After a few corporate embarrassments caused by webloggers last year, certain companies look set to outlaw the practice — both at home and in the workplace. According to one recently-published book, an employer can do so by means of inserting new limiting provisions into employment contracts:

“Employers are now considering including specific blogging provisions in employment contracts,” the authors write in Uses of Blogs, a book to be published later this year.

“Some employers have even taken the steps to ensure that employment contracts disallow employees from blogging at all.”

Co-author Damien O’Brien, from the Queensland University of Technology law faculty, says some workplaces have specific policies against blogging in the office but “it can get a bit blurred whether [it’s] in the workplace or at home”.