Pamela Samuelson and Tara Wheatland Propose Statutory Damage Reforms

ArsTechnica.com, April 12, 2009 by Nate Anderson
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/profs-protest-massive-p2p-damage-awards.ars

The authors aren’t opposed to the idea of statutory damages, which were designed to provide relief in cases where it was quite difficult to quantify the actual losses suffered by the copyright holder…. But ending up on the hook for up to $150,000 just for swapping a single song on a file-sharing network? Craziness—and far too likely to be used against regular people. “In today’s world, where the average person in her day-to-day life interacts with many copyrighted works in a way that may implicate copyright law,” says the paper, “the dangers posed by the lack of meaningful constraints on statutory damage awards are particularly acute.”

Eric Biber Wants Obama to Restore Endangered Species Act Protections

San Francisco Chronicle, April 15, 2009 by Eric Biber
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/15/ED0M172996.DTL&type=printable

Unfortunately, the Bush administration undermined the consultation process by introducing loopholes in the implementing regulations. These loopholes potentially exempt a wide range of development projects from consultation…. Congress has given the Obama administration authority to undo these regulatory changes. The Obama administration should use its authority to restore the role of high-quality information in endangered species protection.

Jacob Hacker Lists Top Three Reasons for a Public Health Plan

Politico.com, April 14, 2009 by Carrie Budoff Brown
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=A1326EE8-18FE-70B2-A854B64621F83AFE

The first and most obvious reason to have the public plan is to have a check on private insurers, a benchmark with which they have to compete…. The second most important area is cost control. Private insurers have been very passive in the face of rising prices. The third area I would emphasize is security. People in all parts of the country need to have the security of knowing they will have access to a backup plan that is available to them in the same terms in all parts of the country.

Franklin Zimring Believes Oakland Mass Shooting Atypical

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 13, 2009 by Mark Roth
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09103/962453-53.stm

An incident March 21 in which a man killed four Oakland, Calif., police officers and then was shot to death himself also does not fit the usual mass killing pattern, Dr. Zimring said. The suspect in that case was facing a return to prison when he was pulled over at a traffic stop and probably shot the first officer in a state of panic, “and all the other killings followed from that first one.”

Ian Haney Lopez Says Immigration Reform Should Be a National Priority

CNN.com, April 10, 2009 by Kristi Keck
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/10/obama.immigration/

“We are a country of immigrants, and immigrants have always been essential to who we are culturally and socially. So it’s simply a mistake to see these people as somehow interlopers,” he said…. If immigrants were given amnesty and the opportunity to work for minimum wage, Americans wouldn’t see themselves as in competition with the undocumented workers, he said. “The way to reduce the attractiveness of immigrant labor is to legalize immigrant labor,” he said.

Richard Frank Calls for a Return to Environmental Federalism

Daily Journal, April 9, 2009 by Richard M. Frank
http://www.dailyjournal.com/law/index.cfm (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

“The early signs from the Obama administration seem promising for a new era of cooperative federalism in environmental policymaking. Two cautionary notes, however: First, we should not expect that tensions between the federal government and California over environmental and energy policy will disappear…. Second, while California’s environmental disputes with the executive branch of the federal government are abating, they may actually increase vis-á-vis Congress. As congressional leaders take up landmark climate change and energy legislation, there will undoubtedly be pressure from some quarters to pre-empt California’s pioneering regulatory efforts in those areas.

Jason Schultz Questions Attorney Nesson’s Legal Tactics in Music-Sharing Suit

The Boston Globe, April 8, 2009 by Jonathan Saltzman
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/08/to_noted_lawyer_its_an_open_and_shout_case?mode=PF

Jason Schultz, an assistant clinical professor at the law school at the University of California-Berkeley … agreed that posting the e-mail messages of potential defense witnesses was bizarre and risky; the recording industry could try to share the comments with a jury to undermine Tenenbaum’s case. Still, Schultz said, Nesson’s transparency might be part of a broader strategy to spur debate and make the case a public referendum on the file-sharing lawsuits. “This case is bigger than Joel Tenenbaum, and Joel may want it to be bigger,” said Schultz, who called Nesson a “wacky character” but brilliant.

Holly Doremus Describes Goal of Environmental Blog, Legal Planet

East Bay Express, April 8, 2009 by Robert Gammon
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/PrintFriendly?oid=958833

The site was created by UC Berkeley law professor Dan Farber and UCLA law professor Ann Carlson, and it features blog posts from environmental law professors at both universities…. The site is sure to attract attention from attorneys, “but we’re also hoping to do this in a way that speaks to intelligent lay people,” said Holly Doremus, a UC Berkeley environmental law professor and contributor to the blog.

Jacob Hacker Believes Public and Private Health Care Plans Can Co-Exist

NPR, All Things Considered, April 7, 2009 by Julie Rovner
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102845967

“Medicare was a socialist plot, according to conservatives, when it was proposed in the 1960s, and now it’s as American as apple pie,” he said. “And I hope that the public plan within health care reform, the choice of a public health plan for non-elderly Americans will come to seem as American as apple pie.”

Christopher Edley Reiterates Importance of Academic Freedom

Contra Costa Times, April 4, 2009 by Christopher Edley Jr.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_12065994

Berkeley administrators have spoken publicly and repeatedly about the importance of Professor Yoo’s academic freedom and First Amendment rights. During an interview with your reporter, I made it very clear that premature disciplinary procedures would raise a ‘McCarthy-era problem’…. Short of criminal conviction, the rules are somewhat vague, but the importance of academic freedom is not. Like others at Berkeley, I will watch developments regarding Professor Yoo carefully, even as we guard academic freedom zealously.