Copyright Blogs: Top Copyright Blawgs - Justia

This week's ranking of top Copyright Blogs from Justia Blawg Directory:

1. IPKat (62)  Alexa 453,723
2. Recording Industry vs The People (153) Alexa 288,637
3. Plagiarism Today (188) Alexa 98,910
4. Likelihood of Confusion (233) Alexa 1,384,049
5. Chilling Effects Clearinghouse (235) Alexa 17,035
6. Copyright Litigation Blog (247) Alexa 632,947
7. Copyright Reform (310)  Alexa 11,832,939
8.  Chicago IP Litigation Blog (320) Alexa 2,053,979
9.  Ruling Imagination: Law and Creativity (338) Alexa 2,182,191
10.TechnoLlama (397) Alexa 961,095
11. Excess Copyright (522) 2,055,389
12.  Nolo Presents the Law in Plain English (558) Alexa 5,489,995
13.  Video Game Law Blog (565) Alexa 1,014,265
14.   Internet Cases (602) Alexa 952,632
15.   The Patry Copyright Blog (606) Alexa 1,656,580



The number in parentheses is the popularity of each site compared to all other Blawgs this week (by Justia).  I put the Alexa numbers next to each.

Justia's list has 64 Copyright Blogs.  Justia has an Alexa ranking of 11,293.  If Blogs don't self-identify as Copyright Blogs, they are not included.  According to Justia, the most popular Blawg is Above the Law, which has an Alexa ranking of 29,575.

According to the Alexa numbers, the EFF's Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is by far the most popular site, they really must have tremendous traffic, people are really interested in cease and desist letters.  I wrote a chapter in my Copyright Litigation Handbook that is devoted to cease and desist letters.  I think it may be the only comprehensive discussion of the first-to-file rule, problems arising from cease and desist letters, and the issue of declaratory judgment actions filed in response to cease and desist letters.

For more on Copyright Litigation Handbook (what West calls an "author-generated summary), go here.

For a list of top Intellectual Property Blawgs and an explanation of statistics, go here.

 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook from West here  

Copyright Litigation Blog In Top 20 Most Popular Intellectual Property Law Blogs - Justia

This week's list of the most popular IP Law Blogs from Justia's BlawgSearch.

The number in parentheses is the ranking, in Blawg popularity, Justia has assigned.  So Patent Docs is 39th in popularity among all Blawgs tracked by Justia.  The Alexa number is adjusted daily and an indicator of the blog's popularity compared to all websites in the world, this is from the service Alexa.

1.  Patent Docs (39)  Alexa 676,831
2.  IPKat (58)Alexa  435,277
3. Patently-O (59)Alexa  212,812
4. IPBiz (87)Alexa 1,851,345
5.  The University of Chicago Law School (131)Alexa 373,013
6. US Law Watch (164) (BNA)Alexa 5,991,713
7.  Law & Disorder (166)Alexa  2,029 (Ars Technica)
8.  Plagiarism Today (171)Alexa 102,089
9.  The TTAB Blog (185)Alexa 1,045,360
10 The Journal of The Business Law (203) (Illinois Business)Alexa 3,559
11. Recording Industry vs The People (217)Alexa 313,989
12.  Copyright Litigation Blog (221)Alexa 702,533
13.  ITC 337 Law Blog (230)Alexa 1,328,726
14. IP Thinktank (233)   Alexa 401,451
15.  IPWatchdog (234)  Alexa 80,792
16.  Philip Brooks' Patent Infringement (240) Alexa 3,035,653
17.  The Trademark Blog (255)  Alexa 310,211
18.  43(B) Blog (262)  Alexa 797,491
19.  Orange Book Blog (267) Alexa 2,360,924
20.  Likelihood of Confusion (271)  Alexa 1,485,098

On May 28, 2010 Copyright Litigation blog came in at number 28 in popularity among IP Law Blawgs and number 311 among Blawgs.   This week, from a view of Justia's Blawg Directory, Copyright Litigation Blog is at number 12 in popularity among IP Law Blawgs and number 221 among Blawgs.

These statistics vary from week to week, and the Alexa stats give an indication that a not-so-popular blog might have a good week, and vice versa.  It is interesting to see that Patent Blawgs rank so high, Trademark Blawgs proliferate, but very few Copyright Blawgs in the popularity mix.

