Bloggership Conference and Co-Blogging Law Paper

By Eric Goldman

On Friday, I’m participating in the “Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship” symposium at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. This event is shaping up as a world class blogger-fest. If you’re in the Boston area on Friday and want to experience “oral blogging” first-hand, you should definitely come! Or, at least come to the after-party from 9-11 pm where we’ll all be hanging out and socializing. If you introduce yourself to me as a loyal reader, I might even buy you a libation. (If you don’t know what I look like, see here–then add 4 years, subtract some hair, and add a few pounds).

If you can’t make it in person, you can listen in via the webcast. Or, you can just wait for the inevitable torrent of post-symposium blog posts. Given the panel composition, I’m fairly confident that this event will be one of the most heavily-blogged-about events in the short history of blogs.

Whether you participate, listen in, or just sit silently bemused by all of the navel gazing, you should check out the symposium papers. I think this is a remarkable collection of papers about blog law and the role of blogs in advancing social knowledge.

My contribution to this collection is comparatively pragmatic. The paper is called “Co-Blogging Law” and takes a practical look at the legal consequences of joint/group blogging and guest blogging. It’s still in draft form, so I’d very much welcome any comments. The abstract:

Bloggers frequently combine their efforts through joint blogging and guest blogging arrangements. These combinations may be informal from a social networks perspective, but they can have significant and unexpected legal consequences. This Essay looks at some of the ownership and liability consequences of co-blogging and guest blogging. To do so, the Essay will consider different possible legal characterizations of co-blogging, such as partnership, employment and joint ownership. The Essay concludes with some recommendations to minimize the implications of unexpected legal characterizations, including encouraging bloggers to make private agreements, educating bloggers about their choices, and exercising judicial restraint

I hope to see you in Boston!

UPDATE: The Friday after-party will be at Zephyr Lounge in the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, 575 Memorial Drive.

UPDATE 2: I must have been confused–the after-party was a pre-party on THURSDAY niight–sorry if I steered you in the wrong direction. But please come to the conference!