I'm going to be taking a few days R&R to celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary. By the time I'm back, Katie Stahl will be on the verge of tying the knot herself, and Howard Bashman will be celebrating his first year of blogging the stuffing out of appellate jurisprudence. As added treats, Howard's next 20 Questions installment should be out by then, and The Academy will commemorate Howard's blogiversary by running its 20 Questions with Howard. Got it? Good! See you soon.

Levenger should rename this little item. Because WiFi isn't everywhere. Yet.

This quote from Justice Janice Rogers Brown's dissent in the Kasky v. Nike, Inc. case (PDF)—under review and argued last week before the U.S. Supreme Court; see SCOTUSBlog and How Appealing for comprehensive round-ups of the commentary—just caught my eye in a Daily Journal article:

[T]he commercial speech doctrine, in its current form, fails to account for the realities of the modern world—a world in which personal, political, and commercial arenas no longer have sharply defined boundaries.

Google's 6,000 hits for "cause marketing" and 85,000 for "social marketing," as well as many of the ideas in Gonzo Marketing, would seem to lend further support to Justice Brown's boundary blurring premise. The majority and two dissenting opinions in this case are well worth your time—and not just because you may be hungry for judicial references to Hogwarts.

When the subject of business blogging comes up, I frequently think of the audience member at SXSW 2002 who remarked to Doc's panel that "Fake corporate blogs are like your dad trying to buy pot." (Hey, my dad lives in Mendocino County, a stone's throw from Humboldt, but in most cases the simile probably works fine.) In this regard I have high hopes for the ClickZ Weblog Business Strategies Conference & Expo, June 9-10 in Boston. The organizers have lined up some very intelligent folks (too many to link to, but if I mention Doc Searls, Dave Winer, David Weinberger, Jason Shellen and John Palfrey you'll begin to appreciate what I mean; for the whole story visit the June 9 and June 10 agendas), as well as at least one (yours truly) who is just pleased to be involved and hoping to keep the volume of spinach on her teeth to a bare minimum.

Pricing is best before May 29 and volume discounts apply, so registering early and often would seem to be the ticket. Thanks again to Robert Scoble ("It has nothing to do with the tools. It has everything to do with management;" Corporate Weblog Manifesto) for the heads up on the event.

Professor Barbara Kaye of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's Department of Broadcasting is conducting academic research about weblogs. Want to help? Take her survey.

Forbes' Arik Hesseldahl ("Apple Tunes Up"):

[A]fter a short tryout and a tad of obligatory skepticism, we can honestly say we're impressed. The iTunes Music Store, an online music download service that is integrated into Apple's iTunes 4 digital jukebox software, is enormously easy to use and dangerously addictive.

On the user-friendliness front, I can observationally add it was far easier for my Dad to set himself up than it can be for him to edit a Word document. He was thrilled to find plenty of Louis Prima.

Grab your smoke hoods and try not to stampede the exits; the Web Fire Escape awaits.

Dowloaded iTunes 4.0, the latest iPod updater and QuickTime 6.2 late last night, and a Sheryl Crow track this morning after some oohing and ahhing over Apple's new Music Store. This thing is bound to do well. Tech TV approves, as did Screen Savers guest Walt Mossberg yesterday. All of which reminded me to check when my mandatory 1-year eMusic subscription expires (June), and to download a few tracks from there as the thing basically has been gathering dust. Not a bad service, that; though I believe the files still are watermarked, you can transfer and burn without any restrictions. I've just found the catalog too limited to make me feel warm and fuzzy about the monthly subscription.

Speaking of Walt Mossberg, who writes the Wall Street Journal's Personal Technology column and others (90 day archive available at that link), he and Kara Swisher will be hosting D: All Things Digital next month. (Pretty sure I'm going. —!)

Ok so that's not really the URI—it's here, is the point. And new iPods (10, 15 and 30GB) to boot. MacCentral covered the launch event and describes the new download service. This LA Times article ("Apple to Unveil Music Service") says last Friday's Grokster/StreamCast summary judgment win "stole Apple's thunder" and will make it more difficult to pitch the new service. I don't agree. I think—pun intended—it's Apples and oranges, or more like lemons when it comes to the multiple headaches, not to mention legal issues, of obtaining digital music P2P. Per MacCentral:

Apple has made deals with the big five music labels and we have over 200,000 songs available. There's unlimited CD burning for personal use only, but playlists have to be modified every 10 burns. You can play music on up to three Macs and unlimited iPods. Music authorization can be transferred from an old Mac to a new Mac. The cost will be 99 cents per song with no subscription fee.

Per Apple: "It's what you've been waiting for."

Personal wishlist: a stereo component that will connect with any iPod via a front-facing FireWire port. (Future wishlist: substitute "reliable high-speed wireless connection" for "front-facing FireWire port.")

It looks as though this blogging thing might just catch on in the legal field...hold on, here we go!

Law Students

Rob Sherman, Laura Gleason, Jeremy and Jason at Just Opinions, Omer Poos and Obiter Dicta.

Law Professors

Vic Fleischer, Jeff Kahn and Brad Joondeph at A Taxing Blog.

Future Law Students

Kipp at A Kick To The Ego and Matt at Left Coast Expat.

Lawyer (I think; straighten me out, Bill, if I'm wrong)

Bill Wiese of The Internet Law Blog.

Deep Support

The Command Post has received a good deal of press, and is the brain child of Michele Catalano, secretary in a Nassau County (Long Island, NY) court.

Help, I don't read German or Portugese!

Transblawg understands, and might be able to help with Udo and netbib. opensourcerecht.de is in English, so that helps a bit, and bLAWger from Brazil just looks like one big party (I know, that's only because to me everything from Brazil looks like one big party; sorry!).

Largely Legal

Paul Pedley writes of legal issues concerning the information profession at The Information Law Blog. Herb Gura hosts The Law Show on Lake County, California's KPFZ, and writes the show's blog.

There's a new feature from Sarah Lane on Tech TV's The Screen Savers: "Welcome to the Blog Report."

The L.A. Times reports today on the efforts of Microsoft and RealNetworks to create digital rights management software that meets the demands of the music industry and its customers, in Faster Than the Speed of Software: "In a little-known move, the major record firms have agreed to let consumers download an unlimited number of songs and listen to them wherever they go, for less than the price of one CD a month."