On March 14, UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh wrote
about the incidental coverage of libel (and other torts like invasion of
privacy) insurance on personal blogs or social media that comes from homeowner’s
insurance, sometimes. This opportunity
may also apply to some renters’ policies.
Volokh warns that the coverage might not apply if the
blogger earns any ad revenue at all from the blog, as from Adsense or Amazon associates,
or other networks. Expanding on this, it
would seem not to apply if the blogging is itself a “career’ or a form of
self-employment that supplements a business or is a business in its own right –
an opportunity that “Blogtyrant” has often promoted (and that I have covered
here before). That would be true of me,
who has made news blogging and some fiction as a “second career” at age 74 now.
This coverage is more likely to come with an umbrella
policy. I’ve noted before that some auto
insurance policies will not give maximum coverage even for auto accident
liability without offering umbrella coverage, a nexus or coupling that seems
illogical. Intellectual property risk is
very different (and harder to underwrite) than is property or medical risk as
usually experienced in the past (especially pre-Internet). I’ve also discussed “media perils” insurance
here before (like back in 2008).
Volokh mentions the variability of state law. Politicians
in various states could be wary of requiring umbrella-like coverage on ordinary
property insurance policies, because such a requirement could have unintended
consequences, of cancellation or declination of ordinary property or even auto insurance
to consumers who blog – something that might not even come up until applying
for an auto loan or mortgage. It’s not a good idea for the law to connect
unrelated ideas just out of misplaced generosity to voters. Some good libertarian
thought.
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