Type: Brief Year: 2011 The Samuelson Clinic, on behalf of its client the National Alliance for Media Art and Culture, as well as the Alliance for Community Media, filed an amicus curiae brief in the Second Circuit in Viacom Int’l Inc. v. YouTube, Inc. to explain to the court how independent artists, creators, and speakers […]
Samuelson Clinic Students File Amicus Brief on Behalf of the National Alliance for Media Art and Culture in the Viacom-YouTube Appeal in the Second Circuit
Is it in the Public Domain? A Handbook for Evaluating the Copyright Status of a Work Created in the United States Between January 1, 1923 and December 31, 1977
Type: Clinical Project, Educational Tools Year: 2014 The Samuelson Clinic is excited to provide a handbook, “Is it in the Public Domain?,” and accompanying visuals. These educational tools help users to evaluate the copyright status of a work created in the United States between January 1, 1923 and December 31, 1977—those works that were created before today’s […]
California Supreme Court Ruled in Support of Immunity for Internet Distributors of Third Party Content
Type: Brief Year: 2006 The California Supreme Court ruled in Barrett v. Rosenthal that Section 230 of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 protects Internet publishers from being held liable for allegedly harmful comments written by others, even where those publishers are individual users or can be considered “distributors.” The Court overruled the lower court’s […]
Cyberslapp Suits
Type: Testimony Year: 2002 A new form of lawsuit called a “cyberslapp” suit is threatening to overturn the promise of anonymous online speech and chill the freedom of expression that is central to the online world. Cyberslapp cases typically involve a person who has posted anonymous criticisms of a corporation or public figure on the […]
Children’s Internet Protection Act (CHIPA)
Type: Brief Year: 2001 Students assisted the Consortium for School Networks and the International Society for Technology in Education with a public rulemaking implementing the Children’s Internet Protection Act. The Act requires schools and libraries that receive federal funding for Internet services and connections to install filters. The students filed initial and reply comments before […]
Prison Internet Mail
Type: Brief Year: 2001 Clinic students investigated the issue of California prison facilities banning inmate receipt of postal mail containing materials that had originated on the Internet. The case was ultimately brought to court by the ACLU Northern California Office and the Prison Law Office as Clement v. California Dept. of Corrections, 220 F. Supp. […]
Clinic Filed Brief Supporting Immunity for Third Party Content
Type: Brief Year: 2004 The Samuelson Clinic, on behalf of a group of law professors with expertise in Internet law, submitted a brief to the California Supreme Court supporting reversal of the California Court of Appeal’s narrow interpretation of the Communications Decency Act in Barrett v. Rosenthal. The brief argued that by limiting an Internet […]
Digital Grass Roots: Issue Advocacy in the Age of the Internet
Type: Book chapter Year: 2002 Clinic Director Deirdre Mulligan and Jerry Berman co-authored a chapter in the book The Civic Web: Online Politics and Democratic Values entitled “Digital Grass Roots: Issue Advocacy in the Age of the Internet.” The book discusses the basic issues that have emerged since the introduction of computer-networked communications into U.S. […]
Chamberlain v. Skylink in Federal Circuit
Type: Brief Year: 2004 In a case of first impression, the Federal Circuit rejected a consumer manufacturer of garage door openers’ efforts to employ a controversial section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the anti-circumvention provisions (1201), to distort the market by employing computer code to lock-in consumers and lock-out aftermarket competition. The DMCA was […]
MGM v. Grokster in Ninth Circuit
Type: Brief Year: 2003 The Clinic filed an amicus brief on behalf of 40 intellectual property and technology law professors in MGM v. Grokster. The brief, which you can find here, addresses three main points. First, that the Supreme Court in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios (the Betamax case), employed sound law […]