01.28About
This blog is maintained and operated by Molly Wood and is in no way affiliated with or representative of CNET.com. Molly Wood is an executive editor and video personality at CNET TV, and co-host of Buzz Out Loud and other podcasts. She is a journalist by training and former reporter for The Associated Press. She is also prone to fits of fury over corporate malfeasance, overt patent trolling, overzealous attempts at business-model preservation via lawsuits against and harassment of consumers, and grammatical errors.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Hi Molly,
Thought you should see this: http://www.cio.com/article/print/185903
Would have emailed it to you rather than leave a comment, but you don’t have an email link here, and I didn’t think it appropriate to send personal blog material to you at CNet.
So you can erase the comment. Just wanted you to see what’s going on with EULA’s in Europe.
Joe
February 21st, 2008 at 6:30 am
Might I suggest using a del.ico.us tag of “cultureofownership” for stories that might be of interest in this space?
I’ve flagged an editorial piece from Monday’s National Post about the proposed “Song Tax” here in Canada with just such a tag.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Techdirt series on this subject looks interesting:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080220/020252302.shtml
March 6th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Hey Molly. Came across this article about a company trying to trademark a color…that’s right not a design but a color. I thought it was freaking ridiculous:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/16/technology/STRIPE17.php?page=2
March 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I know you like to discuss the economies of digital media — here is one angle that explains expiring movies on electronic devices:
BLOCKBUSTED:How a 30 year old assumption created the Blockbuster behemoth by picking Hollywood’s pockets.
“On almost every street that had small businesses on it, you could find a video rental store.
US copyright law provides the right of first sale—Effectively, what was happening was that the rental stores were charging a licensing fee for content they did not own—and the two dollars were going to the store owner’s pocketbook. ”
full article: http://txtat.com/skiptalk/blockbusted/
March 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Hi Molly,
We’re a huge fans of BOL and you’re frequent rants! I was thrilled that you started up this blog too! It’s an awesome medium and WordPress is great for blogging.
We’re an internet marketing firm – and we often optimize WordPress for clients from an SEO perspective. If you’re interested I’d love to help you out and optimize the site for you. No strings – just wanting to give back a little!
I can do it all for you or I can tell you what to do. Let me know if you’re interested
Thanks Molly!
March 19th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Ditto dogboi — maybe I should’ve del.icio.us’d this, and it’s on Boing Boign so maybe you’ll see it, but anyway here ya go — link to a story about how the Superman creator’s heirs have regained the copyright to Superman. Love to hear you comment.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/28/supermans-creators-h.html
Possible good unintended consequence of otherwise slimy Culture of Ownership? I mean, even slime has its good qualities. Useful on squeaky hinges, for instance.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The culture of ownership may prevent another ‘Superman’ movie to be made if Warner cannot come to terms with the Siegel estate. Basically this comes down to children fighting for a piece of their grandfather’s idea and making money off a movie they had nothing to do with. When will grandchildren learn to make up their own superheros?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/media/29comics.html
April 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am
Hi, Molly.
Although I am an Obama supporter, I thought it was interesting that Hillary mentioned “the ownership society,” even though she kind of spun it to mean something slightly different.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Hola Molly, This story needs the Molly treatment because it so wrong, I dont even know where to begin. Headline and link below:
Lawsuit Claim: Students’ Lecture Notes Infringe on Professor’s Copyright
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/prof-sues-note.html
April 4th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Good Day Molly.
I have a little rant here, if you want to expand on it.
BOA (Bank of America) has a patent pending for their “keep the change” policy. You know when you use your debit/credit card from them that pulls money from your checking account to pay for stuff? Their latest commercial talking about it ended with the usual legal ease, and then had this little tidbit at the end: Patent Pending…. Meaning the bank has submitted a patent for taking your money from your checking account and putting it in your savings! Very silly. (I don’t have a reference link, it was an audio commercial for LaSalle Bank – they are owned by BOA now.)
April 8th, 2008 at 11:53 am
French resistance rises against recently-implemented ISP-level filtering in France. Mierde!
http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-eu-parliament-warns-against-isp-monitoring-in-music-piracy-fight/
Love the show and this blog!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hey Molly,
My name is Tyson O’Donnell and I am a product marketing manager for iCopyright; an award-winning service that helps content creators protect, promote, and monetize their creative works, while not erecting barriers for people who want to share and use those works. I’ve noticed some of your blogs and podcasts about copyright issues and thought you and your readers might be interested in looking at our latest innovation. It’s called ©reators. It is a free service for writers, bloggers, photographers, and other types of content creators. We are in beta and hope to get constructive feedback from creators and users. Our goal is to strike that delicate balance between creator’s rights, user’s rights, and the greater good.
