Pamela Samuelson

A call to focus on copyright

Pamela Samuelson quoted in Inside Higher Education, October 21, 2013

Many leaders and experts in higher education “want to hide” when people talk about the possibility of Congress reopening copyright legislation. “While it is sensible to be somewhat concerned about what would happen if Congress decided to reopen” the legislation, Samuelson said, “it would be a mistake for higher ed not to say, ‘If we want to do this, these things need to be on the agenda.’ ” Generally, she said, higher education needs to be sure the fair use victories of the courts are preserved.

Abusive patent litigation only getting worse, say Google, Microsoft experts

Pamela Samuelson quoted in Communications Daily, October 10, 2013 (registration required)

Non-practicing entity litigation “wasn’t worrisome five years ago,” said Pamela Samuelson, a UC-Berkeley law professor. Then, such litigation was aimed at big companies such as Google and Microsoft, she said. “But now a lot of the assertions are coming against small companies, and [they’re] having real significant operational impacts.”

Patent trolls’ put brakes on SF transit app

Samuelson clinic cited in San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2013(registration required)

This summer, the San Francisco digital rights group and the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley helped significantly narrow the scope of one key ArrivalStar patent, after filing a request for re-examination.

House judiciary committee sets up first hearing on copyright reform

Pamela Samuelson cited in Tech Dirt, May 8, 2013

They’re starting with five witnesses, all of whom participated in the Copyright Principles Project, which we wrote about a few years ago when it came out…. Having Samuelson on the list is the key one, as she was the driving force behind the project and is one of, if not the most, knowledgeable folks concerning copyright issues around.

Aaron Swartz: Opening access to knowledge

Pamela Samuelson writes for San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 2013

What was Internet activist Aaron Swartz thinking when he downloaded 4 million articles from JSTOR (short for journal storage), a digital library of scholarly articles, in a closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology? Because of his suicide this month, we will never know for sure, but one consistent theme ran through his short but brilliant career: The Internet provides amazing opportunities to open more access to knowledge. And he wanted to help that process.

Brewster Kahle’s Internet archive

Pamela Samuelson quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 2012

“He has almost evangelistic zeal for promoting better access to information to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there,” said Pamela Samuelson, a professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. Samuelson, a renowned pioneer in digital copyright law, met Kahle about 20 years ago. “If anything, he’s become more of a visionary and more of an evangelist,” she said. “He hasn’t slowed down at all.”