[Ecommerce] InformationWeek: "Let's fix things At Home"

[Manon Ress]

InformationWeek Sept. 26, 2005

http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=171200497

Editor's Note: Before We Educate The Foreigners, Let's Fix Things At
Home


My colleague Tish Keefe argued Friday that she hoped U.S. Commerce
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez misspoke when he said that fighting
intellectual-property theft was a top priority for the Bush
administration. She notes that there are plenty of other, more
pressing issues that should be of greater concern for the federal
government.


Tish is right, but I don't think she goes far enough. Before we
educate the foreigners on how to correct their intellectual-property
practices, we need to correct our own.


The United States hasn't had any kind of intelligent intellectual-
property policy since 1999, when Napster caused a tsunami of music
downloading. Since then, intellectual-property law has been driven by
panic and fear. The recording industry started suing everybody in
sight and pushing legislation through Congress expanding copyright
and rights of enforcement. Meanwhile, established corporations like
the SCO Group are trying to expand patent law and other intellectual-
property protections in efforts that are stifling innovation.


Digital-rights management, or DRM, of consumer media is the most
visible symptom of the United States' broken intellectual-property
policy. Media and electronics companies are pouring fortunes into
developing DRM technology. DRM is just plain bad business: It's
expensive and unreliable, and it restricts customers' ability to use
media as they want to. The DRM vendor's best hope is that the
restrictions won't be too onerous. TiVo is learning that lesson the
hard way.


Intellectual property is at the core of a recent lawsuit against
Google. Google is getting ready to relaunch a program that will
search inside copyrighted books the way that Google now searches
inside Web pages. The Authors Guild is suing, saying Google should
ask permission of the copyright owners before indexing their books.


In the ideal universe, the Google case would be decided by a public
policy initiative, recognizing that the emergence of electronic media
requires a revision of U.S. intellectual-property laws in such a way
that public benefit and private right of property are balanced
fairly. But we don't live in the ideal universe, so instead the case
of the Authors Guild vs. Google will likely be decided by the side
that has the lawyers with the fanciest suits.


I've got some more to say about this subject. For the full-length
version of this Editor's Note, or to leave a comment about it, see my
entry on the InformationWeek Weblog.


By the way, if you only read Tish's comments in the Editor's Note you
haven't read the whole thing; you can find the rest here.


Mitch Wagner
mwagner@cmp.com
www.informationweek.com





************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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