Combatting Foreign Theft of U.S. IP Theft by Strengthening Section 337 of the...
Public policies that rely on free-market forces and avoid government interventions that distort terms of international trade benefit producers, consumers, and national economies alike. The full...
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Welcome guest blogger David Olson
I’m delighted to announce that David Olson will be guest blogging at Truth on the Market this summer. David is an Associate Professor at Boston College Law School. He teaches antitrust, patents, and...
View ArticleRobust Patent and Copyright Systems Promote a Strong U.S. Economy – and Are...
In a Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum released today, I explore both the “constitutionalist” as well as utilitarian, economic-welfare-oriented justifications for robust U.S. patent and copyright...
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CPIP Conference on Oct. 6-7, 2016: “Intellectual Property and Global Prosperity”
Please Join Us For A Conference On Intellectual Property Law INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & GLOBAL PROSPERITY Keynote Speaker: Dean Kamen October 6-7, 2016 Antonin Scalia Law School George Mason...
View ArticleNo, The FCC Should Not Have the Power to Cancel Contracts
Copyright law, ever a sore point in some quarters, has found a new field of battle in the FCC’s recent set-top box proposal. At the request of members of Congress, the Copyright Office recently wrote a...
View ArticleJustice Department Ignores the Benefits of Contracting Freedom in its Crabbed...
The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ignored sound law and economics principles in its August 4 decision announcing a new interpretation of seventy-five year-old music...
View ArticleChairman Wheeler’s new set-top box proposal: from unmitigated disaster to...
Imagine if you will… that a federal regulatory agency were to decide that the iPhone ecosystem was too constraining and too expensive; that consumers — who had otherwise voted for iPhones with their...
View ArticleA Flag On the Play: Gigi Sohn Commits a Copyright Foul
As Commissioner Wheeler moves forward with his revised set-top box proposal, and on the eve of tomorrow’s senate FCC oversight hearing, we would do well to reflect on some insightful testimony...
View ArticleMVPDs “Unlock” the Box (again), but the FCC Doesn’t Seem to Care
The FCC’s blind, headlong drive to “unlock” the set-top box market is disconnected from both legal and market realities. Legally speaking, and as we’ve noted on this blog many times over the past few...
View ArticleA Set-top Box Set-Back and an Opportunity for Good Government
There must have been a great gnashing of teeth in Chairman Wheeler’s office this morning as the FCC announced that it was pulling the Chairman’s latest modifications to the set-top box proposal from...
View ArticleThe FTC’s PAE Study Recommendations: Case Not Proven
On October 6, 2016, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued Patent Assertion Entity Activity: An FTC Study (PAE Study), its much-anticipated report on patent assertion entity (PAE) activity....
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Truth on the Market welcomes our newest blogger, Neil Turkewitz
Truth on the Market is delighted to welcome our newest blogger, Neil Turkewitz. Neil is the newly minted Senior Policy Counsel at the International Center for Law & Economics (so we welcome him to...
View ArticleThe Internet Association’s vision for the future looks a lot like the past
Last week, the Internet Association (“IA”) — a trade group representing some of America’s most dynamic and fastest growing tech companies, including the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and eBay —...
View ArticleSupreme Court’s Samsung v. Apple Decision and the Status of Design Patents
On December 6 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its much anticipated decision in Samsung Electronic Co. v. Apple Inc. The opinion deferred for another day clarification of key policy questions raised...
View ArticlePublic Knowledge’s Lonely Echo Chamber of Copyright Advocacy
Yesterday the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee issued the first set of policy proposals following their long-running copyright review process. These proposals were...
View ArticleThe song remains the same: Exceptionalists against the application of the law
In a recent article for the San Francisco Daily Journal I examine Google v. Equustek: a case currently before the Canadian Supreme Court involving the scope of jurisdiction of Canadian courts to enjoin...
View ArticleFair use’s fatal conceit
My colleague, Neil Turkewitz, begins his fine post for Fair Use Week (read: crashing Fair Use Week) by noting that Many of the organizations celebrating fair use would have you believe, because it...
View ArticleCopyright and the Public Interest: The Importance of Ensuring that...
I recently became aware of a decision from the High Court in South Africa that examines an interesting intersection of freedom of expression, copyright and contract. It addresses the issue of how to...
View ArticleUnderstanding ownership and property in the Digital Age
What does it mean to “own” something? A simple question (with a complicated answer, of course) that, astonishingly, goes unasked in a recent article in the Pennsylvania Law Review entitled, What We Buy...
View ArticleAre rules incompatible with the web? Let’s hope not: A response to Tim Wu
According to Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing, Tim Wu has written an open letter to W3C Chairman Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, expressing concern about a proposal to include Encrypted Media Extensions...
View ArticleDon’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good on Copyright Office reform
R Street’s Sasha Moss recently posted a piece on TechDirt describing the alleged shortcomings of the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017 (RCSAA) — proposed legislative...
View ArticleThe European Commission’s Regrettable June 27 Google Antitrust Decision – and...
Today I published an article in The Daily Signal bemoaning the European Commission’s June 27 decision to fine Google $2.7 billion for engaging in procompetitive, consumer welfare-enhancing conduct....
View ArticleWhy the Canadian Supreme Court’s Equustek decision is a good thing for...
I recently published a piece in the Hill welcoming the Canadian Supreme Court’s decision in Google v. Equustek. In this post I expand (at length) upon my assessment of the case. In its decision, the...
View ArticleAn ambitious AG, a disgruntled competitor, and the contrived antitrust case...
The populists are on the march, and as the 2018 campaign season gets rolling we’re witnessing more examples of political opportunism bolstered by economic illiteracy aimed at increasingly unpopular big...
