BCLT

Author(s): Deirdre K. Mulligan Year: 2010 Abstract: Late in 2005, Sony BMG released millions of Compact Discs containing digital rights management technologies that threatened the security of its customers’ computers and the integrity of the information infrastructure more broadly. This Article aims to identify the market, technological, and legal factors that appear to have led […]

Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2010 Abstract: Imagine shopping for a car in 1960. Safety is important to you. How do you assess a car’s performance in surviving a crash? What tools were available then to take an informed decision? The modern consumer of financial services is in a similar position as the car shopper […]

Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2000 Abstract: After U.S. accession to the Berne Convention in 1988, many scholars have expected an increasing convergence between U.S. and EU copyright law. Even though some developments in U.S. copyright law evidence a move towards the European model, this article concludes that deep differences will continue to exist between U.S. […]

Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2006 Abstract: As it becomes cheaper to copy and share digital content, vendors are turning to technical protections such as encryption. We argue that if protection is nevertheless imperfect, this transition will generally lower the prices of content relative to perfect legal enforcement. However, the effect on prices depends on whether […]

Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2005 Abstract: This Story grows out of a study of the Supreme Court Record and other historical materials about the well-known 1880 copyright case of Baker v. Selden. Among the surprises the Story reveals are that Selden was not, as some have surmised, the author of a treatise on bookkeeping, nor […]

Author(s): Year: 2010 Abstract: Jason SchultzUniversity of California, Berkeley – School of Law Pamela SamuelsonUniversity of California, Berkeley – School of Law The Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos made it clear that generalized methods of financial hedging are abstract ideas that are ineligible for patent protection. However, the Court left the framework for […]

Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: An intriguing way to view the proposed settlement of the copyright litigation over the Google Book Search (GBS) Project is as a mechanism through which to achieve copyright reform that Congress has not yet and may never be willing to do. The settlement would, in effect, give Google a […]

Author(s): Deirdre K. Mulligan Year: 2010 Abstract: Current and upcoming demand-response systems provide increasingly detailed power-consumption data to utilities and a growing array of players angling to assist consumers in understanding and managing their energy use. The granularity of this data, as well as new players’ entry into the energy market, creates new privacy concerns. […]

Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: The protectability (or not) of computer program interfaces, the legality of reverse engineering of program code to extract interface information and the reimplementation of interfaces in complementary or competing programs was deeply controversial in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For the past 20 years, copyright law in both […]

Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2010 Abstract: Successive revolutions in information technology raise new challenges, risks, and opportunities for consumer privacy protection. Perhaps the most basic question is how these new technologies are changing the actual practices of companies in processing personal information. After all, emerging technologies can make legal regulations obsolete or out-of-date. The […]