Sandra G. Boodman of Kaiser Health News as reported in the Washington Post describes the imposition of additional medical charges for what is vaguely described as facilities fees link here. It looks like fees on anything for which health care providers can find a justification. The examples are large and growing.

The breakthrough occurred some years back when the providers got medicare rules changed to allow it. Boodman writes, "patients increasingly are being charged the fees, the result of an obscure change in Medicare rules that occurred nearly a decade ago. Called "provider-based billing," it allows hospitals that own physician practices and outpatient clinics that meet certain federal requirements to bill separately for the facility as well as for physician services. Because hospitals that bill Medicare beneficiaries this way must do so for all other patients, facility fees affect patients of all ages. Doctors' offices owned by physicians and freestanding clinics are not permitted to charge them."

Boodman has lots of examples, but I haven't been able yet to find out how this got lobbied through the bureaucracy.

On the capture of the medical "business" by the medical "interests," you can see a short video version on Bill Moyer's Journal here Or read Maggie Mahar'S book Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much

Michael Helft writes in the NYTimes to update the status of the Google book scanning project. The longer it has been pending, the more the objections, now in the hundreds, and the greater the messiness of any settlement link here.

The two great public goals of the settlement are being largely forgotten in the squabble over who gets what from the deal. Those goals are obvious--making so many books searchable on line and available to all at a reasonable price.

The orphan-books issue is a legalism, as they have been of no interest to the owners for years, not even enough for them to come forth and assert a claim. Why owners ever have any interest in orphan works remains a mystery; they are nothing more than abandoned books and properly public property.

In this respect, the proposed settlement gives a wide group a vested interest in the money to be generated by the settlement, for which they have done nothing.

The settlement also creates an effective monopoly on sale of the books, not as a matter of law but as the practical outcome since Google has already paid the sunk costs of scanning the books and putting them on line.

As reported here, Google has heroically been trying to negotiate the rights to scan and make available "millions of out-of-print books." I.e., to solve a problem caused by the state's copyright law. But the "$125 million agreement between Google and U.S. authors and publishers is being renegotiated," because "the U.S. government said it seemed the agreement would violate antitrust laws." In other words, if you try to work around one state-granted monopoly (copyright), they'll stop you by accusing you of violating state anti-monopoly law. Unbelievable. The state does nothing but destroy.

[Mises post; SK post]

Another failed attempt to suppress free speech using copyright law. Notice that this is only a partially failed attempt - if you read down to the bottom of the article, you will find that some ISPs caved to the DMCA notice.

One of the big problems with monopoly is the corruption involved. John's post about campaign contributions by corporations - I'm not sure that banning them is really effective though - reminds us that one of the problems is that the monopolization of government power through bribery helps sustains those monopolies. It's also true that monopolies have strong economic incentive for "marketing" including bribing those who are responsible for the welfare of others. Case in point - the pharmaceutical companies bribery of doctors to get them to prescribe their patented products. Why don't book publishers bribe professors to assign their books to their students? It seems they do.

See the great post from Mike Masnick, Professors Claiming Copyright Over Their Lectures, about the ridiculous case of some Harvard Professors claiming copyright in their lectures, jeopardizing the rights of students to take notes (this is so opposite the approach of the heroic MIT). I mused in an email, "what idiot can ever think this is libertarian," and my compadre Manuel Lora replied, "it's tricky. We've been told that we should get the fruits of our labor for hundreds of years. IP opposition goes against the grain."

Great point. I think this has been a "dark horse" issue for so long for a few reasons. First, most non-libertarians are so statist and legislation-accepting, that they accept the common wisdom. Second, IP law is so arcane and convoluted that it's not understood well by most non-specialist libertarians--so they sort of just assume it's part of property law but just some boring, specialized area. The few libertarians who try to justify it on principle, like Rand or Galambos or Schulman, are so overboard or passionate that libertarians who only casually look at this assume they are right.

And a third reason is that until the digital, Internet revolution the abuse and injustice has been more limited and less visible. But I think with the increasingly visible examples of increasingly unjust applications, principled libertarians can see more and more easily that IP is poppycock. So that when they hear nonsense like "two copyrights" and just envisions students being sued for ... taking notes, they know it's all baloney.

We just need to persuade them it's not fixable--it's inherently screwed up. It can't be fixed. It has to go.

[Mises post; SK post]

via Robert Levine an article in the New York Times Sunday Book Review that he professes to be sympathetic to. The point of the article is that authors have some sort of intrinsic right to any value generated by their work, and whether or not they try to claim it, it is our duty as a society to make sure they (or more likely their heirs) get it...

Morally and economically I could not disagree more strongly with this point of view. The act of creation does not mean an entitlement to tell other people who you have sold your creation to what they can do with your work. And the U.S. Constitution is pretty clear that the purpose of "exclusive rights" is to promote progress in science and useful arts - not to track down people who have exhibited no interest in being compensated. Tracking down owners of rights to orphan rights simply poses an additional cost to creating new works based on old works and enjoying old works - the additional incentive provided to authors is less than my clapping them on the back and saying "good job." The Constitution certainly does not say that nobody except the author can profit from an author's creation - and people can, should, and do profit greatly from works in the public domain.

