are regularly involved in newsgathering and reporting, within the scope of that definition, would be entitled to the privilege,” Rep. Rick Boucher, one of the House bill’s primary sponsors, [...]