Steve Silberstein writes in with some reading suggestions
James Bessen and Michael Meurer "Patent failure : how judges, bureaucrats and lawyers put innovaters at risk" - I've read this, and contains a lot of useful information and careful analysis. I saw the authors at a conference yesterday...I have given them a hard time about their conclusion. Roughly they document how thoroughly broken and useless the patent system is and then conclude that we should tweak it a little bit...
Three more books I haven't read:
"Copyrights and Copywrongs" by Siva Raidyanathan
"Not so patently obvious" by Eric Stasik
"Copyrights Paradox" by Neil Weinstock Netanel
Opinions welcome; if you've read one why not post a comment?
The only author I've read of those named is Siva Vaidhyanathan's "The Anarchist in the Library" (had to read it for the title alone). I haven't read his "Copyrights and Copywrongs." He's firmly in Lessig's reformist camp, but in no way is an abolitionist, unless he's changed his views in the three years since I read it.
It's worth a read, if for no other reason than for his interesting examples of how copyright impedes innovation.
At the time he was at NYU and I had some brief email correspondence with him. I also referred your book (then online) to him, but I don't know if he read it. I think he has since moved to Virginia or thereabouts.
I've seen reviews of Netanel's book, which make it seem interesting and worth a read.
