The recent dissenting opinion in Batzel v. Smith, Cremers has provided some valuable and practical lessons in blog citation. As Batzel is perhaps the first federal appellate case to actually cite to blogs, it underscores the need to address formal issues like citation.
The opinion author uses a simple BLOG TITLE, BLOG URL approach.
From footnote 3 on Page 17008:
"To mention a few popular and respected legal blogs, see, for example, How Appealing, www.appellateblog.blogspot.com, SCOTUSBlog, www.goldsteinhowe.com/blog/index.cfm, The Volokh Conspiracy, volokh.com and Lessig Blog, www.lessig.org/blog/. The development argument is likely to hold true in other industries as well, including politics, www.instapundit.com, and software architecture, www.corfield.org/ blog."
You'll notice that no author names are cited. Presumably, if the opinion did actually quote a blog, the author of the post would be listed. Additionally, the Court could provide a TrackBack/Permalink, screenshot, or archive.org link to the particular quote.
Posted by Andy at December 8, 2003 02:31 PM | TrackBack