This whole software intellectual property controversy
is quite interesting. Its prime advocates are Cisco
and Microsoft who are using it as a means of
maintaining their market dominance. Innovators will
not be able to compete since their ideas (i.e. their
intellectual property) will simply be appropriated by
the market dominant players. Neither Cisco or
Microsoft are innovators or make much use of IP laws.
They enforce their market dominance in other ways. One
of which is to use other people’s IP.

IP laws have not been pushed through by corporate
interests since these IP laws are counter-productive
to their interests. By protecting innovators, these
laws facilitate the market disruption which works
against the interest of market-dominant players. These
players may use their market power to prevent
competition in their own markets but innovation
changes markets. AT&T used its government-enforced
monopoly power to prevent competition in the
communications market. Along came a simple player who
made an acoustic modem. AT&T's monopolistic actions
produced the Carterfone decision which unleashed the
whole gamut of digital innovation which includes the
web and the Internet. AT&T intended to preserve its
monopoly position by preventing the use of digital
technology in the communications network. With
Carterfone, they were unable to do this. 

IP laws work against the effort of market-dominant
companies to stifle innovation. 

Tom Gray



--- Carrol Cox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> This perhaps helps with issues being currently
> discussed here.
> 
> Eventuallly scholars and other groups affected by
> the idiotic IP laws
> will hae to discover collective ways to make those
> laws
> coutner-productive to the corporate interests who
> pushed them throug
> Congress. Consumers of popular music are rapidly
> developing innumerable
> ways to punish record companies for their
> intransigence on these
> issues.
> 
> Carrol
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Top Intellectual Property Developments of
> 2007
> Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:29:44 -0500
> From: "Cheryl E. Ball" <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "Cheryl E. Ball" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> For those of you interested in intellectual property
> issues, problems
> with software such as Turnitin.com, and copyright, I
> am forwarding this
> email from the co-chair of the Intellectual Propety
> Caucus of the
> Conference on College Composition and Communication.
> 
> This caucus also worked with the 7Cs [computers in
> composition cmte] to
> put forward a resolution supporting the use of
> open-source software in
> writing instruction. The writing labs used for 101
> next year will have
> many open-source and freeware computing options,
> thanks to Randy Marrs.
> The resolution, if accepted at the upcoming CCCC,
> will be posted on
> their website shortly.
> 
> Best, Cheryl.
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> 
> From: Clancy Ratliff <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: March 26, 2008 8:53:58 PM CDT
> To: Writing Program Administration <[log in to unmask]>,
> [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [techrhet] CCCC-IP Annual: Top Intellectual
> Property
> Developments of 2007
> Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I am pleased to announce the publication of the
> third CCCC-IP Annual.
> Below I have provided the table of contents and the
> introduction. The
> html version of the collection isn't live yet, but I
> have posted the
> collection to the CCCC-IP site in PDF and .odt
> format. They are
> available for download here:
> 
> http://ccccip.org/files/TopIP2007Collection.odt
> 
> http://ccccip.org/files/TopIP2007Collection.pdf
> 
> I hope to see you all at the caucus at 4Cs on
> Wednesday afternoon.
> Remember, attendance and participation in the caucus
> are absolutely
> free.
> 
> Clancy
> 
> 
> 
> Introduction
> 
> Clancy Ratliff, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
> 
> McLean Students File Suit Against Turnitin.com:
> Useful Tool or
> Instrument of Tyranny?
> 
> Traci Zimmerman (Pipkins), James Madison University
> 
> The Importance of Understanding and Utilizing Fair
> Use in Educational
> Contexts: A Study on Media Literacy and Copyright
> Confusion
> 
> Martine Courant Rife, Lansing Community College and
> Michigan State
> University
> 
> The National Institutes of Health Open Access
> Mandate: Public Access for
> Public Funding
> 
> Clancy Ratliff, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
> 
> "Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted
> Material in User-Generated
> Video"
> 
> Laurie Cubbison, Radford University
> 
> One Laptop Per Child Program Threatens Dominance of
> Intel and Microsoft
> 
> Kim Dian Gainer, Radford University
> 
> Introduction
> 
> Clancy Ratliff, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
> 
> Co-Chair, 2008 CCCC Intellectual Property Caucus
> 
> The year 2007 carried quite a few key developments
> for those who follow
> issues and debates related to copyright and
> intellectual property. For
> the third year running, then, the CCCC Intellectual
> Property Committee
> is pleased to publish this annual report in the
> service of our first
> goal, to "keep the CCCC and NCTE memberships
> informed about intellectual
> property developments, through reports in the CCCC
> newsletter and in
> other NCTE and CCCC forums."
> 
> In assuming the editorship of this year's
> collection, I have chosen to
> implement two changes which I believe embody the
> values of the Caucus
> and the IP Committee. First, I have licensed the
> collection under a
> Creative Commons license. This license allows
> readers to use the
> collection beyond the boundaries of fair use,
> provided the collection is
> not used for commercial purposes, the authors of the
> articles are
> credited, and no derivative works are made. One
> exception to the
> condition regarding derivative works concerns
> modifications for purposes
> of accessibility. Readers can, for example, create
> an audio recording of
> the collection or increase and change the font for
> the visually
> impaired. The main purpose for the Creative Commons
> license is to enable
> cross-publishing of the collection in a variety of
> online publication
> venues. I also hope that readers find the collection
> useful for the
> classroom. This collection may be reprinted in
> course packs or archived
> on course web sites under the terms of the Creative
> Commons license.
> 
> The second change I have made is to make the
> collection available in
> Open Document Format. In the past, the collection
> has been published in
> html and pdf format, as it is this year, but I am
> also publishing it as
> an .odt file, which can be opened in at least two
> open source word
> processing programs: OpenOffice and NeoOffice. I am
> uploading the file
> in .odt format as a public acknowledgment of the IP
> Caucus's growing
> awareness of software as intellectual work and open
> source software as
> intellectual work that is free and open for all to
> use and build upon.
> 
> 
> --
> Clancy Ratliff Assistant Professor and Director of
> First-Year Writing
> Department of English University of Louisiana at
> Lafayette
> http://culturecat.net/
>
---------------------------------------------------------
> If you want to help with the care and feeding of
> TechRhet, visit
> http://interversity.org/donate and pitch in!
> -----------------
> 
=== message truncated ===



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