Note that Ben Sheffner's popular Copyrights & Campaigns is at Alexa No 640,214, but is not included in Justia's rankings, probably because he didn't list the blog with Justia under the Intellectual Property category.

Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook from West here  

Law Bloggers: West Publishing's List of Authors Who Blog

West Publishing has a program of "Key Authors" and has published a list of those who blog here (reproduced below).  The Volokh Conspiracy is probably the most famous with an Alexa ranking for today of just below 35,000.  I suspect the list is far from complete.

1. Stephen Bainbridge

ProfessorBainbridge.com
http://www.professorbainbridge.com/

2. Gary Becker
Richard Posner
The Becker-Posner Blog
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/index.html

3.  Gerry W. Beyer
Wills, Trusts, and Estates Professor Blog
(Part of Law Professors Blog Network)
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/

4. William H. Burgess III
Florida Sentencing
A discussion of contemporary law, policy, and practice in Florida criminal sentencing
http://floridasentencing.blogspot.com/

5. Paul L. Caron
TaxProf Blog (A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network)
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/

6. John A. Day
Day on Torts Law Blog
http://www.dayontorts.com/

7. Raymond J. Dowd
Copyright Litigation Blog
http://copyrightlitigation.blogspot.com/

8.  Jon L. Gelman
Workers' Compensation
Helpful information about current developments in workers' compensation matters
http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

9.  Alan Gutterman
Gutterman Law & Business
The Business Counselor Blog
http://www.businesscounselorblog.com/
The Emerging Companies Blog
http://www.emergingcompaniesblog.com/

10. Charles T. Hall
Social Security News
Your source for news affecting the U.S. Social Security Administration copyright
http://socsecnews.blogspot.com/

11.  John Wesley Hall Jr.
Law of Criminal Defense.com
Website supporting Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice (2005)
http://www.lawofcriminaldefense.com/blog/

12.  Phyllis Weiss Haserot
Practice Development Counsel's Next Generation, Next Destination
http://www.nextgeneration-nextdestination.com/

13.  Paul Lesti
Lesti Structured Settlements
http://www.lestistructuredsettlement.typepad.com/

14.  Raymond Nimmer
Contemporary Intellectual Property, Licensing, and Information Law
http://www.ipinfoblog.com/

15.  Larry Ribstein
Ideoblog
A blog about ideas. Ideas are not beliefs or opinions.
http://www.ideoblog.org/

16.  Patricia E. Salkin
Law of the Land
A blog on land use law and zoning
http://lawoftheland.albanylaw.edu/

17.  Bruce Stern
Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog
http://www.braininjurylawblog.com/

18.  Eugene Volokh
The Volokh Conspiracy
http://volokh.com/

19.  Dennis Wall
Insurance Claims and Bad Faith Law Blog
http://www.insuranceclaimsbadfaith.typepad.com/
Insurance Claims and Issues
http://www.insuranceclaimsissues.typepad.com/

 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook from West here  

Copyright Litigation Blog #1 on Bing

In addition to being the #1 result for a "copyright litigation" search on Google, the Copyright Litigation Blog is also the number one result on Bing.

Thanks, Bing!


 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook from West here  

Copyright Litigation Blog on Google - Number One "Copyright Litigation" Search

Search results from Google put Copyright Litigation Blog and Copyright Litigation Handbook at number one in search engine results for the search "copyright litigation".

Thanks, Google, and thanks to everyone who enjoys the content, your readership, comments and feedback are all appreciated.

 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook from West here  

Top 30 Most Popular IP Law Blogs - Justia

1.   Patently-O  (33)
2.   IPKat (34)
3.   Patent Docs (41)
4.   IPBiz (62)
5.   IPThinktank (95)
6.   The University of Chicago Law School (104)
7.   Recording Industry vs The People (106)
8.   US Law Watch (117)
9.   Plagiarism Today (126)
10. 43(B)log (128)
11.  The TTABlog (135)
12.  Illinois Business Law Journal (138)
13.  The Trademark Blog (140)
14.   Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog (199)
15.   Philip Brooks' Patent Infringement (200)
16.   Patent Baristas (213)
17.   The University of Chicago Law School (230)
18.   Chicago IP Litigation Blog (234)
19.   Likelihood of Confusion (248)
20.   Orange Book Blog (251)
21    Technology & Marketing Law Blog (254)
22    Law & Disorder (264)
23.   IPWatchdog (276)
24.   Eastern District of Texas Federal (283)
25    ITC 337 Law Blog (293)
26.   Seattle Trademark Lawyer (301)
27.   Biz-Media-Law Blog (302)
28.   Copyright Litigation Blog (311)
29.   TechnoLlama (342)
30    Freedom to Tinker (344)

Source:  Justia Blawgsearch (accessed 5/28/2010 weekly stats ranking among Blawgs tracked by Justia).

