New Law Prof. Blog on Grokster and Brand X

Professor Randy Picker at the University of Chicago Law School has just started a new blog -- Picker MobBlog -- with some great co-bloggers: Doug Lichtman (Chicago), Lior Stahilevitz (Chicago), Julie Cohen (Georgetown), Wendy Gordon (Boston Univ.), Jessica Litman (Wayne State), Larry Solum (Illinois), and Phil Weiser (Colorado).

Here's his description of the blog:

In anticipation of the release of the Supreme Court’s opinions in Grokster and Brand X, I have set up a new experimental blog located here (http://picker.typepad.com/). The point of this is to provide a vehicle for participating in what I expect will be a large online conversation about what the opinions mean (see Grokster fever and The Day Grokster Didn’t Come Down).

Think of this as a "smart mob" blog (or not so smart, you tell me). The idea is to bring together a group of interested people to blog on a particular topic, do so, and disband. I will post on the blog intermittently between mobs, but the mobs will be the heart of the blog. I think of this as an online reading group or an online workshop.

Slate has done this annually for a number of years with its Movie Club—a group of movie critics bat around the year’s best and worst movies—and SCOTUSblog did this recently with its Raich "superblog." A number of years ago I thought that an online workshop series would make sense, but I didn’t see a great way to do it. I think the MobBlog might be the right approach.

The first mob topic will be the forthcoming opinions in Grokster and Brand X. Smart mob bloggers on Grokster and Brand X will include me (Randy Picker); my colleagues Doug Lichtman and Lior Stahilevitz; Julie Cohen; Wendy Gordon; Jessica Litman; Larry Solum; and Phil Weiser.

Welcome to the blogosphere!