Joe Patrice has a slightly breathless post about the interesting argument being made by an outfit called PublicResource.org that the copyright on the 10th edition of the Blue Book has lapsed and that PublicResource.org therefore can put a copy of the 10th edition on the web where it will be available to all for free. Patrice therefore asks: Is The Bluebook About To Be Killed Off?
I doubt it. After all, as Christine Hurt observes:
I would hazard a hypothesis that law graduates turn to the modern edition for the hard questions, the esoteric sources, which the Tenth Edition doesn't cover. Another reason I pick up the Nineteenth Edition is to check the appendices -- what's the form of the statutes in [insert state here]? The Tenth Edition doesn't have those appendices, listing every reporter and statutory publication in every jurisdiction ever. That is why the Tenth Edition is only 124 pages long. I also pick up the modern edition to see if I need to abbreviate words in my case name, etc. according to T.6.
The kerfuffle does raise an interesting question, however; namely, when does the copyright on the first edition to provide internet citation forms expire?