Yes, we post bad reviews too...just there aren't any...As with any good review, there is value added beyond the book itself.

George Leef's review of Against Intellectual Monopoly

Taken from the Appendix to my Mises Daily article Radical Patent Reform Is Not on the Way:

Examples of Outrageous Patents and Judgments

Examples of (at least apparently) ridiculous patents and patent applications abound (more at PatentLawPractice):

• Amazon's "one-click" patent, asserted against rival Barnes & Noble
• Cendant's assertion that Amazon violated Cendant's patent monopoly on recommending books to customers (since settled)
• The attempt of Dustin Stamper, Bush's Top Economist, to secure a patent regarding an application for a System And Method For Multi-State Tax Analysis, which claims "a method, comprising: creating one or more alternate entity structures based on a base entity structure, the base entity structure comprising one or more entities; determining a tax liability for each alternate entity structure and the base entity structure; and generating a result based on comparing each of the determined tax liabilities"
• Apple's patent application for digital Karaoke
• the suit against Facebook by the holder of a patent for a "system for creating a community for users with common interests to interact in"
• the "absurdly broad patent [issued to Blackboard] for common uses of technology if that technology is employed in the context of education" (see also Patent Office Rejects Blackboard E-Learning Patent One Month After It Wins Lawsuit, Techdirt (Mar. 31, 2008)
• Compton's (now Encyclopedia Britannica's) patent that "broadly cover[s] any multimedia database allowing users to simultaneously search for text, graphics, and sounds basic features found in virtually every multimedia product on the market"
• Carfax's patent on a "method for perusing selected vehicles having a clean title history"
• Acacia's patent for putting a unique transaction number on a receipt[26]
• Pat. No. 6,368,227, covering swinging sideways on a swing

The Supreme Court, in the 1882 case Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 US 192, itself lists examples of patents issued to "gadgets that obviously have had no place in the constitutional scheme of advancing scientific knowledge … the simplest of devices." These included

• a particular doorknob made of clay rather than metal or wood, where differently shaped doorknobs had previously been made of clay.
• making collars of parchment paper where linen paper and linen had previously been used.
• a method for preserving fish by freezing them in a container that operates in the same manner as an ice-cream freezer.
• rubber caps put on wood pencils to serve as erasers
• inserting a piece of rubber in a slot in the end of a wood pencil to serve as an eraser
• a stamp for impressing initials in the side of a plug of tobacco
• a hose reel of large diameter so that water may flow through the hose while it is wound on the reel
• putting rollers on a machine to make it movable
• using flat cord instead of round cord for the loop at the end of suspenders
• placing rubber hand grips on bicycle handlebars
• an oval rather than cylindrical toilet paper roll, to facilitate tearing off strips

Below are a few notable or recent examples of large, significant, troubling, or apparently outrageous injunctions, damages awards, and the like:

