IP3 The Future of Ideas

What is Property? We are in the midst of an unprecedented technological revolution Technological change implies cultural change Technological has led to innovation that has led to unprecedented prosperity Yet there is confusion regarding a core concept, namely property

Lessig’s Claim Confusion about property is leading us to change the environment for innovation Our societal decision-makers are deluded about the causes of prosperity This leads to changing the rules that led to the Internet revolution This will end the Internet revolution as we know it

Some Abuses of IP Law Patenting basmati rice Pharmaceuticals strategy regarding drugs whose patent will expire soon

Property Relationship between property and democracy Kant’s definition One property right is alienation The difference between rivalrous and non-rivalrous uses

The Nature of Revolution Machiavelli Thomas Kuhn author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions –Paradigm shifts –Defense of the status quo, e.g. The Emperor of Scent On the Internet, everyone’s a publisher redux –Rip, mix, burn

Innovation and the Meaning of Free State control versus market control Free = gratis, e.g. free beer Free = libre, e.g. free speech –Permission not required for use or –Permission granted neutrally Lessig’s argument – Free resources are “…crucial to innovation and creativity. Without them, creativity is crippled.”

The Commons Resource held in common Such resources are free, e.g. public streets, parks, writings, ideas, writings in the public domain, the song “Happy Birthday”

The Tragedy of the Commons Rivalrous versus nonrivalrous resources Garrett Hardin’s tragedy of the commons –Communities regulate overconsumption that occurs for rivalrous resources in a commons Innovation commons –There is benefit to holding nonrivalrous goods in an innovation commons

Layers within a Communications System (Internet) Content Code Physical

Organizing Layers Speakers’ Corner Madison Square Garden Telephone System Cable TV ContentFree Controlled CodeFree Controlled PhysicalFreeControlled

The Invention of the Internet How AT&T invented the Internet with the help of Paul Baran and perhaps Leonard Kleinrock Hardening against nuclear attack AT&T’s intransigence ‘e2e’ design

Architecture is Power Architecture affects human rights – access, speech, privacy Architecture affects innovation

E2E Philosophy “The network’s job is to transmit datagrams as efficiently and flexibly as possible. Everything else should be done at the fringes.” 1)Innovators with new applications need only to connect them to let them run. 2)Because design is not optimized for any application, the network is open to innovation. 3)The network cannot discriminate against an innovator’s new design.

Innovation Commons How the e2e principle made the Internet into an innovation commons The World Wide Web –Tim Berners-Lee –HTTP and HTML –Released into the public domain

Costs of E2E design Congestion, e.g. Internet telephony, audio and video streaming QoS solutions – identification and different treatment for different applications Effect of QoS on new applications

Wired Culture and Its Commons Commons of code Commons of knowledge Commons of innovation

Unix and Linux Bell labs development of Unix Richard Stallman and “free software” –GNU (GNU is Not Unix) Linus Torvalds –Linux

Open Code Products GNU/Linux Apache Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) Perl

General Public License (GPL) GPL permits unrestricted copying, modification, and redistribution (gratis or for a fee). GPL makes source code available. GPL requires that any code derived from GPL code provide the same permissions as the original GPL code

Open Source Differs from GPL in that derivative products do not have to reveal source code Example – Apache is open source so company could produce a proprietary product using Apache

Microsoft and Antitrust Predatory behavior with regard to competing products Bundling Windows OS, Office Suite, and IE and requiring PC vendors to ship PCs with all of these, i.e. dude, you couldn’t buy a Dell with Linux

IBM IBM embraced Apache and discontinued their own server software IBM embraced Linux Why?