Will the next Woodward and Bernstein be citizen journalists who get the news out via blogs? Bloggers at the political Web site, Room 8, have certainly gotten the

attention of New York movers and shakers. As reported by the New York Times and others, prosecutors served a grand jury subpoena to the Web site earlier this year along with a saber-rattling warning that blogging about the subpoena would amount to illegally interfering with an active investigation. The gag order was later dropped after the bloggers threatened to sue. Along the way, the tactics raised serious concerns among free-speech advocates. For Peter Vogel, who focuses on Internet law and technology at Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, the case is the latest example of how laws are not keeping pace with rapidly advancing electronic medium. "When the first Internet browser was released as a public utility, no one even dreamed of blogging. The courts simply don't have a body of law on which to base their rulings," he says. "Courts are generally slow to adapt to major social change because existing laws don't necessarily fit the new situation. These complex cases will continue to vex the courts until that body of law develops."