Increasingly, software businesses are suing 3rd party providers on the basis of copyright. Whether those 3rd party providers are in breach depends a lot on context – there’s no easy answer. But is it a good idea to use IPRs to force vendor lock-in on your customers? Rimini Street is a fairly young business, it Read more …
Tag Archives: Open Source
Open Source hardware – does it work?
Open Source hardware is the next step in the development of “open” licenses; A review of the most important OS hardware licenses show them to be a combination of known techniques, like creative commons, and “covenant not to sue” for patents or design rights; Their validity and enforceability seem somewhat weaker than the software Open Read more …
Characteristics of a new copyright system (ctd)
In my three previous posts, I explained why I believe the current copyright system is broken, what the requirements of a new system would be, and what the characteristics of a new system could be. That last post only addressed part of the characteristics – here’s the rest. 1. The platform will become a social Read more …
Characteristics of a new copyright system.
In the two previous posts, I explored the problems with the current copyright system, by examining the wrong (19th century) assumptions on which the current system is based, and I made an attempt at trying to describe the requirements of a new copyright system. In this third post, as well as the next one, I Read more …
Requirements of a new copyright system.
As I explained in my previous post, the current copyright system is highly dysfunctional. It doesn’t even come close to achieving its twin goals of promoting and protecting creativity. The main reason is that its underlying principles reflect a 19th century reality, rather than a 21st century one. In this post, I will take a Read more …
Is copyright registration the elephant in the room?
I’m at a seminar on how technology impacts IP rights, and the way they work in business. When people talk about copyright, I see a lot of instances where copyright becomes more and more dependent upon registration. Examples are the proposals to set up exchange fora (like a marketplace) for stuff that’s under copyright. Basically, Read more …
So who decided to privatize IPRs?
Facebook was already problematic, as I’ve written before. When you post your IPR on Facebook (your logo, trademark, music, etc.), Facebook has effectively an unlimited right to do with your IPR whatever they want. For free. But there is more: Facebook has asked trademark owners to register their trademark with Facebook. What does that mean? Read more …
Lego builds new Intellectual Capital
It is probably fair to say that most people know Lego, the little building block toys. Most of us played with them as children. I remember that I didn’t actually like to construct the things Lego wanted me to make. Rather, I used to come up with the most bizarre and absurd constructions. My father, Read more …
Google Apps – who owns them?
I’ve written about software written by other software before on this blog. Now the practice is really taking off: Google has released its Google Android Apps inventor program. What does it mean? Anybody registered can start developing Google Android Apps. These are applications (software), where not a single line of code is written by humans. Read more …
Software, the viral business
As the software part of more and more products becomes the most important part of the customer experience and the value proposition, software businesses, with their superior knowledge of software business models, are well placed to take over more and more “classical” industries. Recently, the Financial Times reported that mobile phones with the Google Read more …