This page is part of an in-progress commentary by Roger
Frye
on High Altitude
Thinking: The International Informatics Summit.
Traditional definitions: patents, copyrights, trademarks ...
IP takes center stage. Focus on high growth industries that are IP centered = information tech, biotech, etc.
Technology driven service economy. speed of creation, more efficient forms of dissemination.
Entertainment and Tech. 80s and early 90s -- digital tech as the envolving basis for media development and media transport and formats. Mid 90s -- development of online as a marketing channel, fledgling DRM systems. Late 90s-- ongoing deployment of digital carriets. Napster et. al. and associated litigation. Current -- continued march of digital deployment, ongoing antagonism between the tech and the entertainment sectors.
Napster proved incredible value of tagging word of mouth value, but if you don't provide a model where creators get worth, it fails.
From a distance: Entertainment vs Tech
Entertainment: zealous defenders of IP rights (correct), techno phobic, focused on controlling distribution (if you don't want to, go back to academia).
Tech industries: digital entertainment as information, information wants to be free, free flow sells IT and CT.
Underlying dynamics. Etertainment: repeatable development of engaging entertainment products. Ever increasing consumer demands, ever increasing costs. Market making through broad windowed distribution -- the broader the better. A digita future holds incredible potential.
Sources of conflict: old news = consumer frustration, religious differences. Current: what needs to be done to create a legitimate market and who wins.
IP PROTECTION (ta dah!) No -- IP market making.
Intellectual property (bits) as commercial tangible assets (products). Must be based on buyers and sellers. Compare napster to shoplifting. Difference between music and movies. Focus on choice. Movies in theater, rental, buy, watch on cable or regular TV.
The need for operational infrastructures -- market making technology, collaboration between industries, supportive public policy.
IP Market Making. IP as a commercial asset: a universal policy model? The sociology of IP market making. The global economics of IP market making. Compare technical company IP formation.
Question Nigerians ignoring drug manufacturing and selling laws. Answer Canadians look at it as black and white. Different ways of looking at the world. Try interchanging the words company and countries.
Question. Lessig arguments. IP as permanent vs time limited. Answer: Disagree with core of argument. Different timing for different IP.
Question what is fair use. Answer: well defined. you can defend zealously but there are uses that are ok for public good like kid using on a project or a professor quoting. Issue is consumer expectations. Have changed because of advent of digital tech.
END