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Reading assignment. In addition to the chapters on libel and privacy law in our textbook and the AP Stylebook, read the following webpage on intellectual property law and copyright as it applies to the internet. It is by Thomas G. Field, Jr., professor at the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concorn, N.H., and it is the best summary of the law on the subject I've seen.

Basically, as Field says, a "poem or picture is as much protected on a [computer] disk as on a piece of paper or canvas." It has the same protection when it is posted to a webpage. That means the basics you'll read about in our text and the Stylebook apply equally to the World Wide Web.

But there are some extra wrinkles on web publication, especially with email and listservs (online discussion forums), and newspaper journalism hasn't completely caught up with them. So you'll want to supplement your reading with Field's summary.