Free IP CLE: The First Sale Doctrine at IP Colloquium

Another supersmart IP Colloquium from Prof. Doug Lichtman, this time on the first sale doctrine and comparison with antitrust law.   This one was economics-heavy, and very interesting.  Unfortunately, there was not really any spirited pro-first sale doctrine point of view - everyone seemed to be perplexed as to its utility and origins - and Doug concludes basically that it should be tossed.  Let's get a libertarian in the next lineup, Doug!

The first sale doctrine says that if someone sells you a book, you can resell it without paying the copyright owner an additional royalty.   I think California is the only state with a resale right for works of fine art (known as a droit de suite).

The first sale doctrine basically tracks the common law invalidation of restraints on the alienability of property.

The droit de suite gives a creator the right to a piece of the action each time the object in which a copyrightable work is embedded is resold.

IMHO, and I have nothing against the French or even Californians, but tossing the first sale doctrine would subject us to eternal digital servitude to a copyright owner and machine-creating industry - the ditigal nightmare that so many technologists keep warning us about.  I think Doug's prognostications about maximizing consumer welfare won't work in reality.

But Doug, I'll still drink French and California wines.   And you were right about the result in the Tenenbaum case.   But I'm not going to support a new copyright toll bridge for consumers to cross if they want to dump their gear on Ebay, on the contrary, any industry resale restraints should be abolished and penalized.  There is already way too much tying and too many restraints on cross-platform interoperability for the average consumer.

SCOTUS will be considering the first sale doctrine in the upcoming Costco/Omega Watch case, so let's hope that fans of the first sale doctrine will articulate their case.

Check out IP Colloquium here.   Anyone listening and remembering the code words will get free CLE credit.

Product Endorsements on Blogs: New FTC Guidelines Explained

An excellent summary of the FTC regulations for blogs that endorse or discuss products from the DuetsBlog, written by Paul W. Mussell, Senior Counsel in Intellectual Property Group, Wells Fargo link below:

Retailer Ann Taylor Dodges FTC's First Endorsement Enforcement Bullet : Duets Blog

Justia Ranks Copyright Litigation Blog in Top 10 Copyright Blogs

Of the 59 copyright blogs tracked by the Justia Blawsearch the Copyright Litigation Blog now ranks number 8 in popularity.   Below, the top 10 with their respective Justia Blawgsearch rankings:

1. IPKat 37

2. Recording Industry v the People 95

3. Plagiarism Today 117

4. Chilling Effects Clearinghouse 124

5. Nolo Presents the Law 183

6. Chicago IP Litigation Blog 207

7. Likelihood of Confusion 215

8. Copyright Litigation Blog 292

9. Lessig Blog 359

10. TechnoLlama 360

Unfortunately, Bill Patry stopped publishing his copyright blog, it was unquestionably the strongest player in the field.

ABA Journal Blawg Review: Thanks for Covering Copyright Litigation Blog

You can access the Copyright Litigation Blog through the ABA Journal Blawgs directory here.

Copyrights & Campaigns - First Amendment, Parody or Copyright Infringement?

Here is a post by Ben Sheffner that has a link to a copy of a motion for summary judgment made arguing that use of "Boys of Summer" in an election campaign was a "parody". The motion makes the analogy to the Ralph Nader "Priceless" campaign (Mastercard sued Nader and lost) I would have to watch the video, but I can't imagine "Boys of Summer" was used by DeVore as a parody.

This case is analogous to the Obama/Hope case: I think the best argument is that this is pure political speech made during a political campaign. There is lots of good Supreme Court case law protecting election speech under the First Amendment. No copyright lawyer wants to open up that Pandora's box, but when copyright owners start suing political adversaries, my bet, based on the "core protected speech" caselaw is that free political discourse will ultimately win.

But the devil is in the details, I would need to know more.

Copyrights & Campaigns: Chuck DeVore moves for summary judgment in Don Henley copyright suit; argues fair use of songs in 'parody' videos