Wednesday, January 26, 2005 5:00 AM
With the recent resurgence of instances in which corporations are threatening legal action against a weblog author (see, e.g.,
Microsoft,
Apple), I am set to wonder about what the future may hold? What kind of mountain will corporations be up against in taking on the blogosphere?
In my mind, and setting aside the issue of right and wrong for the moment, here is the challenge. Given the ease in which a person can set up a free weblog (including hosting), what is to stop an individual with an agenda (and a few trade secrets in the form of screenshots or similar), from posting corporate secrets to multiple blogs?
To be sure, a corporation could hire people to constantly scour the web for new blogs with offending information. It could also start the legal processes necessary to counter the sites and get the material removed as well as play the public relations game as word filters throughout the media of the corporation's actions (right or wrong). Finally, after weeks of effort (and dollars spent), the corporation may actually succeed in getting the material removed. Only to find that five more blogs have now sprung up with the same bit of information. Rinse, lather, repeat; you get the idea. Doesn't it seem the potential is real that corporations (and their law firms) could well be fighting a never-ending battle with blogs?
I don't know the answer to this question, but in the speed-of-light atmosphere of the blogosphere and internet-based information dissemination, it may simply be rhetorical. In the end, the leading edge corporations may be those that, when confronted with scenarios like that above, see opportunity instead of misfortune. And, those who can leverage--instead of constantly battling-- this new information dynamic may be tomorrow's market leaders.