Managing Your Site and Reducing Your Legal Risks

Some really good resources are available at the Citizen Media Law Project for individuals who are maintaining websites.

A brief overview is given on this space that provides links to further readings on reducing legal liability. http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/managing-your-site-and-reducing-your-legal-risks

The section on dealing with legal threats is especially helpful. It provides information on what to do if you receive a letter or communication threatening legal action.
http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/dealing-legal-threats-and-risks

The website also has some very smart advice on responding to correspondence threatening legal action. http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/responding-correspondence-threatening-legal-action

I think the one important thing to remember is to ask whether it is worth it to resist a legal threat and face possible litigation in a given context. While you might be justified in your use of material, do you have the time and resources to fight a law suit on principle for the publishing of material that may not be at all crucial to your success? Most of the time, for example, with respect to "fair use," you really don't know if it really really really is "fair use" until a court says it is. $500,000.00 later, it might not have been worth it. On the other hand, if individuals don't resist unreasonable legal threats once in awhile, speech really could be chilled, although in my research I didn't find that it was, yet, with respect to academics writing in educational digital contexts.