As we move into ... a less-protectionist cycle of intellectual property policy, Lessig's book will serve as an excellent guide.

Opening Arguments: WashPost reviews _The Future of Ideas_

Stanford professor and author Lawrence Lessig gives a preview of his new book in the latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Here's the lead-in:

Who owns the Internet? Until recently, nobody. That's because, although the Internet was "Made in the U.S.A.," its unique design transformed it into a resource for innovation that anyone in the world could use. Today, however, courts and corporations are attempting to wall off portions of cyberspace. In so doing, they are destroying the Internet's potential to foster democracy and economic growth worldwide.

The Internet Under Siege | Larry Lessig in _Foreign Policy_

A report on the Cato Institute conference held this week. I logged the conference site in this topic back on November 11.

John Perry Barlow said, "I think I can safely say that history of the 21st century is going to be about the struggle between open systems and closed systems ... This is going to be an interesting and complex struggle ..."

Rick Boucher wants Congress to pass legislation that will promote competition in the business of online music services. Remember the Telecom Act, anyone? (Remember? The act that brought you the CDA?) Thanks, but no thanks. Online music services are already meeting everyone's needs, except perhaps the RIAA's, and if so it's their own fault for stalling so long.

Intellectual property conference: Copyright law has gone too far

A 71-page text by Pamela Samuelson of UC Berkeley. A well-researched, up-to-date document with lots of footnotes and references to more details on the subject. Outline:

Reverse Engineering ...
    ... in Traditional Manufacturing Industries
    ... In the Semiconductor Industry
    ... in the Computer Software Industry
    ... of Technically Protected Digital Content
    ... as a Policy Lever

The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering [PDF]

"In Copyrights and Copywrongs, Siva Vaidhyanathan tracks the history of American copyright law through the 20th century, from Mark Twain's vehement exhortations for "thick" copyright protection, to recent lawsuits regarding sampling in rap music and the "digital moment," exemplified by the rise of Napster and MP3 technology. He argues persuasively that in its current punitive, highly restrictive form, American copyright law hinders cultural production, thereby contributing to the poverty of civic culture."

Two chapters and the epilogue from this book are freely available at the author's web site. Larry Lessig calls it "a rich and compelling account of the bending of American copyright law, and a promise of the balance that we could once again make the law become."

Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity

"Intellectual property protection has always been a contentious field of study, but one largely left to ivory tower elites and industry insiders. With the rise of the Internet, however, IP disputes have become a matter of widespread public interest and concern. Controversial issues and questions abound: What rights do artists and inventors have in their intellectual creations? Now that "Napsterization" of copyrighted works is upon us, do we need to rework incentives for promoting the "useful arts"? Should newer works receive the same copyright protection as the existing body of copyrighted material? Or can existing laws along with market solutions, such as digital rights management, protect copyrights? Is there still a role for compulsory licensing, or has digitization taken away the market failure arguments that supported it in the past? Is the anti-circumvention provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act unconstitutional? And when does "fair use" become an illegal circumvention? On the patent front, are new forms of "business method patents" a break from the past, or are they simply a logical evolution of existing standards? Those issues and many others will be explored in this one-day Cato conference."

Speakers include John Perry Barlow, Mike Godwin, Declan McCullagh, Patrick Leahy, Robin Gross, Mitch Glazier, Rick Boucher, and Peter Wayner.

The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age

"The present patent system was developed on the basis of the Paris Convention, which established the fundamental layer of the patent systems all over the world almost 120 years ago when the international exhibition was held in Paris. It is now time to review the paradigm and architecture. WIPO has spent the last decade looking at ways to improve the system, looking specifically at ways to make it easier for users to obtain patents in a variety of countries. Recently, WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) has been spotlighted as a very effective means to seek patent protection all over the world in the era of globalization. But there is still concern about the accessibility to users in developing countries of the current patent system because in order to participate in a globalized economy, the developing world must find ways to work within the current patent system."

Tradition, modernity clash as debate on IPR imminent

"Welcome to the National Academies' Intellectual Property website. From Internet content protection to human gene patenting, IP rights in many forms have emerged from legal obscurity to public debate. This website serves as a guide to the Academies' extensive work on Intellectual Property and a forum to discuss ongoing work."

Current articles include:
    New Research on the Operation and Effects of the Patent System
    Internet Navigation and the Domain Name System
    Global Networks and Local Values

IP @ The National Academies

A generation ago, a communications scholar named Ithiel de Sola Pool wrote "Technologies of Freedom: On Free Speech in an Electronic Age." Pool's book predicted a future of interconnected computers. ... networked computers would become the platform for new forms ... Pool also predicted that established players would resist this change. ... Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor, picks up this story of the present resisting the future in "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World," a highly readable and deeply engaging sequel to his "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace." In "The Future of Ideas," Lessig also sees dominant players exercising control through the law, technical standards and political might to resist the change that might otherwise take place."

EPIC's Mark Rotenberg reviews Larry Lessig's new book.

Internet liberation theology

"This paper deals with "Napster Music Community," a program that connects 60 million of music fans and enables them to exchange music files. The main hypothesis is that Napster is an example of an imagined and network community. The first section of the paper gives a theoretical background to the problems addressed: the notions of community and network, the concepts of imagined and network community, as well as the debate on virtual communities are extensively discussed there. Pundits such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Emile Durkheim, Benedict Anderson, Barry Wellman, Morris Janowitz, Robert Putnam and others are consulted. The third part of this paper consist firstly of an analysis of the Napster software that aims at demonstrating the structure for the actors to interact within, and secondly addresses 14 variables that have been distinguished as descriptive of an imagined and network community. In conclusion several implications from the research are drawn."

The Napster Music Community