Discourse.net

Here’s today’s quiz question. It’s a doozy.

What do the following people and organizations have in common?

• Jack M. Balkin
  
• The Center for Individual Freedom
• Julian Dibbell
  
• Feedster, Inc.
  
• The First Amendment Project
  
• A. Michael Froomkin
  
• Gawker Media, Inc.
  
• Gothamist, LLC,
  
• Groklaw
  
• Happy Mutants, LLC
  
• Ben Hammersley
  
• Joichi Ito
  
• Joel Johnson
  
• Kimberly A. Kralowec
  
• LawMeme
  
• Rebecca MacKinnon
  
• Joshua Micah Marshall
  
• The Media Bloggers Association
  
• Markos Moulitsas
  
• Reporters Without Borders
  
• Glenn Harlan Reynolds
  
• Peter Rojas
  
• Jay Rosen
  
• Scott Rosenberg
  
• Doc Searls
  
• Silicon Valley Watcher
  
• Kevin Sites
  
• Eugene Volokh
  

Hint: The above is the full list of persons and entities that have this particular thing in common.

Answer below.

All of us are the parties in an amicus brief (.pdf) written by Lauren Gelman and the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society in the Apple v. Does case. The issue is whether bloggers should be entitled to the same legal protections as professional print journalists under California law and the First Amendment.

I’ve signed a number of amicus briefs as a lawyer, but this is my first time as a client.

Feels weird.

[Granfalloon defined for the Vonnegut-impaired.]