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SUMMER CAMP & TRIP FAIR Programs for Ages 8-18
Advocate
Get a head start planning your summer adventures! When: Where:
Sunday February 7, 2010 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. Menlo School 50 Valparaiso Avenue, Atherton, California 94027
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One of Reback’s professional strengths is his long ties to key Valley players. He has taken time out from his law practice to work with several startups. He worked, for example, with a brilliant but littleknown programmer named Nathan Myhrvold. Reback helped Myhrvold sell his company, Dynamical Systems Research, which had produced a clone of an IBM multitasking environment. Reback offered Myhrvold and the young company to Apple, which showed little interest. He then helped Myhrvold sell the company
KIDS WELCOME!
Meet Representatives from: Overnight Camps: Traditional, Specialty Trips: Wilderness, Worldwide Touring, Cultural Programs: Community Service, Language, Arts, Sailing, Ranch Education: College Campuses, U.S. and Abroad Contact Judy Wiesen at Camp & Teen Travel Consultants for more information! ( +* & " # #! , www.campandteenconsultants.com Please be aware that Menlo School does not organize, endorse, evaluate or recommend the activities which will be described and discussed at the Fair, nor does the School conduct due diligence with respect to any of the sponsors of these activities.
Valentine’s Day Celebration A Free Event for Seniors and Caregivers Join in the festivities as we host a Valentine’s Day Celebration. At this exciting event you can mingle with neighbors, residents and guests. You can also enjoy festive Valentine’s fare and delight in a variety of themed entertainment for all ages, including a concert by pianist Frederick Moyer. While you’re here, meet our team, tour our community and find out what we do to make our community a place seniors are proud to call home. At Webster House we are comitted to providing seniors, families and caregivers with innovative senior living and care options.
E V E N T D E T A I LS Friday, February 12, 2010 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. RSVP to 650-327-4333 by Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tour our newly renovated apartments, including our Assited Living neighborhood. RSVP for you and a friend today!
Valet parking available
RCFE #435201904 CCRC 218
Webster House
650-327-4333
401 Webster St Palo Alto, CA
Call for care and service options. For more information visit us on the web at www.WebsterHousePaloAlto.com
GUIDE TO 2010 SUMMER C AMPS FOR KIDS
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Camp Directors:
There is still time to be included in Camp Connection -- Embarcadero Media’s new Summer advertising package for camps and schools. Camp Connection is a three part advertising program combining a full color magazine, online advertising and a newspaper directory.
Deadline is Wednesday, February 10 Call 650.223.6580 or 650.223.6579 for information. Page 18ĂŠUĂŠ iLÀÕ>ÀÞÊx]ÊÓä£äÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?Ăž
to Microsoft. The product morphed into Windows, and Myhrvold became Microsoft’s chief technology officer. Ironically, Apple and Microsoft, along with HP, would tangle in court over the similarity of Microsoft’s Windows user interface to Apple’s. “In the early days I worked for Apple, Sun, Oracle, just about every big company in the Valley,� he said. “In fact, over the years, I’ve represented almost everyone in the technology sector, except for Google.� “I really, frankly, don’t think one of these big companies is much different than the other. Some companies have smarter people, are more talented, or more creative, but in terms of corporate business goals, is Google really more on the side of the consumer than Microsoft? All these companies are out to make money. What protects us is the free market system,� he said. It is the maintenance of that system, which he believes provides a level playing field, that has served as the central axis for his career. In his book, he offers a tale of competition law in America, of mergers, monopolists and magnates, and what happens to markets and industries when they are allowed to run amok, unfettered by government regulation or guidance. Corporations, it turns out, are a little like teenagers; they need some ground rules. So it’s not that Reback is simply partial to underdogs. True, he has a tendency to represent challengers and smaller companies — anyone challenging the dominant paradigm. But his interest lies in ensuring the level playing field — and the ground rules — are maintained in an everchanging environment. Which made his involvement in the Google case more or less inevitable.
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riginally, Google set out to compile a digital index and called it the Google Books Library Project. It began by scanning works from major university libraries, including Stanford and Harvard. Then, it announced last summer it would begin selling digital versions of books online. Suddenly the library became a bookstore, Reback said. These scanned works show up in Google search results and include Reback’s own book on antitrust, “Free the Market.� In fact, one can search for references to Google within Reback’s book. “Technically, my book is not included in the settlement� because it was published after the settlement was reached, he said. “That’s what is so nefarious with this thing,� referring to Google’s copying of works without explicit author permission. It was difficult, initially, for those challenging the settlement to stir up public interest. After all, to most, having access to books online seems like a good idea. Complicating matters, the lengthy settlement itself induces insomnia, Reback said, and its machinations, in his view, are barely decipherable. “The settlement document is 300 pages long,� Reback said. “I’m a lawyer, and I can’t figure it out. I’ve never been able to read it through
Reback at a glance Personal: Married to wife Kathy. Has a daughter and a son. Residence: Portola Valley Recent book club reads: Jonathan Lethem’s “Chronic City� and Aravind Adiga’s “White Tiger� Last getaway: El Paso, Texas, to watch Stanford University football team lose to Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl Sunday afternoons: Walking Portola Valley trails with his wife Office accoutrement: A tiny Monopoly board in Lucite, to commemorate successful opposition to hostile takeover of Mattel. N
— Susan Kostal without falling asleep. How can we expect authors to understand what rights they are giving away with this settlement?� The settlement has wide implications for the Internet search industry, which is why Yahoo and Microsoft are interested. Reback believes that any search engine that can also tap into a vast digital library, as Google now can, will become a categorykiller in the search market, with serious chances of quickly wiping out any other competitors. “Google controls 70 percent of the organic search market and 90 percent of syndicated search,� Reback said. “If someone controls 90 percent of the steak-sauce market, do I really care about that? But search is not like other markets. It’s not even like other tech markets. Anyone who does business on the Web is dependent upon Google’s search engine. ... If you control search, you control those markets.� It’s not at all certain that Reback’s efforts will bear fruit. He is not representing any parties to the litigation directly but rather a consortium objecting to the settlement as a “friend of the court.� His is just one of numerous amicus briefs (400 objectors, by Reback’s count) that have been filed complaining about the reach and terms of the settlement. In his brief, Reback argues that Google’s power over the Web will be equal to John D. Rockefeller’s power in the oil industry in the late 1800s, which was aided by collusion from the railroads, who agreed to fix prices if Rockefeller transported his oil on their lines. Rockefeller’s sweet deal with the railroads allowed him to quickly buy up nearly all his local competitors. Google, Reback argues in the Open Book Alliance brief, will be able to “fix prices, restrain competition and retard technological advancement� in the digital-book industry if the settlement goes through. Samuelson’s own objections, which she has summarized in a letter to the court and elaborated upon in numerous blog postings, are based more on copyright grounds. She fears the judge in the case, Denny Chin, will not look at the broader antitrust issues raised by Reback but will confine himself to ruling whether the settlement was reached properly under the laws governing class actions.