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.”

Christopher Edley Explains Skepticism Surrounding Tax Reforms

Times-Standard, September 28, 2009 by Thadeus Greenson
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_13436569

During a recent commission meeting at the University of California Los Angeles, Commissioner Christopher Edley Jr. said it’s not surprising that the proposals are being met with skepticism by some. “Any effort to be bold will be fraught with uncertainty, and that produces anxiety,” he said.

Alan Auerbach Links Rise in Social Security Claims to Recession

The New York Times, September 28, 2009 by Stephen Ohlemacher
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/28/us/politics/AP-US-Social-Security-Early-Retirements.html?_r=2

”A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire,” said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. ”If they were younger, we would call them unemployed.”

Pamela Samuelson Points Out Obstacles to Google Book Settlement

The Huffington Post, September 24, 2009 by Pamela Samuelson
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-samuelson/google-book-settlement-10_b_296343.html

The GBS deal can’t be fixed by tweaking a few details. Reading through even a sampling of the hundreds of objections to the proposed settlement, one sees an amazingly diverse configuration of opponents and a vast array of problems that cannot be remedied by minor fixes.

Christopher Edley Supports a Proposed Business Net Receipts Tax

-Ventura County Star, September 20, 2009 by Timm Herdt
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/sep/20/proposed-state-tax-would-be-paid-by-businesses/

While acknowledging that the BNRT “represents an extraordinary change in California’s tax code,” Commissioners John Cogan and Chris Edley summed up the commission’s prevailing view in a Sept. 9 memo: “We believe the BNRT is sufficiently promising to warrant the commission’s recommendation that the Legislature and the governor proceed with a public process to fully evaluate the BNRT (and) to enact a BNRT into law.”

-Los Angeles Times, September 21, 2009 by Peter Schrag
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-schrag21-2009sep21,0,6384800,print.story

It’s “absolutely” not a tax system he’d design, Edley said, but somehow Sacramento’s inertia had to be broken. Under the commission’s BNRT proposal, all California businesses would pay a tax, probably about 4%, on their net receipts, which would be calculated by subtracting the cost of the goods they’ve purchased from their gross receipts.

-KCRW, Which Way, L.A.?, September 21, 2009 Host Warren Olney
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/ww/ww090921trying_to_fix_medica

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of not changing the basic progressive structure of the income tax. And the package as a whole, looking at all the different elements of it, we think is pretty close to neutral in terms of progressivity.”

-Orange County Register, September 29, 2009 by Brian Joseph
http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2009/09/29/tax-commission-makes-recommendations-but-will-it-amount-to-anything/22555/

“I can’t recall anybody in particular who supported the BNRT at our public hearing,” Edley said. “But I also remember distinctly feeling each person who spoke for opposing it was not fully familiar with what we were working on.”

Robert Merges Says Patent Auctions Protect Inventors, Quicken Innovation

The New York Times, September 20, 2009 by Steve Lohr
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/technology/21patent.html

Any market mechanisms that speed up the process of figuring out what a patent is worth should hasten the flow of ideas into the economy, accelerating the pace of innovation, policy experts say. “What you want is a market that can promote innovation and reduce the huge costs of litigation,” said Robert P. Merges…. “And that market is starting to take shape.”

Jesse Choper Thinks Constitutional Interpretation May Depend on Political Point of View

The Oakland Tribune, September 20, 2009 by Josh Richman
http://www.contracostatimes.com/politics/ci_13354829?source=rss

“I think that great dangers to the Constitution are very much in the eyes of the beholder. When an administration is in power that people don’t like, they often find that what that administration does is threatening to our basic values,” said Jesse Choper…. And for all the rhetoric cavalierly cast about over what is and isn’t constitutional, Choper said, few people truly understand what the Constitution actually does and doesn’t say.