Chubb and other insurers catering to affluent households automatically include this coverage in homeowner's policies. You also might be covered if you have an umbrella policy, which generally picks up coverage where your homeowner's policy leaves off.
If you aren't covered under current policies, check to see if you can add a rider or endorsement to your homeowner's, renter's or umbrella policy to get this extra coverage. It's not expensive. State Farm in Maryland, for instance, generally will charge from $10 a year for $100,000 in coverage to $24 for $1 million of protection, says spokeswoman Maria Jackson.
For casual bloggers earning a few thousand dollars a year blogging, coverage through your homeowner's policy may be enough. Or, if you blog or tweet for your employer, you're likely covered by its insurance.
But if blogging is more than a hobby and you make a living at it, consider buying a general liability policy for about $500 to $1,000 a year to cover you against claims of libel or defamation as well as copyright infringement that's not covered under homeowner's insurance, Spicer says.
The Media Bloggers Association teamed up last year with an insurer to provide liability coverage, called BlogInsure, to its members. To get a quote, you must pass an online test covering defamation, privacy rights and copyright infringement, says Robert Cox, the group's president.
The test helps keep premiums lower, which start at $540 a year for coverage worth $100,000 per incident, but no more than $300,000 total, Cox says.
Insurance helps pay legal fees and any judgment against you, but it has limits.
The policy will cover you only for comments you made while it is in force, so older controversial postings could still leave you vulnerable, says Amy Danise, editor of Insure.com.
And you can't purposely seek to damage someone by posting information known to be false and expect the insurer will pick up the tab from the lawsuit.
"You can be critical," says Eric Robinson, a Media Law center staff attorney. "It's not a good idea to make stuff up, especially if it's an allegation that someone has acted criminally or done something immoral."
Cox recommends a free course, Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers, at www.newsu.org, to learn your rights and responsibilities.
A case study
Courtney Love is being sued after accusing a clothes designer of criminal acts on Twitter and a blog. Such libel lawsuits are rising as more people blog and tweet. You can help protect yourself against claims of libel or defamation by adding coverage through your homeowner's or renter's insurance policy.