The ©reators beta site is
http://Creators.iCopyright.com
Please let me know if I can provide you with any additional information about iCopyright or ©reators.
Kind Regards,
Tyson O’Donnell
Product Marketing Manager
206-484-8561
Tyson@icopyright.com
http://Creators.iCopyright.com
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Molly,
Here’s something that is deeply disturbing about many of these patent infringement suits… particularly, these patent troll companies that sue simply because they own a portfolio of patents. Worse, these patent troll companies (who never make products) may be partially or wholly owned or funded by companies who have vested interests.
Patents were designed to protect a business from someone else creating the same (or mostly similar) physical tangible product and making money off of that tangible product for a limited period. That was, until software patents. What rubs me now is these generalized and obvious software patents that patent office insists on granting which are were created solely for monopolistic and extortionistic intent. The Sherman anti-trust act was enacted to prevent antitrust issues. Yet, the Patent office is willfully allowing violations of this very act by granting software patents that allow these antitrust activities to exist.
For example, a company named Catch Curve (that allegedly may be related to J2/efax) is now suing any and every fax company they can find related to some extremely generalized fax patents that they now own. I see this as a legalized form of protection racket. Pay protection or you end up out of business. So, if the company doesn’t pay their ‘royalties’, then the patent trolls effectively put the allegedly infringing company out of business. By putting companies out of business, I would consider that restraint of trade (which is considered anticompetitive). By forcing royalty payments, this also forces companies to sell their services at a minimum price (may be considered a form of price fixing).
I don’t understand how the government can condone and willfully allow the actions of anticompetitive companies. Yet, this is all done under the guise of being legal. Frankly, this issue will become a major problem that will threaten our entire economy (and every sector of it) within 10-15 years if left unchecked. There will be no sector that is left untouched by the patent trolls.
Given enough time, patent trolls will be able to patent every obvious software process, technique or system and then ‘validly’ extort any company who is using them. Own a copier that scans, sued. Print a PDF, sued. Play a video game, sued. Write a news article in a word processor, sued. Set up a web site that prints ‘Hello World’, sued. I guarantee you, no stone will go unturned if given enough time.
The US definitely needs reform in the patent system (especially software patents). and it needs to come sooner than later. The first step in this process would best be invalidating all current software patents and preventing future software patents forcing these trolls out of business.
–
Brian
July 9th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Missed your commentary recently, not gone I hope?
February 9th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Have you read The GridLock Economy ? By Michael Heller. He goes on for a whole book about exactly your point.
Here is a quote from the intro:
“A few years ago, a drug company executive presented me with an unsettling puzzle. His scientists had found a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, but they couldn’t bring it to market unless the company bought access to dozens of patents. Any single patent owner could demand a huge payoff; some blocked the whole deal. This story does not have a happy ending. The drug sits on the shelf though it might have saved millions of lives and earned billions of dollars.
Here’s a second high-stakes puzzle: What’s the most underused natural resource in America? The answer may be a surprise: it’s the airwaves. Over 90 percent of it is dead air because ownership of broadcast spectrum is so fragmented. As a result, our information economy is hobbled. Wireless broadband coverage in America lags far behind that in Japan and Korea. The cost of spectrum gridlock may be in the trillions of dollars.
And another: Why do we waste weeks of our lives stuck in airports? The answer here is real estate gridlock. Since air travel was deregulated thirty years ago, the number of fliers has tripled. But how many airports have been built in America since 1975? One: Denver. You can’t build new air¬ports, not anywhere, because multiple landowners can block every project. Twenty-five new runways at our busiest airports would end most routine air travel delays in America.”
Fascinating
Jean
February 16th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Molly; I caught your take on ACTA on one of your day-job podcasts, and wondered if it might be sufficient cause for a new post on this blog.
Some provisions mentioned reminded me of what I once heard John Dvorak refer to as “sovietization” – where a glut of contradictory laws exist to effectively give any “authority” tools to persecute & punish anyone for anything at their whim.
He could better explain the concept, but I think he attributed the inspiration to a trip to the old USSR & his experiences/observations.
I, for one, would love to hear your expanded take on ACTA & it’s ramifications.
When we’re all considered criminals, will anyone retain any respect for even sensible, just laws?
November 7th, 2009 at 8:19 am