(Hat tip: The Volokh Conspiracy)
Orin Kerr asks if students should feel free to blog about their professors. His answer is, basically, go ahead, but realize professors are free to read the blog, and may well know who's writing it.
Even if you blog under a pseudonym and don't refer to the professor by name, you're probably leaving enough information behind to identify the professor and yourself. Even if you keep your own identity secret, there aren't that many professors out there: particularly critical or juicy posts are likely to lead to someone recognizing the professor and tipping off him or her to the blog. The professor may then take some effort to figure out who you are. You may never know about it, either: I know professors who regularly read their students' discussions of class on their blogs, and don't want the students to know it.
The rule was first applied to fanzines, later extended to postings on websites and mailing lists. "Never write anything you don't want showing up on the front page of the paper the next morning."
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