Pamela Samuelson Raises Copyright Concerns Over Google Book Deal

-Publishers Weekly, February 1, 2010 by Andrew Richard Albanese
http://www.publishersweekly.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk_back_header_id=6641791&articleid=CA6717077

University of California, Berkley law professor Pamela Samuelson, in a brief filed last week on behalf of over 100 academic authors, many of them legal scholars, argued that the Authors Guild and its members “do not share the interests, professional commitments or values of academic authors.”

-San Jose Mercury News, February 4, 2010 by Mike Swift
http://www.mercurynews.com/business-headlines/ci_14336753

“The future of public access to the cultural heritage of mankind embodied in books is too important to leave in the hands of one company and one registry that will have a de facto monopoly,” Samuelson and the group of academics argued.

-Palo Alto Online, February 5, 2010 by Susan Kostal
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=15634

“Until the U.S. Justice Department says this is a clear antitrust problem, I don’t think the judge will find there are antitrust problems,” Samuelson said.

William Fernholz Says State Supreme Court Session Showed Students Practical Side of Law

California Supreme Court Historical Society Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2009 by Claire Cooper
http://www.cschs.org/ (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

The questions asked by the law students reflect “the kinds of things lawyers care about: what kinds of judges are these, what are their values and what is the process that they use to make a decision,” Fernholz says. In responding, the justices were “as candid as they could be consistent with their ethical duties.”

Megan Ryan Advises Clients at EBCLC’s Consumer Debt Clinic

KALW-FM, January 28, by Rina Palta
http://kalwnews.org/audio/2010/01/28/will-credit-card-debt-be-next-mortgage-crisis_112369.html

“I would say the majority of our clients that come in with credit card debt have had some crisis affect them. They’ve lost a job; they’ve had a home that’s been foreclosed. They’ve had some kind of healthcare crisis. And they’ve been trying to make ends meet on their credit card bills. And they’re no longer able to pay on their credit cards, so the creditors are coming after them to get paid. “

Franklin Zimring Puts Homicide Drop in Context

New America Media, January 28, 2010 by Franklin E. Zimring
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=972db69d1a1e75acf735f4650918ea22

Before the city fathers of San Francisco dance too far out on a limb in claiming credit for good news, the recent experience in Richmond, Calif., should inspire some caution. In 2008, the number of homicides in Richmond dropped substantially—from 47 in 2007 to under 30. This was a very encouraging development in a city of 100,000, where lethal violence is the primary civic problem. But the relief proved temporary, because the homicide toll for 2009 returned to 47.

Stanley Lubman Sees Meaningful Legal Reform in China

The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2010 by Stanley Lubman
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/01/28/stanley-lubman-will-an-expanded-right-of-privacy-deter-chinas-internet-vigilantes/tab/print/

Adoption of the new law marks progress in legal reform, and it also strongly signals that the emergence and clash of new social forces arising out of China’s economic development will continue to challenge legislators to craft laws to meet new challenges.

Pamela Samuelson Objects to Revised Google Book Deal

-The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2010 by Jessica E. Vascellaro
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/01/27/amazon-and-others-slam-revised-google-books-deal/

U.C. Berkeley Professor Pam Samuelson submitted an objection on behalf of a group of academic authors. “We do not believe that the settlement of a class action lawsuit is a proper way to make such a profound set of changes in rights of authors and publishers, in markets for books, and procedures for resolving disputes as the (settlement) would bring about,” the letter read.

-Inside Higher Ed, January 29, 2010 by Steve Kolowich
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/29/google

“We believe that most unclaimed works in the [Google Book Search] corpus will prove to be books written by scholars for scholars, and most such authors would prefer that their out-of-print books be available on an open-access basis,” the professors say in a public draft of the letter.