Today’s Internet Law Tip: Common Sense

Just now as I was perusing through the Threat Level Blog, three stories in particular caught my eye. Because after reading each, I had the thought: Don’t these people know how the Internet works? Therefore, I offer these three bits of advice for Internet users everywhere.

(1) If you are a government agency, do not use Wikipedia as a resource when making major decisions.

(2) If you are a hacker, do not post pictures of your cat that have personal information about yourself in the background.

(3) If you are front-page news because of your involvement with a Vice Presidential candidate, take down your MySpace page.

My graduate school adviser always made the point to her online communities class that in twenty years, we won’t be able to run a presidential election without having to deal with the media dredging up blogs where the candidates once spewed their teenage angst. That day may be coming sooner than we think.