The good news is that the adults seem to be taking over as the stakeholders in the Internet are increasingly aware that this is a joint problem, and not a Hobbesian war of all against all. No one knows the optimum path, but one principle should be to minimize the role of government and maximize the role of the private actors.

Google’s WebM strategy and VP8 acquisition was a masterful bluff to force the MPEG-LA to commit to an indefinite free H.264 license for free video streaming. By removing H.264 from Chrome, Google will likely get a free H.264 plugin from Microsoft the way Mozilla Firefox got a free H.264 plugin and save another $6.5M/year.

Google will be removing H.264 video compression support from its Chrome web browser despite the fact that we’ve already paid for the patents and acceleration software. Now we are supposed to use VP8 which has no indemnity on patent infringement and no hardware acceleration.

Broadband Breakfast ran a fine session this morning on which intellectual property issues are in the collective frontal lobes of the 112th Congress. Panelists were: Jeff Lowenstein – Cong. Adam Schiff (D-CA) Caroline Holland – Sen. Herb Kohl (D –WI) Laurent Crenshaw – Cong. Darrell Issa (R-CA) Neil Quinter – Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Ryan [...]

Broadband Breakfast will have a session on What Intellectual Property Issues Are Top of Mind for the 112th Congress? (Legislative Panel) on Jan. 11, 08:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Participants will be: Laurent Crenshaw, Legislative Director, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) Caroline Holland, Chief Counsel, Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-Wisconsin) Jeff Lowenstein, Senior Legislative Assistant, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) [...]

On Wednesday, Jan. 13, Public Knowledge is sponsoring World’s Fair Use Day 2011 – a “day-long celebration of fair use, creativity and remix culture.” The opening keynote will be given by Maria Pallante, Acting Register of Copyrights, who is a former intellectual property counsel and director of licensing for the worldwide Guggenheim Museums, with later [...]

Destruction of property rights, or rejection of all methods of effectively defending them, is not the road to less government power and control. Quite the reverse. If creators cannot use property rights and markets to monetize their work, they will be forced to beg for government subsidies, and the system would rapidly evolve into total government control of expression.

Tom Goldman at The Escapist reports: According to a video released on YouTube, anybody not playing a legitimate copy of the DS version of The Experience will hear Michael Jackson’s music with no lyrics, and a vuvuzela playing over the beat instead. Believe it or not, a vuvuzela can even destroy a classic like Jackson’s [...]

In my recent article about S.3804, I referred to Technology Liberation Front as an example for my statement that “The hidden factor is that many of those ginning up the outrage [about S.3804] are hostile to intellectual property as an institution.” CEI’s Ryan Radia calls “foul,” noting that the only TLF post explicitly on the [...]

At The American, some thoughts about “Protecting Property on the Internet,” which defends S. 3804, Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA)(the Leahy Bill) against recent attacks. The major point: I agree that the free speech and due process are important, but I also think that the values which the bill defends — economic empowerment [...]