Sunday January 8th, 2012 09:42:29 PM U.S. Central Standard Time
The Haves and the Want to Haves - For Free
Within the realm of trademark and copyright legislation this country is in the middle of a great debate. This debate will ultimately decide what protections will be guaranteed to intellectual rights holders. What is at stake is the very protection that is afforded to those who create and add universal value to our society. The laws that have historically provided protection are under a full frontal assault by Silicon Valley types like Google’s senior counsel Kent Walker. Recently, Walker made comments that would lead us to believe that patent laws are out of date vestiges of the past that only stifle innovation. I am wondering if executives at General Electric or the 3M Company would agree with Mr. Walker's assertions?
So whose innovation are we talking about here and what types of innovation does Google believe should be protected. What types of innovation is Google alluding to? Is it only Silicon Valley kinds of innovation that Google is concerned about? Is it only web related patents that are important these days? Most fair-minded people would agree that content protection, patent protection and trademark protection reaches across a broader spectrum of innovation than Google is interested in. Who would disagree with the idea that it’s more important to protect the entire spectrum of patents, not just what Google would have us believe to be important. So the question is will those who create and develop great inventions, or those who sing or act in wonderful movies, or those gifted individuals who write award-winning novels be allowed to be compensated for their work? Will rights holders have any real protection after this struggle finally ends? Or will Congress, led by people like Senator Ron Wyden, turn their collective backs on those who they do not consider to be innovators?
It is fair to say that intellectual rights holders are now in the midst of a great struggle with those in Silicon Valley who demand, through their lobbyist, to be allowed to freely monetize whatever can be digitized on the Internet. To achieve a rateless, perpetual, and irrevocable license for content owned by others Google must attack the very laws that stand in their way through lobbyist in Washington D.C. So now we are debating the historical “contract” between the U.S. government and intellectual rights holders that have been around since the founding of our Constitution. What will be the outcome? Who will win? In the future will innovators have to bow to the mere whims of website owners and corporate titans who feel they have the right to monetize copyrighted, trademarked and patented materials? Will innovators be forced to allow website owners and Silicon Valley corporations to monetize their innovation with no recourse? Will we be snookered by the likes of Kent Walker into believing that we should throw out laws vested in our Constitution by some misguided sense of free speech propagated by “creepy” corporations like Google?
Of late the sausage-making in Washington D.C. has been unsightly to say the least with Google buying-out legions of lobbyist who are now being paid to defend Google’s “de facto” right to monetize billions of dollars from other people’s hard work. Of course search engines have made a lot of money and have added considerable value to their companies by monetizing content that has come directly out of the pockets of those who actually created it in the first place. I think most people are aware that search engines are not “creators” of content, they are "replicants" that only feed off content. What Google really does well is make billions of dollars by supporting advertising networks that monetize intellectual property while at the same time claiming they are attempting to stop such monetization. However, the record keeping that is currently being done by those who have the technology to measure Google’s cooperation level sees a totally different picture. Google executives in the past have made claims that they are capable of accounting for our nations budget expenditures down to a few cents, but when it comes to the simple task of stopping the linkage between their own ad network partnerships and rogue websites they appear much less capable.
So what is developing is a struggle between two competing visions. The first group believes that everyone who has a business model that needs trademark protection must somehow invent a new business model or simply shut up and go home. Leading this group is Google’s General Counsel Kent Walker who recently stated publicly that patents are “gumming up” innovation and ultimately harming consumers. The second group, the creators, are those people who simply want to protect and reward those who innovate by improving copyright laws as it pertains to the Internet. So it seems from patents to trademarks Google executives would like to see a different system than the one that actually exist today. I wonder if Google is concerned about innovation or possibly something else?
Let’s take a little closer look at the Silicon Valley crowd led by Google who strongly believe that even the United States patent system should be done away with. Of course it doesn’t take an MBA to understand that this would certainly favor Google’s business model and not the model of the rights holder. Mr. Walker, and apparently the rest of their management team, believes that their invasion of rights holders’ property hasn’t gone far enough. Now they are saying not only is the Protect IP/SOPA Act unreasonable, but patent laws are equally unreasonable and stifle innovation. To backup their assertions Google is committing millions of dollars to high-powered Washington lobbyist. This has become an epic struggle between Google and rights holders that will be fought at the very highest levels of Government.
We are only at the beginning of this crucial struggle. As far as Congressional leaders go both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees should be applauded for their efforts to protect intellectual rights holders, which, is the foundation of this country’s great economic engine. It is fair to say members of both Judiciary Committees have done their jobs by dragging Google executives kicking and screaming into Congressional hearings to make certain their management team understands that Congress is serious about making laws to protect rights guaranteed in the Constitution, not just those who Google deems to be important. We need laws that will work irrespective of the fact that the innovator may or may not reside in Silicon Valley or be in the “search business.” Google has greatly increased shareholder value by “gumming up” the DMCA takedown procedure or outright refusals to abide by simple request to remove links to stolen intellectual property. Google has even stated that they don’t believe Safe Harbor laws apply to them. To understand Google’s thinking, as it relates to trademark and patent laws, we must remember that Google is an advertising company pure and simple. They make billions of dollars in advertising relationships and schemes that bilk money from other people’s hard work and innovation. It is interesting to note that while Google is monetizing others innovation they scream they are attempting to protect creativity and innovation. Many would disagree. Google’s actions have the opposite effect, they are actually killing innovation among those who will not invest in products that can be easily ripped off.
But apparently Mr. Walker doesn’t feel quite satisfied just yet. So what’s next? As mentioned earlier, patents are next. In Walker’s view the United States Government should revamp U.S. patents laws to be more conducive to innovation and of course the whims of Google’s own interest. Currently, new legislation (SOPA) is being debated and amended in the House Judiciary committee. The SOPA bill should be moved forward and passed in spite of the millions of dollars Silicon Valley is paying lobbyist in Washington D.C. to kill it.
The Chilling Report operates the World's First Comprehensive Database of Websites Dedicated to Copyright Infringement. The Chilling Report monitors the monetization of illegally obtained content by search engines, websites, advertisers and ad networks through new, advanced technology. For more information contact: admin@chillingreport.com
