Against Monopoly

defending the right to innovate

Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely.

Kemo Sabe

An elaborated response to Paul Krugman. And thanks to the commentators on the original post for helping me clarify my thinking about this.

[Posted at 09/18/2009 09:26 AM by David K. Levine on Financial Crisis comments(0)]

The key point in analyzing patents is the fact that years of exploring statistical evidence by economists hasn't found any evidence they work to encourage innovation. Kevin Smith of Duke - who is very interested in copyright - has been pouring over economic data and stumbled over the same fact. Facts are stubborn things.

(hattip: Ruth Lewis)

[Posted at 09/16/2009 06:56 AM by David K. Levine on Innovation comments(15)]

Save the Whales!

Find out how here.

[Posted at 09/15/2009 10:48 AM by David K. Levine on Intellectual Monopoly comments(0)]

Catch 22

[Posted at 09/14/2009 07:32 AM by John T. Bennett on Financial Crisis comments(18)]

Speak for yourself kemo sabe

I seem to be getting overwhelmed with people asking about or commenting on Paul Krugman's article How Did Economists Get It So Wrong. Since we've posted on this blog about the crisis before, let me give a brief reply.

Dear Paul:

Who are these economists who got it so wrong? Speak for yourself kemo sabe. And since you got it wrong - why should I believe your theories?

Regards,

David

[Posted at 09/10/2009 12:58 PM by David K. Levine on Financial Crisis comments(19)]

Ban the Phonograph!!

(via Robert Levine) The invention of the phonograph was going to discourage people from going out to see live music. The introduction of music radio was a surefire way of killing record sales. "Home taping is killing music" screamed the magazine ads when the cassette tape was introduced to the marketplace.

From "Technology has the labels singing the blues, but artists are plugging into a new relationship with audiences," by Greg Kot in the LA Times.

[Posted at 09/07/2009 08:43 AM by David K. Levine on Was Napster Right? comments(0)]

Death Throes of the Dinosaurs

[Posted at 09/04/2009 11:46 AM by David K. Levine on IP as a Joke comments(2)]

O Canada

Canada is involved in a furious debate over copyright - the music lobby pushing for U.S. style DMCA restrictions, against a loose coalition including consumers and some musicians pushing for a more balanced rule including strong protection for fair use (called fair dealing in Canada). Michael Geist is blogging up a storm about some of the music industry shenanigans.

[Posted at 08/30/2009 11:35 AM by David K. Levine on Copyright Sellouts comments(0)]

Against Monopoly

A nice post by the Economic Logician (well I think it's nice since he's nice to us).

Have you noticed how the grip on intellectual property law keeps expanding: copyright periods lengthen, the scope of patentable "innovations" widens, and the enforcement of intellectual property become the topic of international trade negotiations. But should we expect this?

The post is here.

[Posted at 08/24/2009 12:05 PM by David K. Levine on Politics and IP comments(1)]

Patent Resources

A recent email from Brian Helfrich at Boliven LLC got me thinking about resources for patent searches. The two best known sources are the USPTO and Google. Boliven seems to offer some advantages including the ability to search foreign as well as domestic patents, some data analysis, and the ability to download patent data on to your own computer for analysis.

[Posted at 08/07/2009 10:42 AM by David K. Levine on Innovation comments(3)]

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