IPcentral Weblog: November 2006 Archives

November 2006 Archives

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11.30.2006

Carr and Microsoft Team up on Google

Lets see here. It’s the holiday. Folks are finishing up their shopping lists, ready to flaunt hard-earned spending power on new tech gadgets. Companies have released top notch products for consumers. Seasonal beers are out. So everyone is in a good mood right? Not quite. Nicholas Carr, one of the most impressive technology writers I’ve seen, and Microsoft, have decided to beat up on Google, the company that exemplifies coolness to many tech buffs (compare Google’s cartoonish icon colors to images of Darth Vader conjured up when Microsoft is mentioned).

Carr states Google has stopped beating around the bush regarding its intentions of toppling Microsoft Office. Google wants to send Microsoft off into the sunset. No longer are Google’s online productivity applications destined for just “casual use.” This is in contrast with how Google has marketed SpreadSheet and Document as complements to Microsoft Office. As Carr remarks, that "pretense has been abandoned."

Continue reading Carr and Microsoft Team up on Google . . .

posted by Noel Le @ 6:14 PM | General

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The Wealth of Networks, Too Premature

Readers may have seen reviews of Yochai Benkler's book, The Wealth of Networks, by Patrick Ross and Nicholas Carr. Now, Professor Lior Strahilevitz from the University of Chicago has provided his insights on Benkler's work. Wealth without Markets? U Chicago Law & Econ, Olin Working Paper No. 315, 2007.

Strahilevitz commends Wealth of Networks as worth reading, and important to IP scholarship. However, Strahilevitz is skeptical of economic assumptions underpinning many of Benkler’s arguments. This is important. Benkler argues that legal rules will interfere with the potential of social production, however, if basic economic forces limit Benkler’s theories, his policy recommendations on IPRs become less significant. If IP policy is not a primary deterrant to the growth of social production, there is less reason to change it to accomodate social production.

The review summarizes Benkler’s core arguments. It suggests several shortcomings, including the fact that Benkler never gives a clear definition of social production. Strahilevitz cites the closest explanation as: “(social production is) not based on exclusive proprietary claims, not aimed toward sales on a market for either motivation or information, and not organized around property and contract claims to form firms or market exchanges.” If Benkler's statement illustrates his concept of social production, then many examples he uses do not fit within its parameters.

Continue reading The Wealth of Networks, Too Premature . . .

posted by Noel Le @ 4:00 PM | Academia , Free Culture Movement , Patents

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EU Wrestles with Copyrights

Much of the U.S. media focus regarding copyright policy in Europe has been focused on the Gowers Review in the UK, which is restricted to one country, is merely advisory and lacks the power of law. There is far more occurring across the pond, however.

EU flag.jpg

Most EU nations have now implemented the Copyright Directive, which like our DMCA put into law provisions accepted in two WIPO treaties. Much of the debate now, as in the US, is related to how to foster legal digital services while ensuring the fair compensation of rightsholders, and two major policy procedures are underway.

Continue reading EU Wrestles with Copyrights . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 12:01 PM | DMCA , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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Tech Divide over IP

Today's must-read: Mike Wendy of CompTIA on "Making Sense of the Tech Divide over IP" at CNET News.com. Beyond being a smart guy, Mike is also a good sport -- he didn't hold a grudge when I stole away one of CompTIA's best employees to work here at PFF.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:57 AM | Patents

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11.29.2006

AllofMP3.com Shut down?

This morning, I kept running across news reports that the Russian government finally relented and agreed to shut down AllofMP3.com, a website freqently cited by the USTR as a perfect illustration of Russia's poor record on IP enforcement.

I was just about post when my paranoid self decieded to check if it was really down or not.

Well, the site appears to still be up. In fact, the company hasn't even responded yet to the news. Earlier this month, however, they did post a handy "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Regarding The Legality of the AllOfMP3 pay service"

A sample:

Is the ALLOFMP3 pay service legal? Yes; we believe it is legal in Russia under Articles 44 and 45 of the Law of the Russian Federation No. 5351-1 "On Copyright and Related Rights" dated July 9, 1993, as amended, (the "Copyright Law"), which authorizes Russian non-profit Russian organizations for collective management of copyrights ("Russian Licensing Societies") to grant licenses to entities such as ALLOFMP3. ALLOFMP3 has up-to-date licenses from the Russian Licensing Societies, which includes license no. 006/3M-05 from the Federation of Rights Holders for Collective Management of Copyright with Respect to the Use of Musical Works in Interactive Regime ("FAIR") and license no. LS-3M-05-03 from the Russian Organization on Collective Management of Rights of Authors and Other Right Holders in Multimedia, Digital Networks & Visual Arts ("ROMS").
Article 44 of the Copyright Law allows holders of intellectual property rights to establish non-profit organizations such as ROMS. The Russian Copyright Law provides non-profit Russian Licensing Societies with a right to grant licenses and to collect royalties for the use of music without necessarily obtaining permission from the copyright owners, as stated in Article 45(3):

Such licenses grant the right to use (in a manner permitted by such licenses) all works of art and objects of related rights and are issued on behalf of all authors and related rightholders, including those who did not give an authorization to the organization [Russian Licensing Societies] as described in Section 2 of this Article. (emphasis added).

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 12:15 PM | Enforcement & Remedies , International

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Cheery Headline of the Day

From Tech Daily (subscription required): "Future For Mobile Smut Looks Bright, Analysts Say."

The story links to a USA Today report that "adult content on mobile devices will be worth $3.3 billion by 2011, up from $1.4 billion this year, according to industry analysts Juniper Research."

posted by James DeLong @ 9:31 AM | Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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IP & the Economy

I am off to a two-day conference on Defining the Future of IP in the Nation's Economy, put on by the Department of Commerce and the National Knowledge and Intellectual Property Management Task Force. The purpose of the symposium:

1) To create awareness about how IP related assets create new wealth in the nation’s economy. 2) To provide an over arching umbrella where private initiatives can find support, guidance, measurement and valuation practices to further strengthen the nation’s economic growth. 3) To improve America’s technological and innovative base where IP assets are major drivers of competitiveness. 4) To nurture consensus among leaders from business, finance, law, government and the regulatory/standards communities.

It should be entertaining (assuming one is a total IP nerd, that is).

posted by James DeLong @ 9:08 AM | Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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11.28.2006

KSR Argument

Here is the transcript of today's Supreme Court oral argument. Best line:

MR. GOLDSTEIN: -- remember, every single major patent bar association in the country has filed on our [Teleflex] side -
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Well, which way does that cut? That just indicates that this is profitable for the patent bar.
(Laughter.)

posted by James DeLong @ 4:17 PM | Patents

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Packaging

From Rough Type:

Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang . . . argues that both ends of the value chain - content creation and content distribution - are increasingly characterized by oversupply and hence weak profitability. Value, as a result, is migrating to the center of the value chain, where content aggregation and branding take place. The profit, in other words, is in packaging. Which means that, economically anyway, the middleman is still sitting pretty.

See The Long Tail: Why Aggregation & Context and Not (Necessarily) Content are King in Entertainment.

posted by James DeLong @ 1:09 PM | Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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