Advice Required In Setting Up A New Blog!

Hi,

I think the topic you bring up is too wide in scope to give you a simple answer.

Plus it would be a legal issue and my advice is not to take legal advice from a forum.

However that said have a look at some of the top resources that are doing the same as this and follow suite.

In regards to pictures you would need to either pay for the rights or source them yourself - I wouldn't use other people's content.

Hope this helps?

Chris

TMZ, Perez Hilton, etc.

Not sure how easy that traffic is to monetize - news/gossip/humor traffic that is, might not be a buyer's niche.

Hi David,

It's unwise to ask for legal advice in forums, and even less wise to rely on it.

I'm not a lawyer, but I do live in the UK and will offer personal opinion only ...

Typically, that will be determined by the defamation laws, but if you're clear about the fact that what you're offering is personal opinion only, and are not abusive, and don't make stuff up, and do use appropriately worded legal disclaimers, and so on, you probably don't have too much to worry about.

As in many countries, there are two "sets of laws" on this point.

One relates to copyright (you can't ever use photos without permission, if you don't own the copyright).

The other - separate from and in addition to copyright laws - relates to making any financial gains by exploiting the personal image-rights of anyone famous, which is breaching their civil law rights.

Both of these are (a) very dangerous, and (b) very likely to cause problems, because celebrities, PR and photography agencies do employ people specifically to scour the web, using various kinds of photo-recognition software, to identify miscreants, and some lawyers make a living from pursuing this kind of thing on a "contingent fee" basis, and are not happy with just taking down your site on their client's behalf but want money, too, with threats of "punitive damages claims" and so on.

Don't imagine that because "other people are doing it", it's safe to do.

There are people "out there" specifically looking for you, if you fall foul of these sorts of rules.

Only my opinion, of course.