It’s been a long-accepted truism that anything posted online is fair game for anyone else to comment on or respond to. And if it’s posted in a blog, it may also be fair game for a subpoena.

Earlier this month, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Louis Locascio ruled that for purposes of “shield law protection,” bloggers don’t count as journalists because “they are, many times, doing little more than shouting from atop a digital soapbox.” So, in New Jersey at least, bloggers facing subpoenas for the identities of their “off the record” information can’t get away with refusing to name their sources.

“Shield laws,” which are on the books in thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, are state laws that protect the confidentiality of journalistic sources. (As of this posting, there is no federal provision for shield law protection.) Many of our most compelling news stories are attributed to “unnamed sources,” or sources who speak to journalists under a guarantee of anonymity. Without it, they often face loss of employment, social ostracism, and even threats of violence against themselves and their loved ones.

But even journalists who work for established news organizations at times face contempt of court, obstruction of justice, and other criminal charges for refusing to identify their sources. Former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Judith Miller, who refused to identify sources for stories (which she didn’t write) outing CIA operative Valerie Plame, couldn’t get away with confidentiality of source claims and spent 85 days in jail for contempt of court in 2005.

If an established news organization masthead and professional honors can’t protect you from a jail sentence, the lack of them definitely won’t keep you from facing the music. And your name will be the one in a news article-or a blog.

So if you’d rather have something to blog about besides the inside of a jail cell or solid orange vs. striped uniforms, don’t post anything that you aren’t prepared to testify about in court-including “naming names.”

Update: As of December 10, 2009, a federal shield law, The Free Flow of Information Act, has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is pending in the full Senate and must then be reconciled with a different version passed in the House of Representatives.

There are three rules that everyone seems to agree about regarding blogs: One, anything on a blog is fair game for responses from everyone else who sees it. Two, a blogger who wants to blog about his or her employer does so at risk of his or her job. And three, there are no other rules.

But the Federal Trade Commission is considering some new ones for those who endorse products and services in their blogs.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is one of the many government agencies in the United States that protect the public from harmful business practices such as false and deceptive advertising. Among its requirements is one that all publishers of articles and testimonials must disclose any connections that they or their writers have to the manufacturers and marketers of goods and services they discuss. The rule currently applies to newspapers, magazines, and other mainstream media.

If the FTC implements a controversial proposal it is currently considering, bloggers would also be required to disclose such connections. Anyone who chooses to write casually, “I like iPhones and think everyone should get one” in his or her own blog would have to mention any shares of stock they own in Apple, any special discount or rebate they received from Apple to buy an iPhone, or any relationship they have to Steve Jobs.

The FTC would take this a step further and require of bloggers that they disclose any free review copies they have received. This is a requirement that newspapers, magazines, and other media are not subject to. So if Apple gave a blogger a free iPhone, that blogger would have to disclose that information, whereas The New York Times and Wired magazine would not.

Now the case could be made that bloggers don’t count as journalists-they’re writing for fun, they don’t get paid, they aren’t working for media outlets, their posts are usually seen by only a small number of people at most. But given that as of August, 2008, blogs received more than 77 million unique visitors in the United States according to Technorati, the blog-tracking website, it’s clear that blogging has serious potential to really spread the word about a product or service and make or break reputations. So the FTC has a point about wanting to keep the blogosphere neutral, or at least frank, about products and services discussed within its purview by way of protecting consumers.

In conclusion, when you buy your next Mac, if you choose to blog about it, you need to protect yourself by mentioning any connection you have to its manufacturer or marketers. Otherwise, one bad Apple could damage the whole barrel of blogs.

Do most of your best blog ideas come when you’re away from your computer? Do you often find that they have slid out of your mind just in the short time it takes you to open your web browser and log on?

If so, you can take momentary heart in the fact that many other scribes of all shapes and sizes also suffer from the phenomenon of “writer’s block.” But if you want your readers to keep tuning in, you can’t afford to stay blocked. Your blog needs to be refreshed regularly with new material.

“Writer’s block” often results from two fears - fear of taking risks and fear of criticism - including our own.

When we’re not willing to accept the possibility of failure, we try very hard to get it right the first time. This often includes playing it safe, namely, sticking to methods and opinions that are “tried and true” – even though they’re no longer seen as “original” or “intriguing.” And we also inhibit ourselves with thin skins. It’s hard to ignore snarky criticism - especially when it comes from those who are considered “authorities.” And all we have to do to face our worst critics is to look in a mirror at our own reflections.

As a blogger, you especially need to be able to move past writer’s block and write. Forget about being perfect, correct, or eloquent - you just need to be timely. Your blog is only as attention-getting and earth-shifting as its most recent post. Respond to a comment, write about the funny thing that happened to you while switching on your computer, or type as you think - the important thing is to get something down. You are not going to be reviewed by Dorothy Parker or Roger Ebert.

And don’t try to be your own editor. It’s hard to be objective about your own writing. Wait until you finish a first draft before you go back and start looking for those red zigzags under misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, weird spacing gaps, and capital letters. Save fact-checking and rephrasing until you have those errors corrected.

But whatever you do, don’t wait. Get going and write. The only person whose permission you need is you.