Cap-and-Trade, Emissions Taxes, and Innovation Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2010 Abstract: Emissions taxes and carbon caps can both lead to efficient production of energy, in the sense of controlling carbon emissions to the extent that is efficient with existing technologies. However, the regulatory policy has a second objective, which is to create incentives to develop […]

Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: The Google Book Search (GBS) initiative once promised to test the bounds of fair use, as the company started scanning millions of in-copyright books from the collections of major research libraries. The initial goal of this scanning was to […]

Verifiability and Group Formation in Markets Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2010 Abstract: We consider group formation with asymmetric information. Agents have unverifiable characteristics as well as the verifiable qualifications required for memberships in groups. The characteristics can be chosen, such as strategies in games, or can be learned, such as skills required for jobs. They […]

First Amendment Defenses in Trade Secrecy Cases Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: Only rarely do defendants in trade secrecy cases raise First Amendment defenses to misappropriation claims. In a few cases, however, such defenses have not only been raised, but have been successful. These successes have been controversial. Some commentators and at least one […]

Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: U.S. copyright law gives successful plaintiffs who promptly registered their works the ability to elect to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work. This provision […]

Locke Remixed Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2007 Abstract: This brief Comment was prepared as part of a conference on Intellectual Property and Social Justice at U.C. Davis Law School in March, 2006. I argue here against a broad legal right to remix digital content – to freely alter or modify pre-existing copyrighted works. I […]

Preliminary Thoughts on Copyright Reform Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2007 Abstract: The Copyright Act of 1976 is far too long, complex, and largely incomprehensible to non-copyright professionals. It is also the work product of pre-computer technology era. This law also lacks normative heft. That is, it does not embody a clear vision about what its […]

Unbundling Fair Uses Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2009 Abstract: Fair use has been invoked as a defense to claims of copyright infringement in a wide array of cases over the past thirty years, as when someone has drawn expression from an earlier work in order to parody it, quoted from an earlier work in preparing […]

Privacy as Intellectual Property? Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2000 Abstract: Some economists and privacy advocates have proposed giving individuals property rights in their personal data to promote information privacy in cyberspace. A property rights approach would allow individuals to negotiate with firms about the uses to which they are willing to have personal data put […]

Author Autonomy and Atomism in Copyright Law Author(s): Molly S. Van Houweling Year: 2009 Abstract: Digital technology enables individuals to create and communicate in ways that were previously possible only for well-funded corporate publishers. These individual creators are increasingly harnessing copyright law to insist on ownership of the rights to control their musical works, scholarly […]