Pamela Samuelson Remains Skeptical About Google Book Deal

-Library Journal, October 1, 2009 by Francine Fialkoff
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6698035.html

The more experts like Peters and Samuelson delve into the settlement, the more they uncover troubling implications. It is clearly not in the best interest of libraries or the various publics they serve.

-The New York Times, October 7, 2009 by Motoko Rich
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/technology/internet/08google.html?_r=2

Pamela Samuelson, an Internet and copyright expert at the University of California, Berkeley, who has led a group of scholars objecting to the settlement, said she also had doubts about the timeline. “It’s hard to believe that so much could change that it would respond to all serious objections,” Ms. Samuelson wrote in an e-mail message.

-The Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2009 by Jessica E. Vascellaro
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459042709660608.html#printMode

Pamela Samuelson, an intellectual property professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said she invited around two dozen people in February to a private conference to study the settlement in secret. Instead of inviting Google, she invited class-action lawyers and others to provide “tutorials” on various aspects of the 141-page legal document, she said.

Chris Kutz Supports UC Decision to Hire Bain & Co. to Analyze Budget

-Contra Costa Times, October 1, 2009 by Matt Krupnick
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13464661

For the most part, instructors seem to be accepting that, said law professor Christopher Kutz, chairman of the campus Academic Senate. “We were really impressed by Bain,” said Kutz, who was involved in choosing the company. “They said the right things, and they understand their limits.”

-San Francisco Chronicle, October 5, 2009 by Nanette Asimov
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/05/BAJ41A0EVD.DTL

Law Professor Chris Kutz, who chairs the Faculty Senate, likened the situation to a homeowner who wants to save money on the heating bill and invests in a new furnace. “We think there’s a good chance of achieving savings that dwarf this investment,” Kutz said.

Christopher Edley Endorses Proposed State Tax Plan

-Capitol Weekly, October 1, 2009 by John Howard
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=yb3tpdhr9clsh5&xid=yb3frcf559pqdb&done=.yb3tpdhr9d5sh5

Nine of the commission’s 14 members, liberals and conservatives, endorsed the proposals. Commission member Christopher Edley Jr., the dean of the Boalt Hall Law School, called it a search for the “pragmatic center.”

-KQED Forum, October 1, 2009 Host Michael Krasny
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R910010900

“There is a difficulty, there’s uncertainty that is always going to be associated with any kind of change that’s bold. The only things that you can have total confidence in are the status quo. So, from the start, the issues that the legislature and the public face is, ‘Are we concerned enough with the problems in the current system that we’re willing to swallow a little bit of uncertainty in order to make a change that may have a very positive upside?'”

-Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2009 by George Skelton
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap1-2009oct01,0,4401051.column

The commission toyed with recommending an increase in commercial property taxes, said one liberal member, UC Berkeley law school dean Christopher Edley Jr., but that quickly became “a total nonstarter. I mean, forget first base. It didn’t even get out of the batter’s box.”

Jesse Choper Says Nonsectarian Prayer at Public Meetings Okay

The New York Times, October 1, 2009 by Malia Wollan and Jesse McKinley
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/02lodi.html?_r=2

Jesse H. Choper, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the 1983 Supreme Court ruling in Marsh v. Chambers found that prayer before public meetings was allowed if the prayers remained nonsectarian. “What we do know is the use of God is not unacceptable,” Professor Choper said.

Jason Schultz Raises Privacy Concerns about Google Book Settlement

Freeculture.org, September 30, 2009 by Jason Schultz
http://freeculture.org/blog/2009/09/30/gbs-and-students-schultz-privacy/

Despite Google’s assurances that they “take our privacy commitments to our users very seriously,” there are open questions about how much information they will collect on readers who use GBS, whether that information will be used in conjunction with other Google Services (such as its advertising services), how long they will keep the information, and under what circumstances they will disclose it to third parties, such as the government or those involved in civil lawsuits.

Christopher Hoofnagle and Jennifer King Find Americans Dislike Online Tracking

-The New York Times, September 29, 2009 by Stephanie Clifford
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/business/media/30adco.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=privacy%20study&st=cse

About two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers—and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.

-Adweek, September 30, 2009 by Brian Morrissey
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i549ead0f2b0cb6f9051223b3b846580b

“Our findings suggest that if Americans could vote on behavioral targeting, they would shut it down,” the study’s authors conclude.

-WSJ.com, September 30, 2009 by John Letzing
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090930-713200.html#printMode

U.S. Internet users largely “stand on the side of privacy advocates” when it comes to online tracking, even when assured that they are being tracked anonymously, the study concludes. “That is the case even among young adults whom advertisers often portray as caring little about information privacy.”

Jesse Choper Comments on Hate Letter that Frightened Humboldt Faculty Member

Contra Costa Times, September 29, 2009 by Allison White
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_13443210

Jesse Choper said the letter constitutes hate speech, which is constitutionally protected. “If you could find out who sent the letter, then it becomes a matter of freedom of speech,” he said. However, that would not apply if the letter had been threatening. “If it had said, ‘If you stay on the job, you’ll suffer,’ that’s not protected,” he said.

Christopher Edley and Stephen Rosenbaum Respond to Prof Yoo Protests

The Berkeley Daily Planet, September 28, 2009 by Riya Bhattacharjee
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/issue/2009-09-24/article/33826?headline=District-Attorney-Drops-Charges-Against-John-Yoo-Protesters-

Responding to the public outcry on Yoo’s first day of fall classes, law school Dean Christopher Edley sent an e-mail to students and faculty outlining why disagreeing with “substantial portions of Professor Yoo’s analyses”—which he said was how most, though not all, of his colleagues at Berkeley felt—was not enough “to fire or sanction someone.”

Stephen Rosenbaum, a lecturer at the UC Berkeley law school, told the Planet that … it is “clear that law students are eager to discuss the ethical consequences of giving a classroom podium to a professor who has notoriously used his legal skills to justify a public policy that runs counter to all reasonable interpretations of constitutional and international law.”