Bet you didn’t know this. Love you, Marc.
“The critics of legal education are right. There are too many law schools and there are too many law students and we need to do something about that.” —
Frank Wu, the chancellor and dean of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, “which will admit 20 percent fewer students than in years past, a decision that required the college to eliminate several staff positions.”
More to come; this is the tip of a very large iceberg. If you’re considering law school, please e-mail me so I can personally talk you out of it. (NB - I love my job but I’m unreasonably fortunate!)
“In the end, the Megaupload prosecution demonstrates that SOPA advocates are inevitably going to win. The content owners’ ire toward “foreign rogue websites,” combined with the administration’s willingness to break the law, if necessary, to keep content owners happy, leads to lawless outcomes like the Megaupload prosecution and ICE’s domain name seizures.” — Professor Eric Goldman.
I originally posted this to the wrong blog, but once again - this is, rather than a cocktail, a Jameson double. Yes.
“I wanted your first response to be a decline.” — Never invite Ari to anything. (via alittlespace)
I like to set expectations low.
“
In 2011, the USPTO issued a record number of utility patents – just shy of 225,000 issued patents. My indicators are that the 2012 figure will be around 6–10% greater. On April 3, the USPTO issued 5,176 utility patents — once again a new record and fully 200 more than the previous record set in March of this year.
USPTO Director Dave Kappos took office in August of 2009. The record number of grants on a single day prior to that was 4,418 - set in 1999 under the leadership of Q. Todd Dickinson who heads the the AIPLA.
This is “innovation,” people, nothing to see here.
“
THR: What is the status of the Stop Online Piracy Act? Is the legislation dead, or will there be compromise between Hollywood and Silicon Valley?
Dodd: I regret that Steve Jobs isn’t around today. At least he understood the connection between content and technology. The fellow who started eBay, Jeff Skoll, gets it [Skoll is founder and chairman of the film company Participant Media]. There are not a huge number of people who understand that content and technology absolutely need each other, so I’m counting on the fact that there are people like Jeff and others who are smart and highly respected in both communities. Between now and sometime next year [after the presidential election], the two industries need to come to an understanding.
THR: Are there conversations going on now?
Dodd: I’m confident that’s the case, but I’m not going to go into more detail because obviously if I do, it becomes counterproductive.
” — MPAA Chief Christopher Dodd Says SOPA War Isn’t Over, Defends Hosting Harvey Weinstein Even as He Attacked Over ‘Bully’(Source: economist.com)
Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Troll’s Claim to Own the Interactive Web -
I worked on the defense side of this case (for Adobe) for a bit; it was one of my last cases as a patent litigator. The outcome is definitely a good (and important) thing for the open web, and it sounds like the trial was pretty interesting (at least for web history nerds).
Georg, Andrew, Julian, and team have been busting their butts to make Paper an amazing app/suite of apps (and company), and they finally launched in the Apple app store today. Please go check Paper out, it’s a top notch creator’s tool (and really makes creating on a tablet accessible in a way that few other apps have before).
(Source: peanuts23, via madewithpaper)
One of the best so far.
(Source: tumblrbot, via mackenzie)
I accept.
Another good one, though I’m hopeful these were docs that everyone actually read (they’re funny!).
(via errthng)
Shout out to the duo, Sleigh Bells. NY stand up!!! (Taken with instagram)
Nas is apparently on Tumblr, too cool.
(via defjamblr)
I’m waiting for more of these but this one was pretty good.
(Source: artyucko, via cajunboy)
Innovation depends on keeping the costs of innovation down, making sure that financing is available, and making sure that markets are accessible. It does not depend on R&D grants or targeted industrial policy.
So the next time you see a piece of legislation that has an impact on an open Internet, software or business method patents, copyright enforcement, free and fair competition, open government, or cyber security, I urge you to see it through the lens of the competition between incumbent industrial hierarchies and emergent networks.
Consider who is sponsoring the legislation. Does it really protect consumers or does it protect the business models and cost structures of the incumbents?
I recently heard a woman from the Occupy movement say the most poignant thing. She said “no one is coming for us”. Her generation does not expect the government to be there when they need it, nor do they think the incumbent industrial hierarchies are structured or motivated to address the challenges they expect to face.
Remarkably, she was not depressed, defeated or bitter. She was determined. The kids who grew up inside AOL chat rooms and came of age on Facebook have an intuitive understanding of the power of networks that our generation will never have.
They are not asking us to fix the problems we left them with. They are asking us not to get in their way as they try to dig themselves out. I think we owe them that.
I was remiss in not blogging this post yesterday. We’re fortunate to have Brad so eloquently lay out the crux of the disconnect between innovators today and public policy. Great stuff.