The Supreme Court addressed major issues of patentability today in Bilski, and left things — about where they were. Rather than try to master the issues, I will simply refer you to the estimable Patently-O, which says that the Court: [A]affirmed that Bilski’s risk-management method was not the type of innovation that may be patented. [...]

Two important judicial decisions on property rights came down last week, and both were bad news for property owners and creators.

I was just trying to imagine how terrible it would be if we lived in a Bizarro World where law abiding citizens who refuse to pay for things they never stole are deemed criminals, but criminals who have stolen are shielded by the law. Then I remember that many European countries are already like this, and Andrew Keen’s column shows us that that the United States might be headed for a similar path if groups like Free Press get their way.

Content & Copyright SurprisinglyFree, Adrian Johns on Piracy (June 21) (Audio): “Adrian Johns, professor in the Department of History at the University of Chicago, expert on the history of science and the history of the book, and author of the new book, Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Guttenberg to Gates, discusses the history of [...]

A refrain of the anti-intellectual property forces is that content producers need to come up with new business models, and then all will be well and we troglodyte property rights advocates can return to our caves. Well, here is an interesting example. An article on energy in The Globe and Mail just caught my eye, [...]

Content & Copyright PFF, FTC Workshop Tomorrow on Future of Journalism to Consider Controversial Recommendations (June 14): Lots of links to related material. And lots more here. AND: Ars technica, “Addressing Market Fragility”: public policy’s role in stabilizing journalism (June 14): “New America Foundation’s C.W. Anderson looks at the suggestions for “saving journalism” being considered [...]

If you go to RapidShare.Net, you get a Hot Downloads blurb with clicks to numerous movies, such as It’s Complicated and Ironman 2; software, such as Windows, Adobe, TomTom; and other pirated goods, along with buttons for “Russian sex,” “swinger,” “underage,” and other sensual promises. I would hesitate to click on anything because I doubt [...]

Even if we ignored the fact that “Culton-gate” was all just a big mistake and that Viacom was licensed for using Johnathan Culton’s content all along, it was never the “teachable moment” that Harold Feld would have us believe. “Culton-gate” at worst was a small violation of intellectual property and was never the moral equivalent of the sustained, deliberate, and systematic piracy of content perpetrated by YouTube.

Content & Copyright Comments From The Copyright Office On GAO-10-428R (GAO-10-707SP) (June 7), an E-supplement to GAO-10-428R (Feb. 26): The Performance Rights Act issue. A final GAO report “will include more extensive quantitative analyses of the relevant issues.”  Ars technica reviews the bidding at Performance Rights Act might shut down some radio stations (June 8). [...]

Economist/columnist/blogger/ex-TreasuryGuy Bruce Bartlett has started Bartlett’s Notations, a new horse in the Fiscal Times stable. He makes the point that it was once difficult to find solid information, but that those who did get it were able to capitalize on it in some fashion, precisely because of its scarcity.