Monday, October 04, 2010
Sunday, October 03, 2010
IP Rights and Competition
Italian Competition Authority's 20th Anniversary Celebratory Event, Rome October 8, 2010, Program. My presentation on Google Books (in Italian).
The First Decade: Challenges Facing New Competition Agencies
William Kovacic, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, here.
JOINT STATEMENT FROM ALL THE NEGOCIATING PARTIES TO ACTA
Here. Read also ECIS' position paper on ACTA.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
WIPO's Medium Term Strategic Plan 2010-15
Here.
Concerning the SCCR, strategies include:
Concerning the SCCR, strategies include:
– "continuing to support the work of Member States on copyright limitations and exceptions, with a particular focus on improving access for visually impaired and other persons with print disabilities, while accelerating work with respect to access for persons with other disabilities, educational institutions, libraries and archives;
– continuing to support the work of Member States on the protection of audiovisual performances and on the protection of broadcasting organizations;
– exploring the scope for discussion of new issues with important global consequences, such as orphan works or the need for increased cooperation between copyright owners and Internet intermediaries in the making available of legitimate creative content, and encouraging consideration of self-regulatory, as well as formal solutions".
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Copyright law needs a digital-age upgrade
Pamela Samuelson, here, and by the same author et al. THE COPYRIGHT PRINCIPLES PROJECT: DIRECTIONS FOR REFORM
Derechos de retransmisión de acontecimientos futbolísticos en España
Apertura de un expediente sancionador por posibles prácticas restrictivas de la competencia, por vincular la reventa de derechos de retransmisión de acontecimientos futbolísticos a la contratación de los servicios de producción y transporte de la señal de partidos de fútbol, Comunicado de Prensa.
Competition for High Tech Employees
US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES SIX HIGH TECH COMPANIES TO STOP
ENTERING INTO ANTICOMPETITIVE EMPLOYEE
SOLICITATION AGREEMENTS, Press Release.
ENTERING INTO ANTICOMPETITIVE EMPLOYEE
SOLICITATION AGREEMENTS, Press Release.
Koexistenz, keine Konkurrenz: Gedruckte Bücher und E-Books ergänzen sich
Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, hier.
Google Suggest : le directeur de la publication condamné pour diffamation
TGI de Paris, 8 septembre 2010, ici.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Gemeinsame Erklärung zum Vorhaben eines „Leistungsschutzrechts für Presseverleger“
Der Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI) zusammen mit anderen Verbänden, hier.
Fernsehmitschnitte und Urheberrechtsschranken für Bildung und Wissenschaft
Vernichtungsanordnung als vorauseilender Gehorsam, Aktionsbündnis Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft e.V.
Spain Court Dismisses Telecinco Copyright Charges Vs YouTube
The Wall Street Journal, here. A quick French perspective here. Spanish press news here. Unofficial English translation of the decision here. See also E.Bonadio, D.Mula, Madrid court confirms YouTube's host status
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
WIPO Assemblies: Stevie Wonder Calls for International Action to Enhance Accessibility for Visually Impaired Persons
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Open Source and Merger Policy: Insights from the EU Oracle/Sun Decision
Simonetta Vezzoso (this blog's author), here. International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law (IIC), Forthcoming.
Abstract:
In Europe the merger between Oracle and Sun raised a series of substantial competition concerns, especially related to the acquisition by Oracle of MySQL, an open source business, and its impact on the database market. In the end, the acquisition was unconditionally cleared by the Commission. The open source nature of MySQL played a decisive role in the competition assessment of the merger conducted by the European competition authority according to the "significant impediment to effective competition" legal test. In this Article we will review the Commission’s decision with the specific aim of determining to what extent the open source nature of MySQL’s business model actually affected the scrutiny of Sun’s acquisition by Oracle under the relevant test. In particular, it will be questioned whether Oracle’s public announcement concerning its future behaviour on the database and related markets can be expected to duly address the concerns voiced by the Commission in the course of the merger proceedings. We will conclude that Judge Easterbrook’s much quoted conclusion that «[t]he GPL and open-source software have nothing to fear from the antitrust laws» may possibly need some qualification.
