Facebook, ConnectU Go to Court Over Business Idea

A hearing in a dispute between Facebook and ConnectU wrapped up with no ruling, after the federal judge overseeing the matter had closed the proceedings to the public and the press. U.S. District Judge James Ware plans to issue a ruling before too much time has elapsed, attorneys involved in the matter said as they left the courthouse here following the hearing, which lasted somewhat less than two hours.

Read the article: CNET News.com

Antitrust Officials Evaluating IE Explorer 8

Antitrust regulators are evaluating the forthcoming Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 as part of ongoing activities to ensure Microsoft is in compliance with the final judgment in two landmark antitrust cases that involved individual states and the U.S. government. Microsoft and antitrust regulators also said they were concentrating on revising and extending documentation the software company is making available as part of its Microsoft Communications Protocol Program.

Read the article: InfoWorld

Is McCain Really Saying eBay Will Save The Economy?

First off, before we get into the details here, I'll state upfront that I have not yet decided who to support in this year's Presidential election. I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I've seen plans from both sides that I find problematic. Still, it bugs me when I see plans from either side mischaracterized, and I believe that's the case with this somewhat mocking criticism of McCain's "jobs plan" as being "the eBay model" (sent in by reader Rose M. Welch). At issue, is the fact that McCain has repeatedly referred to the 1.3 million people around the globe who "make a living off EBay."

As the article notes, the figure is clearly exaggerated. However, many of the other criticisms of what McCain says seems misguided. It seems like a stretch for anyone to think that McCain is suggesting that people will find jobs selling on eBay. Rather, he's using the example of eBay to note that innovation leads to new ways for people to make money -- using the rise of the ecosystem around eBay as an example -- not as the definitive method for creating jobs. And, on that, he's correct. Continued innovation does tend to lead to job growth.

The second part of the criticism that seems incredibly unfounded, is the assertion by a few economists that eBay is just a business model for moving junk around, and that it doesn't add anything to the GDP. This is simply incorrect, and it's really strange that prominent economists would make such an assertion. eBay is about making an efficient market. Plenty of people use it to sell new products, rather than just "junk." And, many of the people who use eBay to "make a living" do so by adding value to products which they then resell. That does add to GDP. eBay is about a lot more than just moving around junk. In fact, a rather large percentage of our GDP is based on taking already built goods, adding value to them and reselling them. To pretend this doesn't happen on eBay is simply incorrect.

Now, before anyone thinks that this means I support McCain's economic positions, I don't. I think his continued disdain for basic economics, and his seeming assumption that economics can be handled by someone else is problematic. And, of course, his proposed gas tax holiday is just downright nutty.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Market effect analysis in fair use must consider potential markets

The Ninth Circuit failed to acknowledge the relevance of obvious future markets when it ruled in favor of Google in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.  In doing so, it effectively awarded to Google and others a market that that rightfully belongs to the copyright owner.

 

The issue in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 2007 WL 1428632 (9th Cir. 2007) was whether thumbnail images used in a search engine without authority of the copyright owner were infringing. The court, as it had in the Arriba Soft case, again concluded that the thumbnails were transformative in nature and that their use in an online search engine, coupled with the lack of any impact on an existing market for the full-size images, constituted fair use. The case, however, presented a slight change in the circumstances in Arriba In Perfect 10, the copyright owner had in fact begun to market thumbnail (reduced) versions of its copyrighted images for use in cell phones.

The lower court had concluded that this fact and the potential that there would be a market for such images in other contexts indicated that the defendant’s use had a market impact. The court of appeals, however, suggested that this hypothetical market was insufficient given that there was no evidence that users of the search engine downloaded the thumbnail images for cell phone or other use.

But there is a troubling circularity to the market effects analysis here. The market for the thumbnails could include licensing their use in search engines, except that the court’s fair use analysis eliminates this potential market and does so based on the analysis that the market does not exist. This circular analysis deprives the copyright owner of the opportunity to full exploit its work by developing markets over time, since it suggests that another party that enters a market defined by modified versions of the original work (e.g., derivative works of it) before the copyright owner may in fact preempt that field of use. That cannot be what is meant by market impact in the fair use standard.

What is wrong in the court’s analysis is that it failed to consider the likelihood that a copyright owner in general or that this copyright owner in specific would opt into a market defined by online use of thumbnail versions of its works. In fact, in this case and in this era, that likelihood is strong.

Web Emerges As Top Business Info Source For Execs

The number of senior execs who get their news from the Web rose by 22% since 2004, while those who prefer a newspaper dropped 11% during the same period.