Pamela Samuelson Faults Guild’s Google Books Brief

Publishers Weekly, December 13, 2011 by Andrew Albanese
http://bit.ly/stYxVK

The brief in support of the motion does not address concerns about adequate class representation raised throughout the settlement process, specifically whether the guild, an organization which represents a sliver of the wide universe of authors, can effectively speak for the varied and divergent interests of “authors” writ large. Critics like UC’s Pam Samuelson, and D.C. attorney and author Scott Gant have argued there should be multiple classes all with different counsel.

Brad Jessup Reflects on Durban Climate Change Conference

The Conversation, December 10, 2011 by Brad Jessup
http://theconversation.edu.au/global-climate-change-pact-in-durban-expert-comment-4671

Not much progress can be seen in the words negotiated at Durban on the important matter of what agreement will be reached about future emissions reductions. Certainly, there is no clarity about the obligations that will be imposed on nations with the most advanced economies and those nations with emerging economies in a future agreement.

Franklin Zimring Questions Oakland Mayor’s Crime Plan

San Francisco Chronicle, December 9, 2011 by Matthai Kuruvila
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/09/MNBN1LLJP3.DTL&type=printable

“I would call it a sort-of crime plan,” said Franklin Zimring, a UC Berkeley law professor and renowned criminologist, who said the plan does not make the tough decisions to prioritize what will be lost. “Everything that’s done in the plan is not done to the prejudice of anything else.”

Robert Merges Writes Justifying Intellectual Property

Concurring Opinions blog, December 9, 2011 by Gordon Hull
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2011/12/book-review-mergess-justifying-intellectual-property.html#more-54238
<http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2011/12/book-review-mergess-justifying-intellectual-property.html%23more-54238>

“I disagree with the general thesis that property rights over information are a bad idea or that IP has mutated into a gargantuan, monstrous parody of its traditional moderate form.  In an economy where intangible assets are more valuable than ever, IP is more important than ever.”

Stanley Lubman Examines China’s Good Samaritan Debate

The Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2011 by Stanley Lubman
http://on.wsj.com/s9P1au

Why do some accident victims in China demand damages from their rescuers? Would a law change this behavior? These are questions that confront some Chinese who have begun to debate whether the role of the Good Samaritan should be introduced into China’s changing society.

Stephen Sugarman Discusses Impact of Big Tobacco Regulations

The AM Law Daily, December 7, 2011 by Sara Randazzo
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2011/12/hughes-hubbard-opens-in-kansas-city.html

With the Food and Drug Administration turning up the heat on tobacco makers in recent years, industry rivals are increasingly at odds over how far regulators should go, says Stephen Sugarman. Bans on certain types of advertising, for example, would have less impact on a nationally recognized brand such as Philip Morris’s Marlboro than on lesser known brands trying to elbow their way into the market, Sugarman says.

Barry Krisberg Stresses Benefits of Prison Reform

-Al Jazeera TV, December 6, 2011 Host Rob Reynolds
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2011/12/2011126204515296421.html

“Every commission, every task force, every legislative group that hasstudied this matter has argued that the California correction system wasbroken and we needed to do rehabilitation; and that rehabilitation could be done much better in the local level than in remote state prisons.”

-The Crime Report, December 7, 2011 by Ted Gest
http://www.thecrimereport.org/archive/2011-12-juv-justice-trends

Krisberg, who noted that California has reduced its total of 10,000 juveniles in prison to under 1,000, said a principal challenge now is to persuade prosecutors not to increase the number of cases in which accused juveniles are tried as adults.

Elisabeth Semel Discusses Capital Cases, Jury Selection

-Daily Journal, December 6, 2011 by Laura Ernde
http://bit.ly/v0P9KU (registration required; go to H:\Law School in the
News\In the News 2011\News Clips for article)

“It’s not that you take a case to win a case. That’s a preposterous notion,” she said. “But it is deflating to see case after case is affirmed and feel that the prospects for your client are so abysmal.”

-The Beaumont Enterprise, December 6, 2011 by Amy Moore
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/crime/article/Walker-jury-mostly-white-2347894.php

“My perspective on juries is that we want diversity and we don’t want people to be excluded based on race or gender,” Semel said. “The operative question is what happened in this case? Were black people dismissed by the attorneys from being on the jury or were there not many in the pool to begin with?”

Franklin Zimring Studies Police Tactics, NYC Crime Decline

-The New York Times, December 3, 2011 by Al Baker
http://nyti.ms/vrf6kR

“There is behind this, also, I think, a kind of status competition or imitation, that there is positive status in having a sort of ‘big department muscle,’ in smaller departments,” said Franklin E. Zimring, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. “And then the problem is, if you have those kinds of specialized units, that you hunt for appropriate settings to use them and, in some of the smaller police departments, notions of the appropriate settings to use them are questionable.”

-KQED-FM, Forum, December 5, 2011 Host Michael Krasny
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201112051000

“Drug use is almost flat as a pancake when you compare 1990 with 2012. The amount of drugs used is about the same; the population using them has aged slightly. But all of the things that we thought meant that high levels of life-threatening crime were absolutely inevitable turn out not to produce that type of inevitability. “