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Against Monopoly

defending the right to innovate

Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely.





Copyright Notice: We don't think much of copyright, so you can do what you want with the content on this blog. Of course we are hungry for publicity, so we would be pleased if you avoided plagiarism and gave us credit for what we have written. We encourage you not to impose copyright restrictions on your "derivative" works, but we won't try to stop you. For the legally or statist minded, you can consider yourself subject to a Creative Commons Attribution License.


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'She lacks rarity value.'

A key quote from a fascinating article on photographer Annie Lebovitz and the artificially induced pricing within the world of photographic art found here:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/76af3c7a-dbf2-11df-af09-00144feabdc0.html

[H/T: AndrewSullivan.com]

LimeWire flie sharing service on the ropes after latest court ruling

"A federal judge in New York issued an injunction on Tuesday that will essentially shut down LimeWire, the big music file-sharing service that has been mired in a four-year legal struggle with the music industry."

LimeWire was one of the more popular file sharing programs that grew in the aftermath of Napster's shutdown.

Read about the latest developments here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/technology/27limewire.html

Roadblocks to a National Digital Library

Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library, confronts them and argues that we should summon the willpower to overcome them.

He submits that: "'Despotism and priestcraft' have an antiquated ring to them, but the danger of restricting access to knowledge is as great today as it was two hundred years ago."

Read the rest here:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/oct/04/library-without-walls/

Cory Doctorow on 'The Real Cost of Free'

Highly recommended reading here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/oct/05/free-online-content-cory-doctorow

Does 'a guy who makes a really good chair owe money to anyone who ever made a chair?'

A great line from the new film The Social Network.

Lawrence Lessig gives a very insightful review of the film and explains how, in spite of it still being a solid film, writer Aaron Sorkin managed to miss the mark in crafting an even better (and ultimately, more honest) one.

It helps if you've already seen the film to fully appreciate the review which can be read here:

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/78081/sorkin-zuckerberg-the-social-network?page=0,0

Comics and SF Chronicle authors go to bat for copyright reforms

BoingBoing.net has all the links and goodness here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/26/comic-explains-the-f.html

A useful link to all of the SF Chronicle's recent coverage on the topic can also be found here:

http://topics.sfgate.com/topics/Copyright

Ron Coleman on 'Returning balance to the IP equation'

Ron Coleman writes an essay well worth reading on how trademark law has morphed into perverse measures at the hands of IP attorneys and big businesses looking to protect their turf in response to overall changes in the IP landscape.

A small sample:

Many "IP enforcement" attorneys believe that while there is no shortage of bona fide infringement to occupy at least a large number of them, trademark law practice has, to a very large extent, descended to an anti-competitive methodology utilized by dominant market players not to prevent consumer confusion, as was its original rationale, but to reduce consumer choice and overall welfare by preventing competition. For them, the signal development enabling this "evolution" must be widespread acceptance, on extremely dubious authority, of the doctrine of "initial interest confusion" ("IIC") in trademark as a substitute for the traditional standard requiring that a finding of infringement be based on evidence of a "likelihood of confusion" between the plaintiff's trademark and the device, words, or other branding mechanism utilized by the defendant.

Access the entire article through Mr. Coleman's blog here:

http://www.likelihoodofconfusion.com/?p=6576

Director Jean-Luc Godard: "There is no such thing as intellectual property."

Read the details and context of his statement over at BoingBoing.net here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/13/jean-luc-godard-dona.html

The Mass Collaborative Artistic Re-envisioning of Films: A study in (legal) contrasts

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated is a mass collaborative artistic re-envisioning of George A. Romero's 1968 cult classic, Night of the Living Dead.

International artists and animators were invited to select scenes from the film and reinvent them through their artwork.

The full and complete re-imagined work is currently available:

http://www.notldr.com/next/main.html

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Living-Dead-Duane-Jones/dp/B003GUGB8G

A similar artistic endeavor was performed with Star Wars, but the Star Wars Uncut website lists a message which states: "We have a fully edited version of the movie produced, but we are working through the legal issues in order to bring that to everyone as soon as possible."

Why is this? Simple - One film is in the public domain, and the other isn't.

Copyrighting Cocktail Drinks??

Conor Friedersdorf over at Andrew Sullivan's much-trafficked blog points to "an interesting post about craft cocktails and the impulse to protect certain recipes as intellectual property" as well as the reaction to the concept from a third blogger.

Read all about it and get the discussing links here:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/09/keeping-government-out-of-cocktails.html

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James Boyle's new book with his congenial IP views free to download

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1