For Immediate Release
Susan Gluss, 510.642.6936, sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Kathleen Maclay, 510.643.5651, kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Berkeley—September 4, 2009… Two University of California, Berkeley, professors are teaming up with two colleagues to launch “Cyberlaw Cases,” a blog covering what they consider the top 10 most important pending U.S. legal cases involving issues that impact the Internet, databases and software programs.
The blog (http://cyberlawcases.com/) focuses on an evolving list of cases on issues such as network neutrality, privacy, copyright, trademark and patent issues, and includes analytical postings about each case and the authors’ assessments of potential impacts.
“No other blog does this,” said Cyberlaw Cases blogger Jason M. Schultz, an assistant clinical professor of law and director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley’s School of Law (Berkeley Law). “There are blogs that talk about Internet-related cases, but none that rank them to help readers focus on where the significant decisions will emerge.”
“There are so many cases out there in the courts, and it’s hard to keep up with all of them,” said Brian W. Carver, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Information and UC Berkeley’s other Cyberlaw Cases blogger. “So, we’re going to help by pointing them to the top 10 to watch.”
The blog’s No. 1 case is the Google Books settlement case, a proposed pact between Google and a group of publishers and authors. Other top cases include several dealing with the National Security Administration’s warrantless wiretapping, state efforts to regulate the Internet, file-sharing and the Biliski v. Kappos case before the U.S. Supreme Court case, which involves a method that is claimed to hedge risks in commodities trading.
Before joining Berkeley Law, Schultz worked as an attorney on numerous high-profile intellectual property and technology matters affecting the public’s interests in free expression, fair use and innovation, with an emphasis on issues of copyright law, reverse engineering, digital rights management and patent law reform.
Carver’s research involves copyright, trade secrets, trademarks and general commercial litigation—areas that he dealt with as an attorney in private practice before joining the School of Information.
Other blog authors include Berkeley Law alumnus Aaron K. Perzanowski, an assistant professor at Wayne State University Law School, and colleague Joseph C. Gratz, a partner at Durie Tangri LLP in San Francisco.
Perzanowski’s research examines how law and technology influence the production and exchange of information. Gratz has litigated several Internet copyright and trademark disputes and currently represents artist Shepard Fairey in fair use litigation against The Associated Press over the Obama Hope poster.
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NOTE: Brian Carver can be reached at bcarver@ischool.berkeley.edu or (510) 643-1469 and Jason Schultz can be contacted at jschultz@law.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-1957. All of the blog authors are reachable at editors@cyberlawcases.com.