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District Court Rules on Key Copyright and Computer Law Issues in Online Coupon Distribution Case

July 7, 2008 - Last week, a district court in California ruled on several important copyright and computer law issues affecting the ability of software consumers to customize and modify programs on their personal computers. Two Samuelson Clinic students, Hari O’Connell and Domenic Ippolito, with help from Clinic faculty, Jennifer Lynch and Jason Schultz, filed an amicus brief in the case, on behalf of client Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), that was critical to the outcome of the ruling.  read more »

Samuelson Clinic Reveals Sallie Mae’s Flawed Security Practices

Students at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law recently accused Sallie Mae—the nation’s largest student lender—of placing millions of its customers at risk of identity theft through improper and potentially illegal authentication practices. Although Sallie Mae revised its authentication practices this spring after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the Clinic, law students say the new practice remains flawed and leaves student borrowers vulnerable to identity theft.  read more »

Samuelson Clinic Featured in Press for Efforts to Fix Sallie Mae's Flawed Security Practices

The Samuelson Clinic was recently featured in the Contra Costa Times for its investigation into Sallie Mae’s poor security practices. Clinic student intern Kathleen Lu and Clinic Fellow Jennifer Lynch were both quoted in the article, available online here.

Samuelson Clinic Featured on Wired Threat Level Blog for Amicus Brief Filed in Support of Accused Coupon Hacker

Samuelson Clinic student interns Hari O’Connell and Domenic Ippolito, with help from Clinic faculty Jennifer Lynch and Jason Schultz, filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Elecronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in support of accused “coupon hacker” John Stottlemire’s motion to dismiss in the case Coupons, Inc. v. Stottlemire in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Clinic argued that Coupons, Inc’s DMCA claims and common law trespass to chattels and conversion claims constitute a strained and improper interpretation of the law and should be dismissed.  read more »

Clinic Accepting Applications for Summer, Fall 2008

The Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic has openings for several summer research assistants for a broad range of legal and public policy projects. Topics may include: privacy, cyber-security, IP considerations in developing health technologies and medicine for the developing world, consumer protection, video surveillance, synthetic biology, personal genetic information, patent reexamination and opposition processes, injunctions in 1st Amendment cases, fair use, and the DMCA safe harbors. Full and part-time paid positions are available.  read more »

Clinic and BioBricks Collaborate to Promote Free Access to Standard Biological Parts

The Clinic has teamed up with the BioBricks Foundation to develop and promote intellectual property tools to facilitate the use of BioBricks standard biological parts. Clinic members made a presentation at the 2nd BioBricks Foundation Technical & Legal Standards Workshop on March 1st at UCSF.

Clinic Researcher Recommends Privacy-Strenthening Tips

January  30,  2008 

Clinic researcher Jennifer King recommended some tools for consumers to strengthen their privacy settings online in a Wall Street Journal article “It’s Hard to Hide From Your ‘Friends.’” The article discusses how several online services, such as Facebook and Google, have allowed anyone to access personal information about people they know. Whereas the concern used to be about companies sharing personal information with other companies, the debate is now centering on whether consumers want their information shared with their friends without their consent.  read more »

Consumer Confusion about Online Privacy

October  30,  2007 

Senior staff attorney Chris Jay Hoofnagle was quoted in an article regarding online privacy. The article entitled “Do Consumers Care About Online Privacy?” discusses how consumers perceive online privacy. Hoofnagle comments: “Consumers fundamentally misunderstand the rules of the marketplace.” He also cites studies in which up to 75% of consumers think as long as a site has a privacy policy it means it won’t share data with third parties. He states that consumers “…equate the presence of the policy with substantive privacy rules.”  read more »

Privacy laws need better controls, technology, panelists say

December  16,  2007 

Clinic Director Deirdre Mulligan called for increased privacy protections in a San Francisco Chronicle article entitled “Privacy laws need better controls, technology, panelists say.” The article mentions a panel at Sun Microsystems, which called for “…clearer laws and better technological controls over what information should be public and how it should be used.” Various questions regarding social-networking sites and parental control were raised during the panel discussion. Deirdre Mulligan commented “Nothing is ever forgotten.  read more »

False Promises in Online Privacy Policies

November  7,  2007 

Senior staff attorney Chris Jay Hoofnagle commented on Facebook’s “social advertising” plan. A New York Times article, “Facebook Is Marketing Your Brand Preferences (With Your Permission),” discusses how Facebook, a social networking site, is displaying user profile pictures with commercial messages. A Facebook user can rate or recommend a product and then an ad for that product will be sent to the user’s friends. However, this new plan comes with growing privacy concerns that advertisers may have access to too much information regarding user activities.  read more »

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