Category Archives: intellectual property

It’s easy to miss amid the chaos, but the WSJ has an important story this morning on Nathan Myhrvold and his company, Intellectual Ventures. It helps to counteract the fluffy excitement of Malcom Gladwell, back in May, which always seemed … Continue reading →

Daniel Hall has "two beliefs about pop culture that initially sound incompatible": 1. There will never again be a musical act that attains the popularity and cultural permeation of the Beatles. 2. It is nigh inevitable that a book or … Continue reading →

Randy Myers has a 2200-word article on the economics of counterfeiting in CFO magazine, which displays none of the critical thinking for which the Economist Group is famous. Instead, it just regurgitates all the bullshit statistics which have been thoroughly … Continue reading →

Oh, look! Another article filled with counterfeiting statistics! This one’s from Bloomberg, it’s 1,300 words long, and is the work of four journalists (Allan Dodds Frank, Jaime Hellman, Elizabeth Lopatto, and Wendy Soong) as well as four editors (Michael Waldholz, … Continue reading →

A pair of sentences I’m sure Dan Ariely never thought he’d write (they appear in a blog entry about the uses of branding): I can’t just try to make myself feel better by imagining that I’m wearing Ferrari underwear. I … Continue reading →

Malcom Gladwell’s piece in the latest New Yorker, on Nathan Myhrvold and his company, Intellectual Ventures, is a rollicking good read. But once you’ve read it, it’s worth sobering yourself down a bit with John Gapper. For while Myhrvold and … Continue reading →

Why is Marek Fuchs hating on Universal today? He says that the dumbest thing he’s seen on Wall Street this week, rating 95 on his Dumb-O-Meter, is Universal’s plan to give away its music over Nokia cellphones. Writes Fuchs: The … Continue reading →

A rare video of one of Larry Lessig’s legendary slide shows on copyright and creativity, this one from the TED conference in March. And this one comes with added Jesus! Enjoy.

The OECD counterfeiting report is now public, and only 18 months or so behind schedule! As you might recall, there was some pushback from OECD member states when they realized the report would peg global counterfeiting activity at only $200 … Continue reading →

Carl Bialik today joins the good fight against counterfeiting statistics. Welcome to the club, Carl! It can get a little bit lonely here, but at least we have truth on our side. Carl nicely fillets the latest OECD report on … Continue reading →

Dean Baker is unimpressed by studies showing vast losses to the US economy from piracy of intellectual property. He picks on a Washington Post article by Frank Ahrens, which quotes a study concluding that "intellectual property piracy — theft of … Continue reading →

In my Q&A with Susan Scafidi, I asked about Jim Surowiecki’s assertion that the world of magic tricks manages to be innovative despite a lack of copyright protection. Susan replied that there might be no copyright protection, but that didn’t … Continue reading →

In the comments of my entry on knock-off fashion, Gerald Joseph told me to check out counterfeitchic.com before writing more on the issue of counterfeits and copies in the fashion industry. It turns out to be a wonderful site, full … Continue reading →

I’m very happy that James Surowiecki has used his bully pulpit in the annual Style Issue of the New Yorker (perfect bound, with a Gucci ad on the outside back cover) to take a well-aimed potshot at the ridiculous (and … Continue reading →

Lauren Goldstein Crowe reminisces
today about the early days of Kate Spade:
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Could it possibly be that the movie studios are making more money than ever?
Maybe even because of, rather than despite, the explosion in digital
technologies?
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At the moment, if you want to buy Coca-Cola
the brand, say, the only way you can do that is by buying Coca-Cola the company.
Eddie Lampert, as well as the people behind the new Intellectual
Asset Finance Society, would like to change that.
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