Looking Back

I can’t say that 2005 was the best year ever, but going back through the archives, at least I wrote a few marginally interesting weblog posts.
The big story for the first two-thirds of the year was undoubtedly Grokster:

Brand X, the other major internet-related case to reach the Supreme Court this year, received a decent amount of coverage here, too:

The big story of the last third of the year was the legality of the Google Book Search program. Aside from Grokster, this was the story that generated the most links to commentary:

One of the two subjects that I am hope to put more thought into over the next year is information literacy and finding ways to evaluate and manage the usefulness and trustworthiness of internet resources (both legal and non-legal):

The other subject that had some interesting posts this year and I’m sure I will think more about next year is the future of entertainment:

Indecency was another subject that was well-covered this year:

I am particularly pleased with some posts about copyright legislation, in particular:

The most detailed post I don’t remember writing was The broadest of the bands (Aug. 26).
Can a blogger avoid blogging about blogging and RSS? I think not:

Breaking out of the usual format, I tried a few different ways of posting. In November, I hosted Blawg Review #31. I liveblogged the Future of Music conference in September. experimented with podcasting and videoblogging:

Unfortunately, audio and video are more time-consuming to do well than text, but I hope to continue podcasting and videoblogging more frequently next year. I also hope to write less badly next year.
My favorite post titles for the year include:

Some other looks back on 2005 of interest:
Evan Brown, Internetcases.com: Ten intriguing Internet cases from 2005: “It’s not a compilation of cases that are necessarily important to the overall development of this area of law (for example MGM v. Grokster is not on the list), but is merely a list of cases that have either off-the-wall facts or surprising/provocative outcomes.”
David Pogue, The New York Times, 10 Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year
JD Lasica, New Media Musings: Top 10 Tech Transformations of 2005: “1. The edges gain power. From the video and music worlds to politics and culture, power is increasingly flowing away from the media, from the political elites and from the corporate suits and into the hands of ordinary users who are collectively wielding more influence in all walks of life, mostly thanks to the Internet. The forces of freedom are steadily chipping away at the power of the forces of control. It’s pure beauty.”
And my favorite new blog of 2005? Undoubtedly Solove and company at Concurring Opinions.

Andrew Raff @andrewraff