• Qualcomm has been enjoined from importing chips that help conserve power in cell phones (discussion; latest developments). See also Eric Bangeman, ITC to Bar Import of New Handsets in Patent Dustup, ars technica (June 7, 2007); Nokia's Patent-Licensing Case against Qualcomm Dropped by Dutch Court, engadget (Nov. 14, 2007); Broadcom Wins Major Injunction against Qualcomm, engadget (Dec. 31, 2007); ITC Upholds Ruling, Reiterates that Nokia Didn't Violate Qualcomm Patents, engadget (Feb. 29, 2008).
• Texas-Sized Patent Win, Texas Lawyer (Feb. 21, 2008). A New Jersey doctor was awarded $432 Million as a "reasonable royalty" against Boston Scientific for infringing his "Method and Apparatus for Managing Macromolecular Distribution."
• Smartphones Patented … Just About Everyone Sued 1 Minute After Patent Issued, Techdirt (Jan. 24, 2008).
• Farmer David Reaps What He Has Sown: A Patent Suit, Patent Baristas (Feb. 13, 2008) Even though "the practice of saving seeds after a harvest to plant the next season is as old as farming itself," patents prevent farmers from saving patented seeds.
• Apple, Starbucks Sued over Custom Music Gift Cards, AppleInsider (Feb. 20, 2008) A Utah couple sue Apple and Starbucks over their "'Song of the Day' promotion, which offers Starbucks customers a iTunes gift card for a complimentary, pre-selected song download." The suit is based on a patent on a "retail point of sale for online merchandising" which allows customers to buy a gift card from a brick-and-mortar store and then go home and redeem the card online.
• Apple Sued Over Caller ID on the iPhone, Techdirt (Feb. 27, 2008). The patent is on "matching up the phone number of an incoming call with a local contact database to display who is calling."
• The new 802.11n Wi-Fi standard (which promises to significantly increase Wi-Fi speed and range) is in jeopardy due to patent threats. See Bill Ray, Next Generation Wi-Fi Mired in Patent Fears, The Register (Sept. 21, 2007).
• SanDisk Sues 25 Companies for Patent Infringement: "Suits have been filed against 25 companies by the SanDisk corporation this week, as the company looks to stop businesses from shipping products it alleges are infringing on its work. SanDisk has filed suits against everyone from MP3 player manufacturers to USB hard drive creators. The list of defendants is staggering, and MacWorld notes if Sandisk succeeds it could have repercussions outside of the courtroom.… The court … complaints could affect the prices and availability of products made by companies targeted in the suit if SanDisk wins and the companies are barred from importing products into the U.S."
• Patent Office Upholds Tivo's "Time Warp" Patent, EchoStar Not so Happy, engadget (Nov. 29, 2007); see also Tivo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp. (S. D. Tex., Dec. 2, 2006); and TiVo Wins on Appeal: Permanent Injunction against EchoStar to be Reinstated, Patently-O (Jan. 31, 2008).
• Jacqui Cheng, U R SUED: Patent Holding Company Targets 131 Companies over SMS patents, ars technica (Nov. 13, 2007).
• The International Trade Commission (ITC) may ban imports of many popular hard drives that "are alleged to infringe on patents owned by California residents Steven and Mary Reiber related to a 'Dissipative ceramic bonding tool tip.'" Jacqui Cheng, Hard Times for Hard Drives: US May Ban Popular Imports, ars technica (Oct. 11, 2007).
• The VoIP phone service Vonage may be put out of business by patents. Sprint recently won a patent case against Vonage in which $69.5 million was awarded in damages. Sprint had planned "to ask the court to permanently ban Vonage from using its patented technology," but the case was subsequently settled for $80 million. However, in a separate patent lawsuit between Verizon and Vonage, the jury found that Vonage had violated three Verizon patents, and awarded Verizon $58 million in damages plus ongoing royalties. Vonage claims it has developed workarounds for two of the patents. See Kim Hart, Sprint Wins Patent Case Against Vonage: Reston Firm Awarded $69.5 Million in Second Blow to Internet Phone Company, Washington Post (Sept. 26, 2007); Peter Svensson, Vonage Settles Patent Suit with Sprint, BusinessWeek (Oct. 8, 2007). Latest: Vonage Settles with Verizon, Owes Up to $117.5 Million; Vonage, Nortel Call a Truce No Cash Changing Hands, engadget (Dec. 31, 2007).
• Kinsella, Revolutionary Television Design Killed by Patents (2007).
• BlackBerry's manufacturer, RIM, was forced to cough up $612.5 million after NTP used patent law to threaten to shut RIM down.
• Microsoft was on the receiving end of a $1.5 billion jury verdict for infringing an MP3 patent held by Alcatel-Lucent (which was recently overturned).
• After Kodak sought more than $1 billion in damages from Sun Microsystems for patent infringement, Kodak finally settled for $92 million. (And according to one colleague, the verdict resulted "in the immediate shutdown of Kodak's entire instant photography division, with the immediate loss of 800 jobs. And, some say, the eventual failure of Polaroid due to lack of any real competition to keep them on their toes!")
• In another recent case, Freedom Wireless obtained a $150 million damages award against Boston Communications Group, Inc., which at the time had revenues of only about $100 million. In this case, the judge also refused to stay the injunction issues against BCGI (and by extension, its customers) pending appeal.
• Smith International was forced to pay Hughes Tool Company $204.8 million for infringement upon Hughes's patent for an "O-ring seal" rock bit, which led to Smith filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (this was in 1986, when $200 million was considered a large patent verdict).
• As of March 2003, the top 5 patent infringement damage awards ranged from $873 million (Polaroid v. Kodak, 1991) to $204.8 million (Hughes Tool v. Smith International, 1986). The top 5 patent settlements ranged from $1 billion to $300 million. Damage Awards and Settlements, IP Today (March 2003); see also Gregory Aharonian, Patent/Copyright Infringement Lawsuits/Licensing Awards. Sadly, a $200 million verdict seems normal nowadays. The recent $156 million patent-infringement verdict against AT&T, for example which could possibly be trebled by the judge now looks like small potatoes.
• Other recent cases include a $1.67 billion patent infringement verdict in favor of Johnson & Johnson against Abbott; a $400 million settlement paid to Abbot, by Medtronic, regarding stent devices; and a $716 million settlement paid to Johnson & Johnson by Boston Scientific (cardiac stents again).
• See also Company that won $585M from Microsoft sues Apple, Google, ars technica (Oct. 6, 2009) (about Eolas, which won a huge patent case against Microsoft in 2003, , and which has now sued 23 other high-tech companies including Apple, Google, Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Playboy, Yahoo, and YouTube for implementing browser plug-ins).

[StephanKinsella.com cross-post]

Not that whether or not economics is a science has much to do with monopoly, but since we've been discussing the crisis, and this arose out of Krugman's criticism of economics surrounding the crisis...I debated philosopher of science Alex Rosenberg on bloggingheads tv on this topic. As it happens Keynesian economic theory was tried and studied extensively for two decades. Not only is it falsifiable - it was falsified. So I guess for those of us who moved on economics is a science. For Paul Krugman for whom the evidence doesn't matter I suppose it is more akin to religion.