Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Introducing The Reinvention Center
I’ve got a new project brewing. It’s called The Reinvention Center. I expect to write more about it in the future, but the quick intro is that it’s part of my response to the current economic climate. I realized that litigation consulting and policy research were hardly the only arenas in which my skills might prove useful. I looked around town and realized that many of the people I knew--from the high-powered techies and lawyers to the mellower new age yoginis and masseurs--could use a bit of help turning their own dreams into viable businesses. I launched The Reinvention Center to provide them with the help they need. I plan to provide equity-oriented incubation services to those poised for significant profitability, and low-priced hourly “reinvention counseling” to those form whom a bit of informed advice could prove helpful.
I’m excited about the project. It feels right. It feels like I’ll be giving something back to my community. And it seems a powerful extension to the services that I already offer to attorneys, companies, and policy makers.
Stay tuned for more!
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Friday, November 07, 2008
May the Faithful Prove Prescient
Last night, standing amidst a small group of friends, including some to whom my host had just introduced me, holding a glass of champagne, one of the assembled suggested a toast.
“What should we toast?” asked another.
“How about Barack Obama?” said a third. Numerous eyes turned towards me—perhaps not the only McCain voter in the room, but likely the most vocal one (I do live in San Francisco, after all).
I shrugged and raised my glass:
“To President-elect Obama. May the faith that so many have placed in him prove fully warranted.”
All agreed that the toast was proper regardless of affiliation or preference.
It was more than simply a face-saving attempt on my part. It was—and is—heartfelt. We are finishing eight years that I characterize as having had incompetent governance and irresponsible opposition. It is time that we do better on all fronts. The country has chosen Obama as the person to lead us there, and I hope that he does.
Yet my reference to “faith” was a careful, deliberate choice. Though most Obama supporters spoke of hope, what I heard from them was more aligned with faith. Obama supporters—strong Obama supporters—have assured me that when the dust settles and he actually moves into office, he will: govern as a Clintonian centrist; galvanize a truly “progressive” agenda; end affirmative action and racial preferences and setasides; and elevate the status and standing of black leaders and leadership. At least some of these supporters will soon find themselves sorely disappointed. It is, as a friend noted, a testament to Obama’s genius that he could convince all of these believers that he is, at heart, one of them. I could not join them for the simple reason that I could not share their faith. My read on our President-elect remains that though he is certainly “the kind of guy with whom I hang out,” his policy instincts are protectionist, accommodationist, and redistributionist. Still, I concede that my lack of faith is based on little more than the faith of his supporters; his record is thin enough for many to see him as many things.
All of which leads to the next, and critical question: What cues might we—or more honestly, I—receive over the next couple of months? What might our President-elect do over the next few months to convert me into a believer? What steps might he take to move the Democratic Party back to where it was—or at least, where I believed it had been—for the many years in which I was an enthusiastic supporter? I have been pondering that question, and I’m beginning to devise answers.
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Friday, November 30, 2007
The SF Chronicle uncovers the Secret
The San Francisco Chronicle, which published the first review of Digital Phoenix way back in May 2005, has come through for me again. Today’s paper contains a very nice review of The Secret Circuit--though somehow, my own hardcopy of the paper seems to be missing the alleged “M” section.
Yet one more pointer that I belong in San Francisco. . .
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Tuesday, October 02, 2007
New Publications
Well, it’s been far too long since I’ve posted anything here. I guess some years the mood hits fairly often, and others it just doesn’t. It’s not like nothing interesting has occurred in the past six months--just that it has all unfolded without my comments. Yet somehow, the world seems to be muddling through. Disturbing. It is entirely possible that it’s not all about me. (Then again, I’m just throwing that out there as a possibility).
Meanwhile though, things have been happening in my own little corner of the universe. In particular, some of my publications have cleared the publication queues, and are now in print:
Publication information is as follows:
The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).
Intellectual Property and the Alleged Collapsing of Aftermarkets, Rutgers L.J. 38(2) 399-472, 2007.
