The Pointless Debate over Privacy
By Larry Downes on July 31, 2007 at 4:34 pm
In my current column in CIO Insight, href="http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2159182,00.asp">“The Pointless Privacy Debate” I write that the rhetoric spilled over data privacy issues is both unproductive and unreasoned.
The European Union, for example, recently hailed Google's pledge to anonymize retained search data after 18 months. Another EU directorate similarly hailed Google's earlier pledge to comply with EU requirements to retain private data for at least two years. Read more about The Pointless Debate over Privacy
On the Shoulders of Giants
By Larry Downes on June 18, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I write this month in CIO Insight, href="http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2124841,00.asp">“IP Law vs. Moore’s Law,” that the legal fiction treating intellectual creations as a kind of property has proven less and less useful as technology for creating, reproducing, and distributing those creations has grown faster, cheaper and smaller.
As partisans on both sides line up to begin shooting at each other in a copyright war, it's worth remembering that the fiction of intellectual property law was only an approximation. IP has never been given the same degree of legal protection as personal property or real estate, and for a very good reason. Read more about On the Shoulders of Giants
Supreme Court’s Patent Cases: Angels? Dancing? On?
By Larry Downes on May 2, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I’ve just read the opinions released on Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court in two separate patent cases, KSR v. Teleflex and Microsoft v. AT&T. Though the business press has no trouble finding lawyers eager to announce the enormous significance of these decisions (“trillions of dollars,” ad. nauseum), the truth is, as always, that these opinions have little immediate or obvious impact.
But what both demonstrate to me is the dangerous chasm between the real world and the world of law, a chasm that gets deeper and more deadly all the time. Read more about Supreme Court’s Patent Cases: Angels? Dancing? On?
(Cyber) Crime and Punishment - Worries about the Convention on Cybercrime
By Larry Downes on March 23, 2007 at 6:26 am
href="http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2100916,00.asp">My column in this month's CIO Insight describes a few of the big concerns I have with the Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime, which the U.S. Senate ratified over the summer.
The Justice Department took the unusual step of issuing a press release at the time announcing that, although in theory the treaty could lead to significant free speech and privacy issues, the U.S. wouldn't enforce it that way. Read more about (Cyber) Crime and Punishment - Worries about the Convention on Cybercrime
The revolution will be televised...on YouTube
By Larry Downes on March 14, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I am working in Europe this week with a large technology company, and of course everyone is talking about the filing of a $1 billion copyright infringement case against Google by Viacom. "We have rights management products that would solve the problem," one of my clients noted. "I don't understand why it isn't selling."
Maybe it's because Google doesn't think it has a problem. Maybe it's because what my client is offering isn't a solution, it's the raw material of weaponry in an escalating information war. Read more about The revolution will be televised...on YouTube