Prof. Peter S. Menell, University of California at Berkeley School of Law Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology April 7, 2011 Two weeks ago, Judge Denny Chin rejected the proposed settlement of the Google Books litigation. While acknowledging many benefits of the proposal in terms of preserving books, making books more accessible, and enhancing [...]
Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg,1 Columbia University School of Law March 15, 2011 The U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to “secur[e] for limited Times to Authors ... the exclusive Right to their ... Writings. 2 Accordingly, the U.S. Copyright Act generally vests creators with the copyright in their works.3 The Constitution makes no explicit reference to authors’ [...]
Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law March 8, 2011 Writing in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago, Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu complained that technology markets are too often allowed to remain under the control of a single dominant firm. The theme is drawn from his recently published book, The Master Switch: [...]
Prof. Peter S. Menell, University of California-Berkeley School of Law February 23, 2011 During the past week, revolution in the Middle East and digital copyright enforcement converged. As widely reported in the press, the dramatic protests that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt, and have destabilized other dictatorships, were facilitated in part by social networking [...]
Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law February 16, 2011 Copyright law generally gives authors no control over the aftermarket for their goods. Suppose I write a book, and I sell you a copy of it. You are free to resell the book, or lend it to a friend, or give it away. [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, The University of Chicago Law School January 19, 2011 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit opened the New Year by revisiting a copyright classic, namely, is a legend stamped on a copyrighted work effective to control it? In UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Augusto, the Ninth Circuit concluded that [...]
Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg, Columbia University School of Law January 12, 2011 The practice of online news aggregation, involving the assembly on one’s own website of information, and sometimes limited content such as headlines and lead sentences, copied from other news sources, has generated both substantial profits for the largest aggregators, such as Google News, [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, The University of Chicago Law School December 21, 2010 I was standing in line Sunday to order a sandwich – Italian beef, one of the Holy Trinity of Chicago food (deep-dish pizza and hot dogs, if you are so poorly informed that you have to ask) – and there he was: [...]
Professor Peter S. Menell Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology University of California at Berkeley School of Law December 14, 2010 When the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Bilski v. Kappos 18 months ago, the patent community was galvanized. In view of the murky and conflicting reasoning of the Court’s software patent cases from [...]
Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law December 6, 2010 The Patent Act provides that an issued patent “shall be presumed valid,” but the statute fails to specify exactly how strong that presumption should be, and it fails to specify against exactly what evidence that presumption should weigh. The Supreme Court last week granted cert [...]