Intellectual Property

While acknowledging that the world tends to view intellectual property as a way to exclude others from trampling on one's rights, Jason suggests an alternative reading:Do IPRs (intellectual property rights) provide a framework for collaboration? Does it in fact act as a catalyst for collaboration rather than an inhibitor? I am not thinking about collaboration in the free software, or open source context necessarily. I am being broader than that. In any situation where two firms, individuals etc. come together to collaborate, it is critical that there is a trust framework in place. That trust may be built upon the rule of law as much as on the personal relationship.This might be possible if we actually knew what IPRs others actually held. But we don't. This was abundantly clear in the Microsoft/Novell Linux pact.

DATA SNAP: French Jan Industrial Output -0.3% Vs +1% Dec

PARIS (Dow Jones)--French January industrial production unexpectedly fell in January, as factories churned out less clothes and intermediate goods, data from statistics office Insee showed Friday. Overall industrial output in January fell 0.3% in January on the month after a 1% increase in December, Insee said. Economists in a Dow Jones Newswires poll had expected a 0.1% increase. The December figure was revised lower to show a 1% increase compared with an originally published rise of 1.1%. January automobile production was almost unchanged, up 0.1% on the month after posting a 1.4% increase in December. While the production of consumption goods fell just slightly, down 0.1%, output in the clothing and leather industry dropped 1.7%. The production of intermediate goods fell 1.2% after a 1.4% rise in December.

Microsoft: Google guilty of copyright violations

Software behemoth Microsoft has accused Google of violating the copyright of content providers and said that the Google Book Search project freeloads on the talent of authors.As the two companies struggle for dominance in the online world, Microsoft associate general counsel for copyright, trademark and trade secrets Thomas Rubin said that Google "systematically violates copyright and deprives authors and publishers of an important avenue for monetising their works".He said that, in its Book Search project, Google takes the approach of freely copying anything unless the copyright owner notifies the company and tells them to stop.However, Google's David Drummond hit back by saying the product was designed to help users find information."We do this by complying with international copyright laws and the result has been more exposure and in many cases more revenue for authors, publishers and producers of content," he said.Google has so far scanned more than a million books for its Book Search, which also includes a mapping service.Rubin also accused Google of encouraging advertisers to build advertising programs around keywords that refer to pirated software.

Google suffers blow in Belgian copyright case

A ruling against Google in a copyright case in Belgium may influence courts in other European countries, but not the US where laws are more permissible, copyright lawyers said on Tuesday.

This is the company's second experience with the case. Google lost in a ruling in September and the case was reheard. Late last year, Google settled with Belgian journalists and photographers, but not with the organisation Copiepresse, which represents the newspaper publishers.

EMI, Digital Music Sellers Hit Impass In Copyright Talks

EMI Group and online music retailers have halted talks to remove copyright protection from songs sold online because they couldn't agree on the size of an advance payment, according to Bloomberg.com. EMI was seeking an upfront payment to compensate for the risk of releasing its music as MP3s without copy protection, but the retailers apparently countered with a lower offer, which EMI rejected. Negotiations are now on hold, says Bloomberg.

EMI's discussions had included Microsoft, Apple, RealNetworks, Yahoo! and Amazon.com, and a deal with some of them seemed close in recent weeks. Previously we reported that EMI also was talking to eMusic, Music Net and MTV about the deal. A source also told Reuters that EMI was talking to Snocap about collaborating on releasing MP3s via MySpace.