E. Dorsey, M. McGuire, here.
Who Needs Guidance from Above? District Court Finds its Own Way in Viacom v. YouTube
Aaronsanderslaw.com, here.
Microsoft-Motorola follow-up: A look at Judge Robart’s modified Georgia-Pacific RAND methodology
Essentialpatentblog.com, here.
European parliament starts discussing the proposed Directive on collective management of copyright
Communia-association.org, here.
Google's rivals set to reject compromises around EC antitrust investigation
TheGuardian.co.uk, here.
Canada: Privacy and Social Media in the Age of Big Data
Report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, House of Commons, here.
Vers une redéfinition du « cercle de famille » en faveur du partage des oeuvres sur Internet ?
Scinfolex.wordpress.com, here.
The European Commission Policy on Open Access: the Importance of Text and Data Mining
J.-F. Dechamp, here (Presentation)
Brussels Court of Appeal: embedding illegal YouTube content is no copyright breach
Futureofcopyright.com, here.
Indian copyright organisation asks colleges to buy licence to photocopy book portions
Economictimes.indiatimes.com, here.
Competition Authority reminder to businesses: resale price maintenance is against the law
Competition Authority (Ireland), here.
Bußgeldbemessung bei Kartellverstößen wird an BGH-Rechtsprechung angepasst
Bundeskartellamt.de, hier.
The Future of Interoperable E-books: What Libraries Need to Know
Slides from NISO’s Virtual Conference, here.
Bruno Lasserre on Competition Policy Attitudes in France
My quick take
on the very interesting speech given today in Trento by the Chairman of the
French Competition Authority.
- Sort
of schizophrenia between consumers (pro) and citizens (more skeptical) towards
competition policy.
- The
glorious days of competition policy in France go back to at least 1791, when guilds (corporations) were suppressed by initiative of the revolutionaries.
- Before
WWII, the attitude in France was generally very positive, at a time in which,
by contrast, Germany was much more in favor of cartelizing the economy.
-
After
WWII: public intervention into the economy much welcomed by French citizens,
competition policy experienced mostly as an external imposition.
-
Leftist
reason to support competition during last political election: fight against
privilege by birth; “equality of chances” (égalité) still very popular.
- Governments
in general less procompetition than members of Parliament because of economic
pressures by big players.
- French
civil servants not believing in competition: 77%; French judges: even more
(figure not disclosed).
- Going ahead, dramatically
important in order to convince citizens of the benefits of competition
policy: private/class actions!
- Draft
bill on class actions in France: too narrow.
- Average loss per mobile phone user due to 2005 telecoms’ cartel: 70 Euro per year (cartel’s duration: 2 ½ y.)
USPTO roundtables on software-related patents: materials available
Recordings and presentations here.
Abuse Of IP Rights Under China's Antitrust Rules: Recent Cases Have A Potentially Serious Impact
McDermott Will & Emery, here.
Microsoft and others file EU antitrust complaint over Android app bundling
TheVerge.com, here.
---------
Two central allegations, it seems:
I
- Android is the dominating mobile operating system (running in 70% of units shipped at the end of 2012)
- Android phone makers wanting to include "must-have" Google apps such as Maps or YouTube are required "to pre-load an entire suite of Google mobile services and to give them prominent default placement on the phone"
- Other apps and services providers are disadvantaged
- Google’s Android is put in control of consumer data on a majority of smartphones shipped today.
II
- Google distributes Android open source operating system for free, i.e. below cost
- this makes it difficult for other providers of operating systems to recoup investments in competing with Google’s dominant mobile platform.
Fairsearch's 2011 White Paper indirectly provides some additional background information to the allegations, see e.g. p. 35: Google is also attempting to monopolize mobile search and search advertising through the Android operating system...According to some, Google is “not trying to make a profit on Android or [its web-browser] Chrome . . . .In essence [by giving Android away for free], they are not just building a moat; Google is also scorching the earth for 250 miles around the outside of the castle to ensure no one can approach it"(reference omitted).
An overview of the other competition complaints filed by Google's competitors (source: Fairsearcheurope.eu, here):
Read also Groklaw's take on the allegations, here.
---------
Two central allegations, it seems:
I
- Android is the dominating mobile operating system (running in 70% of units shipped at the end of 2012)
- Android phone makers wanting to include "must-have" Google apps such as Maps or YouTube are required "to pre-load an entire suite of Google mobile services and to give them prominent default placement on the phone"
- Other apps and services providers are disadvantaged
- Google’s Android is put in control of consumer data on a majority of smartphones shipped today.
II
- Google distributes Android open source operating system for free, i.e. below cost
- this makes it difficult for other providers of operating systems to recoup investments in competing with Google’s dominant mobile platform.
Fairsearch's 2011 White Paper indirectly provides some additional background information to the allegations, see e.g. p. 35: Google is also attempting to monopolize mobile search and search advertising through the Android operating system...According to some, Google is “not trying to make a profit on Android or [its web-browser] Chrome . . . .In essence [by giving Android away for free], they are not just building a moat; Google is also scorching the earth for 250 miles around the outside of the castle to ensure no one can approach it"(reference omitted).
An overview of the other competition complaints filed by Google's competitors (source: Fairsearcheurope.eu, here):
Conceptual Study on Innovation, Intellectual Property and the Informal Economy
WIPO Secretariat and J. de Beer, here.
The Single Market for financial services and competition policy
European Competition Forum 2013, Videos here.
Legal Assessment of Patent Settlement Agreements Containing “Reverse” Payments
R. Subiotto, Presentation here.
Walking the Data Protection Tightrope: The Google Privacy Policy Investigations
Europeanlawblog.eu, here.
Smokescreen: How Managers Behave When They Have Something to Hide
T. Artiga Gonzalez, M. Schmid, D. Yermack, here.
The Use of Standard Essential Patents: Competition Policy Issues
S. Vezzoso (this blog's author), Presentation here.
The Actavis case before SCOTUS shows that the weak patent issue is system-wide:
Patentprogress.com, here.
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Algorithms and competition
M. Vestager, here . Large friendly letters? "It's true that the idea of automated systems getting together and reaching a...
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Bloomberg, here.
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BehavioralEconomics.com, here.
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Heise.de, hier .
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Hogan Lovells, here .
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EFF, here.
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B. Edelman, here.