Content:
I. Introduction
II. The EU Oracle/Sun Merger Decision
1. The legal background
2. The SIEC test in the context of the Oracle/Sun case
3. The SIEC test and MySQL’s open source nature
III. The competition assessment of open source in the context of merger policy: in search of a
balanced approach
IV. Conclusion
Abstract:
In Europe the merger between Oracle and Sun raised a series of substantial competition concerns, especially related to the acquisition by Oracle of MySQL, an open source business, and its impact on the database market. In the end, the acquisition was unconditionally cleared by the Commission. The open source nature of MySQL played a decisive role in the competition assessment of the merger conducted by the European competition authority according to the "significant impediment to effective competition" legal test. In this Article we will review the Commission’s decision with the specific aim of determining to what extent the open source nature of MySQL’s business model actually affected the scrutiny of Sun’s acquisition by Oracle under the relevant test. In particular, it will be questioned whether Oracle’s public announcement concerning its future behaviour on the database and related markets can be expected to duly address the concerns voiced by the Commission in the course of the merger proceedings. We will conclude that Judge Easterbrook’s much quoted conclusion that «[t]he GPL and open-source software have nothing to fear from the antitrust laws» may possibly need some qualification.
Content:
I. Introduction
II. The EU Oracle/Sun Merger Decision
1. The legal background
2. The SIEC test in the context of the Oracle/Sun case
3. The SIEC test and MySQL’s open source nature
III. The competition assessment of open source in the context of merger policy: in search of a
balanced approach
IV. Conclusion
Thursday, September 16, 2010
EU Stakeholders Dialogue Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on access to works by people with print disabilities
Here. See also the EU Commission's press release (thanks to Antonella De Robbio for pointing it to me).
UK Joint Merger Assessment Guidelines Released
From the Press Release: "The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Competition Commission (CC) have today for the first time published joint Merger Assessment Guidelines (...) The publication revises and expands guidance previously contained in several publications issued separately by the two Authorities after the introduction of the Enterprise Act 2002".
Competition in the Evolving Digital Marketplace
US House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, Thursday 9/16/2010.
Written testimonies:
Richard Feinstein (Federal Trade Commission), here.
Geoffrey A. Manne (LEWIS & CLARK LAW SCHOOL), here.
Edward J. Black (Computer and Communications Industry Association), here.
Mark Cooper (Consumer Federation of America), here
Morgan Reed (Association for Competitive Technology), here
Scott Cleland (Precursor LLC), here.
Written testimonies:
Richard Feinstein (Federal Trade Commission), here.
Geoffrey A. Manne (LEWIS & CLARK LAW SCHOOL), here.
Edward J. Black (Computer and Communications Industry Association), here.
Mark Cooper (Consumer Federation of America), here
Morgan Reed (Association for Competitive Technology), here
Scott Cleland (Precursor LLC), here.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Facilitating Access to Culture in the Digital Age - WIPO Global Meeting on Emerging Copyright Licensing Modalities
November 4 and 5, 2010 – WIPO, 34, chemin des Colombettes, Geneva. Audio recording of the meeting now available.
Monday, September 13, 2010
On establishing the leader of a cartel
General Court, T-29/05 Deltafina / Commission, in particular paras 332-336
Software licenses and first sale doctrine
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Vernor v. Autodesk. See also this comprehensive post on Groklaw.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
On Copyright in Headlines
Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 984 (7 September 2010), Federal Court of Australia.
Monday, September 06, 2010
Rachat par la coopérative agricole Sodiaal du groupe Entremont autorisé
D'après le Communiqué "Avec l'acquisition du groupe Entremont, Sodiaal deviendra le numéro 2 sur le marché de la collecte de lait en France, derrière le groupe Lactalis. Les fournisseurs auxquels cette coopérative fera face sur ce marché seront cependant ses propres adhérents et l'Autorité a rappelé que ce contexte assurait un équilibre des relations entre vendeurs et acheteur, les éleveurs bénéficiant de leur position de sociétaires et de la sécurisation de leurs débouchés."
