Tagging: the legal issues
This guide is based on UK law. It was created in February
2007.
Flickr.com became a huge
success by offering a free platform for uploading digital
photographs. Users tag each picture that they upload to provide a
description that helps other users navigate the site.
Tagging is a form of meta data – in this case meaning data
describing a web page of image – and raises the same issues:
if someone deliberately tags content with a registered trade mark
to attract web traffic, it could amount to trade mark infringement.
(See: The use of trade marks in meta
tags)
There is also a tough criminal penalty in the US if the use of
words might lead anyone to obscene content. The Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act, passed in July 2006, introduces a
20-year maximum prison sentence for this
form of meta tag abuse. It is targeted at those sites using
words that would attract children to pornographic content.
See also: Legal info about user-generated
content
