Today’s New York Times features a peculiar editorial titled ‘Would the Bard Have Survived the Web?’, by Authors Guild representatives Scott Turow, Paul Aiken, and James Shapiro in advance of tomorrow’s Senate Judiciary hearing on targeting websites engaged in IP infringement. The column proposes the counterfactual notion that Shakespeare could not have survived in the age of…
Friends of mine who are real movie buffs with an enviable home theater and other wonderful rooms throw an annual Oscars party complete with red carpet and guests dressed up as characters from the year’s hit flicks. “Creative Hollywood” is the attire. I’ve channeled June Carter Cash, Amelia, and Black Swan. This year I’m going…
In the wake of successful, widespread Internet activism against SOPA and PIPA, some momentum has been driven to ACTA, which may be a new four-letter acronym to many people, but has been around for years. ACTA negotiations began in 2006, with the U.S. as one of the first involved nations. ACTA stands for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade…
In December, the long awaited version 2.0 of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) was released by the European Commission. Version 1.0 had defined “open standard” as royalty-free, a definition of enormous impact on standards policy because it focused on the user perspective rather than the perspective of standards development organizations. Some standards organizations claim that…
As Congress returns this week, intellectual property reform will likely be high on the agenda of the Judiciary committee’s new Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet. Patent mayhem has not abated during the hiatus in reform efforts. The unprecedented litigation foodfight in the smartphone marketplace, for example, continues to grow, with Sony filing ITC claims against LG. …
As Congress returns this week, intellectual property reform will likely be high on the agenda of the Judiciary committee’s new Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet. Patent mayhem has not abated during the hiatus in reform efforts. The unprecedented litigation foodfight in the smartphone marketplace, for example, continues to grow, with Sony filing ITC claims against LG. …
On 15th November the parties negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Australia, Canada, EU, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and the U.S.) published the finalized version of the agreement. At the end of November, a so-called technical meeting to finalize the legal wording will take place in Sydney. Today, as a step to clear the…
The results of this week’s mid-term elections have been linked to a public desire for “smaller government” or hostility to “big government.” Assuming this is the case, it may be useful to consider what implications a small-government philosophy has for important policy debates, such as the effort to reform the vast federal patent system. Patent…
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement may have been negotiated behind closed doors, but the Washington International Trade Association hosted an open discussion on the final draft of the controversial agreement. Computer & Communications Industry Association President & CEO Ed Black told those gathered that he had problems with both the substance and the process of how…