India’s Journey Towards an Effective Patent System, World Bank Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 4301.
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Monday, April 30, 2007
A Cautionary Tale of our Times
Continuing with my theme of making up for April’s delinquency, here’s another disturbing story.
A few weeks ago, The San Francisco Chronicle ran a bizarre, largely fictional anti-Israel screed written by Omar Ahmad. At the end of the article, the newspaper identified the author:
“Omar Ahmad is the founder and chairman emeritus of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He is the CEO of a Silicon Valley technology company.”
This identification interested me for two reasons. First, it is disconcerting to see major media outlets running posts from CAIR. CAIR is a well-known apologist for Islamic terror, funded by foreign sources unfriendly to the U.S. and the West. Ample documentation explains who CAIR really is. Nevertheless, its leaders continue to dupe major media outlets into accepting it as a valid spokes-organization for the “mainstream” American Muslim community. It is precisely this sort of misidentification that makes life difficult for people who wish to be both good Americans and good Muslims; it alienates liberal Muslims by elevating the status of soft-spoken radicals.
It was the second point of interest that motivated this posting, however: I have a friend named Omar Ahmad who heads a Silicon Valley technology company.
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Copyright v. Freedom
I’ve been a bit delinquent in my blogging lately (it does tend to come in phases), but I have encountered a number of items worthy of an entry. A week-and-a-half ago, for example, the Institute for International Education (IIE) invited me to meet with a delegation visiting from China. I met four Chinese “scholars,” though it was not clear to me that they were all scholars. Two were from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau; they said little or nothing. Wang Yefei, the deputy director of the Copyright Bureau, did most of the talking (actually, I did, but among the four of them, he was responsible for the lion’s share of the dialog). Zhao Hongshi, also from the Copyright Bureau and somewhat Mr. Yefei’s junior, also asked several questions. (The whole thing took place in simultaneous translation; none of the visitors spoke English).
The topic of our conversation was copyright enforcement—which was, apparently, the theme of their entire trip.
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Monday, March 19, 2007
Viacom v. Google: A Puzzlement
A couple of people have asked me about the Viacom/Google battle. It seems (surprise!) that some of the people who post videos on YouTube (a Google subsidiary) post clips from Viacom broadcasts. That gives Google potential vicarious third-party exposure for contributory or induced infringement. At least, that’s what Viacom thinks. Google, I’m certain, has numerous legal arguments to counter Viacom’s claim, with fair use playing a central role in the overall scheme of its argument. Viacom, however, feels that it has a good enough case to have sued Google for a cool billion dollars.
So various folks have asked me why I haven’t posted anything about this case yet. After all, it sounds like it should be right up my alley. The answer is that it is right up my alley. In fact, its soooooooooo up my alley that I’ve already said everything substantive that I have to say about it. I wrote about this case roughly five years before it was filed, omitting only the proper nouns (see Digital Phoenix). To recap:
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Saturday, March 10, 2007
Opportunities and Challenges in the Global Information Age
The Commonwealth Club invited me to speak a few days ago. I was pleased to draw a full room (about 40 people), and I prepared my comments for a general audience. My title, with a none-too-subtle nod to Digital Phoenix, was: Phoenix Rising: Opportunities and Challenges in the Global Information Age.
The basic thrust of my comments started with my belief that we are living through a global transition from an industrial age to an information age. Different parts of society will undergo that transformation at different paces, but each one will navigate a predictable pattern of opportunity, displacement, backlash, and reassessment. Selected digital industries (specifically software & entertainment) made the transition early. We should therefore be able to learn valuable lessons by studying their transitions and applying them, albeit in general terms, to areas of greater significance. My first goal in this talk was to show how a pattern that has emerged very cleanly in the debate over music downloads can inform our understanding of the debates over offshoring/protectionism and globalization/terrorism. My second goal wasto outline specific lessons that we can learn from these parallels--and actions we can take to improve both our individual lots and the world as a whole.
more...
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