Archive for June 2006
Blockbuster Goes Antitrust on Netflix
“Responding to a lawsuit that Netflix leveled against it two months ago, Blockbuster said on Tuesday that it has filed an antitrust counterclaim alleging that its online rival is trying to use the courts to secure a monopoly for itself.
“Netflix, the first company to market a DVD-by-mail subscription service, sued Blockbuster in April claiming that its Blockbuster Online infringed on patents it held. Netflix maintained that when it launched in 1999, such a service was not obvious.”
Paul Bond. Blockbuster Counters Netflix Suit. WashingtonPost.com. June 14, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
- Ars Technica. Blockbuster Fires Back At Netflix With Suit of Its Own. June 14, 2006.
- U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Approach for Renting Items to Customers (Patent No. 7,024,381 assigned to Netflix Inc.). April 4, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Senate Wrestles With Net Neutrality
“Taking cues from earlier proposals in the House of Representatives, key senators on Wednesday said they too are pondering legislation that would police violations of so-called Net neutrality under antitrust law.
“The idea that network operators must grant equal treatment to all Internet content and applications that use their pipes is ‘very, very high on the agenda,’ Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter said at a hearing here. Internet innovators are understandably ‘concerned their access could be cut off, degraded or become an expensive barrier to entry.’
“Specter said he was working with Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican who leads the Senate Commerce Committee, on a ‘coordinated plan’ to address the issue.”
Anne Broache. Senate Ponders Policing of Net Neutrality Offenses. News.com. June 14, 2006.
The Web 2.0 Effect on Business
“Unless you’re a diehard techie, though, good luck figuring out what Web 2.0 means. Web 2.0 technologies bear strange names like wikis, blogs, RSS, AJAX, and mashups. And the startups hawking them — Renkoo, Gahbunga, Ning, Squidoo — sound like Star Wars characters George Lucas left on the cutting-room floor.
“But behind the peculiarities, Web 2.0 portends a real sea change on the Internet. Web 2.0 sites are not online places to visit so much as services to get something done — usually with other people. From the photo-sharing site Flickr and the group-edited online reference source Wikipedia to the teen hangout MySpace, they all virtually demand active participation and social interaction.
“Though these Web 2.0 services have succeeded in luring millions of consumers to their shores, they haven’t had much to offer the vast world of business. Until now. Slowly but surely they’re scaling corporate walls.”
Robert Hof. Web 2.0 Has Corporate America Spinning. BusinessWeek Online. June 5, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
- Martin LaMonica. Microsoft: Online Services For Businesses, Too. News.com. June 11, 2006.
- Tim O’Reilly. What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. O’Reilly. Sept. 30, 2005.
Updates:
- Stefanie Olsen. Social Networks–Future Portal or Fad? News.com. June 14, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Digitization Battle Intensifies As California Chooses Microsoft
“Two leading research institutions haven issued library cards to Microsoft so the software giant and search up-and-comer can scan their collections.
“The University of California and the University of Toronto libraries have agreed to lend their collections of out-of-copyright material held in trust. In concert with the Open Content Alliance, Microsoft will scan and index the materials for use in its Windows Live Book Search, according to a Microsoft statement issued last week.
“Like Google Book Search and Amazon.com’s Look Inside feature, Windows Live Book Search is being designed to enable full-text searches of books. The Microsoft project, however, will be built slightly differently than Google Book Search.”
Candace Lombardi. U.C. System Signs On To Microsoft Book-Scan Project. News.com. June 9, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
- Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft to Collaborate With University of California and University of Toronto Libraries for Windows Live Book Search. (Press Release) June 8, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Pornographers Against Piracy
“What worries Jason Tucker, a new breed of pornographer that heads Falcon Foto, isn’t the possibility of a raid on Falcon’s studio — a 40-acre farm north of Los Angeles — or a congressional hearing scrutinizing his industry. It’s piracy. Falcon, which he runs with his former-model wife, Gail Harris, owns the rights to more than 2 million photos and 350 videos.
“At a recent shoot at the ranch, Tucker is livid after learning that a Falcon-owned photo appeared in a magazine without authorization, having been downloaded from the Internet.
“The pornography business, once relegated to a dark corner of the media world, has become a powerful, if unlikely, ally with mainstream Hollywood in the battle against digital piracy. But where mainstream companies fret endlessly before deciding how to proceed with new technologies and business models, the never-bashful porn industry is making some moves that may well show the way for Hollywood.”
BusinessWeek Online. The Pornographers vs. The Pirates. June 19, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Presidential Library Begins Digitization Program
“The entire collection of papers, documents, photographs and audio recordings of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy is to be digitized and made available online.
‘The 10-year project to build a new digital library is a joint collaboration between IT vendor EMC, the JFK Documents to Be Digitized, Published Online and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.”
“The archives of the Kennedy Presidential Library’s research facilities currently include more than 8.4 million pages of the personal, congressional and presidential papers of JFK, along with more than 40 million pages of 300-plus other individuals who were associated with the Kennedy Administration or mid-20th century U.S. history.”
Andy McCue. JFK Documents to Be Digitized, Published Online. News.com. June 12, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Appeals Court Allows Online Wiretaps
“The Bush administration’s plans to force Internet providers to comply with extensive wiretapping rules received a boost on Friday, when a federal appeals court upheld the controversial regulations.
“A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., refused to overturn the Internet surveillance regulations, saying the Federal Communications Commission made a ‘reasonable policy choice’ when approving them last fall. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, applauded the ruling.
“Judge Harry Edwards, who had called the FCC’s arguments ‘gobbledygook’ and ‘nonsense’ during oral arguments before the appeals court last month, dissented. He said the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, does not give the FCC ‘unlimited authority to regulate every telecommunications service that might conceivably be used to assist law enforcement.'”
Declan McCullagh. Appeals Court Upholds Net-Wiretapping Rules. News.com. June 9, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. American Council on Education v. Federal Communications Commission & U.S. (No. 05-1404). (.pdf) June 9, 2006.
- U.S. Code. Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, 47 U.S. sec. 1001, et. seq. (Courtesy of Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute.)
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
COPYCENSE 