View ArticleSecond Circuit’s BMI Decision Commendably Overturns the Justice Department’s...
Introduction and Summary On December 19, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit presented Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) with an early Christmas present. Specifically, the Second Circuit...
View ArticleTrade Agreements and Restatements as End Runs Around the Rule of Law
The Internet is a modern miracle: from providing all varieties of entertainment, to facilitating life-saving technologies, to keeping us connected with distant loved ones, the scope of the Internet’s...
View ArticleCanadian Site Blocking Proposal Is a Good Experiment in Controlling Piracy
In an ideal world, it would not be necessary to block websites in order to combat piracy. But we do not live in an ideal world. We live in a world in which enormous amounts of content—from books and...
View ArticleThe Third Circuit’s Oberdorf v. Amazon opinion offers a good approach to...
[Note: A group of 50 academics and 27 organizations, including both myself and ICLE, recently released a statement of principles for lawmakers to consider in discussions of Section 230.] In a...
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Breaking up Amazon? Platforms, Private Labels and Entry
[This post is the first in an ongoing symposium on “Should We Break Up Big Tech?” that will feature analysis and opinion from various perspectives.] [This post is authored by Randal C. Picker, James...
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A Regulatory Failure of Imagination
Underpinning many policy disputes is a frequently rehearsed conflict of visions: Should we experiment with policies that are likely to lead to superior, but unknown, solutions, or should we should...
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The Digital Policy of the Next EU Commission: All roads Lead to Margrethe...
Ursula von der Leyen has just announced the composition of the next European Commission. For tech firms, the headline is that Margrethe Vestager will not only retain her job as the head of DG...
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Does Apple’s “Discrimination” Against Rival Apps in the App Store harm...
A spate of recent newspaper investigations and commentary have focused on Apple allegedly discriminating against rivals in the App Store. The underlying assumption is that Apple, as a vertically...
View ArticleIt’s Time to Let STELA Go Off Into the Sunset and Reform Video Marketplace...
Every 5 years, Congress has to reauthorize the sunsetting provisions of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA). And the deadline for renewing the law is quickly approaching (Dec....
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IP Rights Are Important, Even in Pandemics
The ongoing pandemic has been an opportunity to explore different aspects of the human condition. For myself, I have learned that, despite a deep commitment to philosophical (neo- or classical-)...
View ArticleGeo-Blocking: What is it Good For… A Surprising Amount, Actually.
The European Court of Justice issued its long-awaited ruling Dec. 9 in the Groupe Canal+ case. The case centered on licensing agreements in which Paramount Pictures granted absolute territorial...
View ArticlePlatform Self-Preferencing Can Be Good for Consumers and Even Competitors
Critics of big tech companies like Google and Amazon are increasingly focused on the supposed evils of “self-preferencing.” This refers to when digital platforms like Amazon Marketplace or Google...
View ArticleThe Problem of Data Property Rights
Policy discussions about the use of personal data often have “less is more” as a background assumption; that data is overconsumed relative to some hypothetical optimal baseline. This overriding...
View ArticleHow Changing Section 230 Could Disrupt Insurance Markets
In recent years, a diverse cross-section of advocates and politicians have leveled criticisms at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and its grant of legal immunity to interactive computer...
View ArticleOld Ideas and the New New Deal
Over the past decade and a half, virtually every branch of the federal government has taken steps to weaken the patent system. As reflected in President Joe Biden’s July 2021 executive order, these...
View Article10 Years After SOPA/PIPA, Congress Still Needs to Address Online Piracy
Activists who railed against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) a decade ago today celebrate the 10th anniversary of their day of protest, which they credit with sending...
View ArticleFleites v. MindGeek Contemplates Significant Expansion of Collateral Liability
In Fleites v. MindGeek—currently before the U.S. District Court for the District of Central California, Southern Division—plaintiffs seek to hold MindGeek subsidiary PornHub liable for alleged...
View ArticleSenate Bill Looks to Rebalance ‘Internet Freedom’ and Creators’ Rights
All too frequently, vocal advocates for “Internet Freedom” imagine it exists along just a single dimension: the extent to which it permits individuals and firms to interact in new and unusual ways....
View ArticleWelcome to the TOTM Symposium on FTC UMC Rulemaking
There is widespread interest in the potential tools that the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may use to address a range of competition-related and competition-adjacent concerns....
View ArticleNEW VOICES: FTC Rulemaking for Noncompetes
On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “curtail the unfair use of noncompete clauses and other clauses or agreements that may...
View ArticleRules Without Reason
In his July Executive Order, President Joe Biden called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider making a series of rules under its purported authority to regulate “unfair methods of...
View ArticleA Few Questions (and Even Fewer Answers) About What Artificial Intelligence...
Not only have digital-image generators like Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and Midjourney—which make use of deep-learning models and other artificial-intelligence (AI) systems—created some incredible (and...
View ArticleState-Mandated Digital Book Licenses Offend the Constitution and Undermine...
Various states recently have enacted legislation that requires authors, publishers, and other copyright holders to license to lending libraries digital texts, including e-books and audio books. These...
View ArticleOregon Should Beware the Right to Repair
The Oregon State Legislature is considering HB 3631, a bill that would ensure that consumers have a “right to repair” their electronics devices. The legislation would require that manufacturers...
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Blackout Rebates: Tipping the Scales at the FCC
Cable and satellite programming blackouts often generate significant headlines. While the share of the population affected by blackouts may be small—bordering on minuscule—most consumers don’t like the...
View ArticleSystemic Risk and Copyright in the EU AI Act
The European Parliament’s approval last week of the AI Act marked a significant milestone in the regulation of artificial intelligence. While the law’s final text is less alarming than what was...
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