Joe Merante's Blog

Would more creators apply permissive licenses to their works if the attribution requirement included some sort of notification that the work was being used (maybe call it CC BY-NO?).  Professional courtesy, really.  While there are simple ways to find your work online, such as via search engine, Google Alert, monitored downloads via registration or otherwise, etc., the onus is still on the original author and assumes the author would be aware of such tools.  Yet reluctance to freely releasing creative work to the wilds of the Internet might abate if some sort of "reuse responsibility" beyond attribution were in effect-- perhaps so the original author can publicize the use, get in touch with the user or become inspired by the remixing.  Fuzzy objectives, to be sure, although in the link below, it is noted that software creators might have technical reasons for staying aware of downstream uses.  Still, a notification requirement begs the question of whether the or...

Each day I receive an email from the WIPO arbitration center listing decisions under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, or UDRP.  The UDRP is the policy a domain name registrant agrees to upon registration of a domain name which binds them to arbitration for trademark-type disputes.  WIPO's arbitration center hears the most of these disputes, though a few other venues also handle them.  WIPO hosts an extensive resource center for viewing past decisions, notice about policy changes, statistics and substantive discussion and summary of trends in UDRP panel* decisions. Over the past two years, I've been amazed (though not surprised) at how often Lego disputes come up.  The company is well known as an aggressive protector of their trademark rights.  A huge blow came in 2010 when the European Court of Justice (Europe's highest court) held that there are no trademark rights in the shape of interconnected toy bricks since the shape is necessar...

In The Penguin and the Leviathan , Yochai Benkler does a terrific job of synthesizing a wealth of cross-disciplinary research in support of the idea that collaboration isn't just the new competition, it's the driver of progress we've been ignoring for too long.   In many ways, this book felt like The Starfish and the Spider meets The Tipping Point via a trip through the Harvard Business Review.  Which isn't a bad thing at all.  Despite being a first edition, I did notice a bunch of typos.  Anyways, the title derives from the symbol of Linux, Tux the Penguin, and Hobbes' Leviathian .  A more contemporary mashup might be The Penguins' Leviathan as a nod to the equal, if not enhanced, power of new collaborative enterprises over centralized. Benkler is able to follow his points through many fields of study and even examples like the 2008 Obama campaign don't seem quite so cliched given his mastery of the topic.  I enjoyed the historical references and chal...

Pasted below from my review on GoodReads.com (which I've been really getting into lately, check it out!). Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money by Woody Tasch My rating: 3 of 5 stars In this book, Tasch proposes a new paradigm in investment and cultural literacy, beginning with the principle that agriculture led us into the industrial age and must be reassessed in order to get us out. He ties together many schools of thought as applied to the tension between industrial finance and agriculture, such as mathematics ("every formula is either complete and inconsistent, or consistent and incomplete"), economics ("either you are a true fiduciary or a false Malthusian'), environmentalism (recounting the destruction of our ecosystem during the 20th century in exchange for faster, cheaper and less wholesome food-- trading shelf life for quality), sociology (the contradictions that 21st century citizens must balance when facing these issues) and politics. As ...

Since moving within the past year, I've been amazed by the amount of junkmail I get.  So, I started keeping track of it on June 20.   Last week, I looked down at the mounting pile on my floor and assumed it had to be at least one pound.  Easily, about 1.5.  Naturally, I tweeted it: " it took less than a month for me to receive one POUND of credit card offers in the mail from 3 banks. (mostly from chase & citi)."  When I weighed the pile and it clocked in at TWO POUNDS, I opened the draft of this blog post containing my plan to calculate the costs and realized it had been nearly two months - 7 weeks and 2 days - since I started collecting the junk.  Either way, a pound in over three weeks (July 20 - August 8) or two pounds in 7 weeks and 2 days (June 20 - August 8), at least the volume is consistently annoying.  Anyways, Citi had already responded to my tweet so I left it alone.  " @ joemerante I can help stop the offers. Pls DM the nam...

Last Sunday's NYTimes "expose" on law school economics, with a pretty skewed perspective on my alma mater, NYLS, left much to be desired.  The author would be doing a much better service by questioning the validity of the US News rankings (which many inside and outside the academy continue to do), deceptive reporting across the board (likely including NYLS), miniscule response rates to employment surveys, further exploring the rising costs of living and tuition (can't find a school that's lowered it's tuition, correct me if I'm wrong), looking at faculty salaries, or really anything else that provides a fuller picture.  And then there's the assumption that everyone who goes to law school wants to work in Big Law and that no other legal or non-legal career options exist.  The author's previous explorations of the topic touched on many of those things, so it's a bit disappointing to see so much context left out.  You can read the article here ,...

I've been thinking a lot about photographer Jay Maisel's recent legal tussle with chiptune album Kind of Bloop 's producer Andy Baio, documented in a post by Mr. Baio here .  The "chip" refers to the use or emulation of old computer or video game hardware to produce the jaggedly beautiful tones found in older video games, such as those on the 8-bit NES.  Kind of Bloop is a chiptune tribute to Miles Davis' iconic album Kind of Blue for which Baio licensed the music but failed to seek permission to use a pixelated, 8-bit version of Maisel's cover photograph. Compare Maisel's original photograph (left) with Baio's version (right) The basic issue is whether Baio's use qualifies as a fair use of the original rather than a derivative work for which advance permission would be necessary.  While I find the decision to go after Baio slightly offensive to the spirit of the music that helped propel Mr. Maisel’s career and see a stronger case in favo...