Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover, But….

I'm pleased to be able to post the cover of my forthcoming book, The Digital Fourth Amendment, which will be published this fall (or thereabouts) by Oxford University Press.  Although you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I'll happily grant an exception if you like this:

(UPDATE: When I first posted this, I had it as "it's cover" instead of "its cover," but the spirit of my 6th grade English teacher Mrs. Bailey fortunately rushed in to correct it soon afterward. Eeks!)

Comments

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Are you promoting this in any contexts that do not involve white, male, bigot-hugging right-wing blogs?

[Orin S. Kerr]

Arthur, I was planning to beat you to the punch by adding a first comment that there was no need for you to tell me what a bigoted fascist blog this is, but you're too fast! Really, you don't need to write this every time I blog. Maybe just do it every other time, or every third time? Could save your energy for other things. Just a thought.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Your scholarly work deserves better than to be associated with this context, which stains it. I hope you recognize that some day.

[Mr. Bumble]

In the interest of expanding our intellectual horizons please direct us to a source for your scholarly works.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

SSRN is good. Bar publications sometimes are good. Reputable law reviews, too.

I would not (necessarily) dismiss all legal blogs in this context, but this is no Balkinization.

[Drewski]

I think it looks really good. The tagine doesn't wow me - it seems really generic and kind of unnecessary, like were just filling out all the fields in a book cover template.

I feel like the title already conveys the necessary information to understand the nature of the book, but perhaps that's just me.

[Orin S. Kerr]

This was the subject of a lot of debate, and a lot of Twitter polls. The book is written in a casual and non-technical way with non-lawyers in mind. I ended up being persuaded that a subtitle was needed to help the non-lawyer readers to understand what the book is about. (My sense was that a lot of non-lawyers are interested to know about the rules that the police follow when collecting digital evidence, and how thw rules are changing, but they have no idea what the Fourth Amendment is.)

[Commenter_XY]

Professor Kerr, if I buy the book and send it to you, can you sign it and return? I would include prepaid padded envelope for return.

[Orin S. Kerr]

Absolutely, I'd be happy to do that.

[Currentsitguy]

Any chance this will be available in electronic form?

Given the subject matter I realize the irony of that question its just that my eyes have reached the point that is becoming increasingly difficult to read print outside of my Kobo.

[Magister]

Searchable electronic form, just to get the recommended daily allowance of irony.

[David Nieporent]

Will Orin narrate the audiobook version himself, or farm the task out to some lesser voiceover person like James Earl Jones?

[Currentsitguy]

I could listen to JEJ read the phone book.

[John F. Carr]

The purpose of the cover is to allow people to judge the book.

The overlaid modern font and ancient writing could serve as a CAPTCHA.

[Swede425]

Will the dust jacket have a photo of you, pipe in hand, arms folded to reveal suede patches on your houndstooth coat, while you gaze pensively in the distance?

If not, it should.

[John F. Carr]

Next time, perhaps a reworking of xkcd 538 (https://xkcd.com/538/).

Frame 1:
Imagination: "Orin's laptop is encrypted. It's 4096 bit RSA. Our plan is foiled."
Frame 2:
Reality: "Orin's laptop is encrypted. Get a warrant compelling him to unlock it."

[Magister]

Actual actual reality: Nobody is interested enough in what's on Orin's laptop to pursue either scenario.