APPEALS COURT REVERSES CABLEVISION DVR DECISION
By Solveig Singleton, "Appeals Court Reverses Cablevision DVR Decision ," August 14, 2008
On the whole, the case's language is less of a victory for the "tech" side than the bare result suggests. Remote DVR has escaped the frying pan, to find itself uncomfortably close to the Grokster fire. [Read More]
DELONG: FINANCE, BUSINESS MODELS AND REGULATION
James DeLong, "DELONG: Finance, business models and regulation," The Washington Times, August 1, 2008
COMMENTARY:
In the stupefying volume of commentary on the financial crisis, some elementary questions are not just unanswered but unasked. Since these have serious implications for evaluating proposals for increased bailouts and regulation, they darn well better be asked.
The key question is this: Given that the forces of globalization and technology are undermining business models of many kinds, is the crisis due to the fact that the business models of some of the largest financial institutions have become unworkable? [Read More]
IS CHEAPER ALWAYS BETTER? MISUSING THE CONCEPT OF MARGINAL COST IN POLICY DISCUSSIONS
Solveig Singleton, "Is Cheaper Always Better? Misusing the Concept of Marginal Cost in Policy Discussions," July 24, 2008
The influence of economics on policy culture has generally been for the good, contributing to deregulation and the liberalization of policy around the world. [Read More]
EBAY'S ONLINE TRADEMARK VICTORY OVER TIFFANY
Solveig Singleton, "eBay's Online Trademark Victory Over Tiffany," DRM Watch, July 16, 2008, available at [DRM Watch]
A federal court opinion in an online trademark case could have interesting implications for websites' and online services' responsibilities toward their users' copyright infringements, including the use of filters that screen out unauthorized copyrighted works. The jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. sued eBay, arguing that the online auction site did not do enough to prevent auctions of counterfeit Tiffany’s goods. [Read More]
REGULATORY POLICY
In ["What's_Your_Regulatory_Policy?"_TCS_Daily, June 18, 2008,] CLI Adjunct Scholar Solveig Singleton says that troubled financial markets, concerns about network neutrality, and aggressive trustbusters are triggering new calls for government regulation. But, she argues, "Before embracing new regulatory panaceas, it would be wise to revisit the reasons why we rejected the old ones just a few years ago."
Dedication to deregulation is on the wane, but few ideas on how to improve the regulatory process have been put forward, which makes it likely that new regulatory schemes will repeat the dysfunctions of the old.
When markets fail, says Singleton, they tend to self-correct, often through simple Darwinism. "Poor investors and badly run businesses lose (their own) money until they go under. Technology and other factors that bring change keep even established firms on their toes."
For regulatory failures, "In contrast, self-correction is not a common response to.... There is no good explanation for how an agency or a system of rules can be designed to systematically succeed or self-correct."
Singleton's conclusion: "Some technologists are alarmed that so few presidential candidates have a technology policy. But it is even more alarming that none of them have a regulatory policy."
The article is reprinted at [TCS Daily].
ORPHAN WORKS
James DeLong argues in C\Net News (May 20, 2008) (Orphan Works: Half a loaf), that the pending bills are good, but that aggregators are going to need more leeway:
"These possible-orphan, sort-of-orphan, and gray literature works simply cannot be made available if the digitizers are required to make one-by-one judgments and seek permission before copying. If they are to be retrieved in useful form, then sooner or later Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and some others must be permitted to digitize on a massive scale."
For a version with links, go here.
NETWORK & PLATFORM COMPANIES
May 08, 2008
James DeLong's article "Avoiding a Tech Train Wreck," which looks at issues surrounding network and platform companies (e.g., Net Neutrality; Windows complements), is out in THE AMERICAN. The press release, which serves as an Executive Summary, is linked below.
Anyone interested in these issues (a taste acquired only by a select group), should find it interesting.
James V. DeLong, "Avoiding a Tech Train Wreck," THE AMERICAN, May/June 2008
For a version with hyperlinks: "Avoiding a Tech Train Wreck" [LINKED VERSION]
Press Release
REGULATORS AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
James DeLong has some thoughts. (Read More)
LONG-TERM COLLABORATION
Kyle D. Dixon and Raymond L. Gifford, "Complementing Advocacy with Private Trust Systems and other Long-Term Collaboration," March 2008 [PDF] |
