The copyfighters over at, well, Copyfight,
have
taken on IP Blog.
I'm there, as you might guess.
As I say in my comments, almost every one of these IP skeptics who have blogged about IP Blog have entirely missed the humor of the A2K tee shirt incident, and have concluded from that episode that we have such little understanding of IP that we don't know the difference between copyright and trademark.
Let me get this straight: I'm the only U.S. think tank at WIPO. I've made four trips in five months to the World Intellectual Property Organization. My organization has applied for accreditation with WIPO, and commissions research and publishing on the relationship between IP and economic growth. I do media interviews and publish op/eds on intellectual property in major newspapers. Yet, somehow, I'm so ignorant of IP that I didn't know there was a difference between copyright and trademark . . .
There are other possibilities. One is that lack of a sense of humor somehow accompanies IP skepticism. Another is that the IP skeptics are so used to just talking to themselves, instead of engaging in the dialog that they claim to prize, that they have lost the ability to even engage in rational dialog, and are left with using caricatures of the pro-IP position as straw men that they can easily knock down.
Whatever. Law, economics, and human nature are on the side of strong IP protection. Tilt against windmills if you like, Copyfight. Perhaps it distracts you from even more dangerous initiatives.
I'm there, as you might guess.
As I say in my comments, almost every one of these IP skeptics who have blogged about IP Blog have entirely missed the humor of the A2K tee shirt incident, and have concluded from that episode that we have such little understanding of IP that we don't know the difference between copyright and trademark.
Let me get this straight: I'm the only U.S. think tank at WIPO. I've made four trips in five months to the World Intellectual Property Organization. My organization has applied for accreditation with WIPO, and commissions research and publishing on the relationship between IP and economic growth. I do media interviews and publish op/eds on intellectual property in major newspapers. Yet, somehow, I'm so ignorant of IP that I didn't know there was a difference between copyright and trademark . . .
There are other possibilities. One is that lack of a sense of humor somehow accompanies IP skepticism. Another is that the IP skeptics are so used to just talking to themselves, instead of engaging in the dialog that they claim to prize, that they have lost the ability to even engage in rational dialog, and are left with using caricatures of the pro-IP position as straw men that they can easily knock down.
Whatever. Law, economics, and human nature are on the side of strong IP protection. Tilt against windmills if you like, Copyfight. Perhaps it distracts you from even more dangerous initiatives.