Another item from the intersection of blogs and legal issues: Wall Street stock blogs, which according to Corante are edited by former analysts who dispense "daily advice on what companies are hot..."

Given the heightened enforcement environment in the securities trading industry, the SEC, DOJ and New York AG will probably be monitoring these blogs. What kind of blogging activities could raise a red flag? Like Election Blogs, the existence of special relationship between 1) the blogger, 2) an outside organization, and 3) the blog's messaging, could point to possible impropriety.

On the other hand, Wall Street stock blogs are a positive trend for an industry that has "taken a severe beating." They can be viewed as the next generation of popular business publications that flourished in the tech boom of the '90s, like Red Herring, the Industry Standard, and Raging Bull (all of which have gone micro).