By Kathleen Maclay, UC Berkeley Media Relations
School of Information professor Brian Carver is teaming up with a Berkeley law professor and two other colleagues to launch “Cyberlaw Cases,” a blog covering what they consider the Top 10 most important pending U.S. legal cases involving issues such as network neutrality, privacy, copyright, trademark and patent issues that impact the internet, databases and software programs.
The blog (http://cyberlawcases.com/) focuses on an evolving list of cases, and includes analytical postings about each case and the authors’ assessments of potential impacts.
“No other blog does this,” said “Cyberlaw” 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. “There are blogs that talk about internet-related cases, but none that rank them to help readers focus on from 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. “So we're going to help by pointing them to the Top 10 to watch.”
The blog’s No. 1 case currently 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 National Security Administration’s warrantless wiretapping, state efforts to regulate the Internet, file-sharing and the Bilski 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, open source and free software, and innovation policy. Before joining the School of Information, he was an attorney in private practice and handled primarily intellectual property litigation matters.
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.