Friday, September 03, 2010
Price fixing in the air transportation industry
From the US Department of Justice Press Release: "Polar Air Cargo LLC has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $17.4 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices in the air transportation industry".
Advocate General Ján Mazák on (the absence of) margin squeeze
Opinion, Case C-52/09, Konkurrensverket v TeliaSonera AB.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Internet Archive: Over 1 Million Digital Books Available to the Print-Disabled
Those books are available for free, in a format called DAISY, either open or protected. Open DAISYs can be read by anyone in the world on many different devices. Protected DAISYs can only be opened using a key issued by the Library of Congress NLS program.
Netzneutralität aus deutscher Sicht: "Wettbewerb ist Garant für Netzneutralität"
Matthias Kurth, Präsident der Bundesnetzagentur, hier.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Post Oracle-Sun Merger: OpenSolaris' fate revealed (and what about Oracle's public announcement)?
Here.
From the Oracle-Sun merger decision, para 182:
"Although, with the exception of points 1, 2 and 3 (see below paragraph 184), Oracle's
public announcement is not legally binding on Oracle, the Commission considers that
the strong specificities of open source software and the vibrant ecosystem surrounding
MySQL provide for a self-enforcing mechanism ensuring that Oracle would not have
the ability and incentives to deviate from its announced future conduct. Reputation and
trust is of utmost importance for the sponsor of an open source project which depends
on contributions by a large ecosystem of users, developers and customers. After the
merger Oracle will become the sponsor of a number of significant open source projects
of Sun, including Java, MySQL and OpenSolaris, and will as such need to gain and
retain the trust from the open source community. In this respect, it can be expected that
all of the public pledges made by Oracle to reassure MySQL users, developers and
storage engine vendors will be subject to close scrutiny from the open source
community."
Was the EU Commission somehow slightly too optimistic?
From the Oracle-Sun merger decision, para 182:
"Although, with the exception of points 1, 2 and 3 (see below paragraph 184), Oracle's
public announcement is not legally binding on Oracle, the Commission considers that
the strong specificities of open source software and the vibrant ecosystem surrounding
MySQL provide for a self-enforcing mechanism ensuring that Oracle would not have
the ability and incentives to deviate from its announced future conduct. Reputation and
trust is of utmost importance for the sponsor of an open source project which depends
on contributions by a large ecosystem of users, developers and customers. After the
merger Oracle will become the sponsor of a number of significant open source projects
of Sun, including Java, MySQL and OpenSolaris, and will as such need to gain and
retain the trust from the open source community. In this respect, it can be expected that
all of the public pledges made by Oracle to reassure MySQL users, developers and
storage engine vendors will be subject to close scrutiny from the open source
community."
Was the EU Commission somehow slightly too optimistic?
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Online markets: discussion paper
A report for the Office of Fair Trading, Phillipa Marks, Stephen Adshead and Brian Williamson of Plum Consulting, Yali Sassoon of Keplar LLP and Ian Jewitt
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Spiegel: Explosion des Wissens
Access to Knowledge in Africa: The Role of Copyright
C Armstrong, J De Beer, D Kawooya, A Prabhala, T Schonwetter, here.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
On incentives to engage in designing around patents and standards for triggering a summary contempt proceeding
FTC Amicus Brief in U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Matter of TiVo, Inc., vs. EchoStar Corporation (Commissioners William E. Kovacic and Edith Ramirez dissenting)
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Voluntary Competition Compliance Code launched in Pakistan
Downloadable from the Competition Commission's website.
Monday, August 02, 2010
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BMWI, hier .
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DCI, Video here.
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Programme here ; livestream here .
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M. Stoller, here .
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A. D'Amico et al., here .
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D. Acemoglu, Video here .
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Amsterdam Law School, here .
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TechPolicy.press, here .