FC: WSJ profile of Pam Samuelson and her copyright battles

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[This is a well-deserved profile. --Declan]

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Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 07:51:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: blano <bwarrene () core com>
To: declan () well com
Subject: WSJ.com - The Legal Theorist

Most of your folks would (or should) have seen this piece in the WSJ this 
morning. Great article in light of the many DMCA threads on the Politech 
list....

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1020884132662876320,00.html

   The Legal Theorist
   What is intellectual property in the age of PCs and the Internet?
   Pamela Samuelson thinks she knows

   By PHYLLIS PLITCH

   Right from the start, personal computers were a lightning rod for
   copyright battles. First it was software programs that used similar
   design elements. Then the Internet opened up whole new areas of
   contention, from music swapping on Napster to the current debate over
   how far Hollywood can go in preventing hackers from copying and
   distributing movies online.

   Pamela Samuelson has helped shape the course of these battles.

   For more than 15 years, Ms. Samuelson, now a law professor at the
   University of California at Berkeley, has been fighting what she sees
   as overzealous and innovation-stifling expansion of copyright laws in
   the high-tech arena. She has written influential scholarly articles
   for academic publications, filed friend-of-the-court briefs in
   landmark cases and organized academic conferences where ideas can be
   refined and disseminated.

   COPYRIGHTS AND TECHNOLOGY
   Join the Discussion: What do you think the future holds for
   intellectual property copyrights? How can technology expand and create
   while protecting the rights of those who create content?

   In addition, she has made her mark on the next generation of copyright
   activists: With her husband, Robert Glushko, she helped launch two
   law-school clinics that specialize in the intersection of law and
   technology, and she serves as a board member of the Electronic
   Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for
   free speech and civil liberties on the Internet.

   Now she is taking on one of her biggest challenges so far -- attacking
   the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, an anti-piracy law
   backed by the entertainment industry. Ms. Samuelson thinks the law
   protects intellectual-property rights at the expense of technological
   research and innovation, as well as the broader public interest.

   [...]




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