Tag Archives: copyright

Are search engines illegal or fair use?

Posted on January 26, 2006 by ian

In a significant ruling reported by EFF and Boing Boing, Google’s cache is ruled to be legal and consistent with fair use. This likely helps pave the way for the book search project: The court granted summary judgment in favor … Continue reading →

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Are search engines illegal? The challenge of accessing copyrighted material under fair use and how it impacts our education.

Posted on January 22, 2006 by ian

Following the debate on fair use is a great way to dive into information economics. We all know and love that various kinds of media (audio, video, print…) are used to create songs, movies and books (or more generally “works”). … Continue reading →

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Welcome to 2006 where your ideas and even your DNA are own3d by someone else…

Posted on January 20, 2006 by ian

Now is a truly amazing time to be alive for the curious and adventurous – opportunities to do what you enjoy for a living have never been better. The information available on obscure interests is amazing. There is lots to … Continue reading →

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Infreemation and The Evolution of Memes – Rip, Mix and Burn

Posted on October 26, 2004 by ian

Why does “information want to be free”? I think the phrase is a good way of explaining to most people that information is really hard to treat like property. The cost of reproduction and transportation is absurdly low, thus it … Continue reading →

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Infreemation Revolution

Posted on October 5, 2004 by ian

The coming economic crisis in information I enjoyed reading Adam Rifkin’s back of the envelope calculations about personal information storage and processing. I’m looking forward to trying to make at least a few of the @20 Gigabytes of information I … Continue reading →

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Infreemation Part 3 – further reading

Posted on September 22, 2004 by ian

People to look to for futher reading on intellectual property, especially copyright and patent. John Perry Barlow Wrote the influential Economy of Ideas in 1994 which is a great introduction to some of the issues facing intellectual property. I read … Continue reading →

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The Induce Act

Posted on September 14, 2004 by ian

This proposed legislation would make it illegal for any company to develop products which are capable of digital copyright infrigement if a significant market demand is generated by individuals with the intent to use the product primary for such infringement. … Continue reading →

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Infreemation Part 2 – the tragedy of the intellectual commons

Posted on August 2, 2004 by ian

Intellectual properties include copyright, trademark, patent, trade secrets and mask works. (yes I needed to look that one up also!) The laws that govern such properties and their relationship to society were designed to foster investment in creativity and innovation … Continue reading →

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Do not pass GO, do not collect $200

Posted on July 31, 2004 by ian

If you are, at a minimum, a consumer of copyrighted materials (e.g. books, movies, television, art, music) and especially if you are a creator of such content, and finally MOST ESPECIALLY if you care about diversity of culture and freedom … Continue reading →

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Infreemation

Posted on June 15, 2004 by ian

I am reading Joseph Stiglitz’ Globalization and Its Discontents. A fascinating look at the politics of international finance, particularly the World Bank, IMF and US Treasury. He makes an interesting point early on about how market transactions and their profitability … Continue reading →

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