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New Paradigms

The Right to Search hinges on The Right to Index

In his Wired article, Google’s Tough Call, Lawrence Lessig almost seems to be making a case for some sort of intervention in Google’s decision with respect to the demands of book copyright owners.

The article is the best explanation I’ve read of the issues underlying Google’s initiative to index books.

In a related blog posting, Google Joins Yahoo!, Lessig comments on Google and Yahoo!’s separate agreements to filter special searches using the Creative Commons licence.

a case of the public good?
Some feel that the public good would be better served by the availability of readily available services such as the one Google represents. If that is the case, who is best placed to argue the case on behalf of the public? These issues point to how we must adapt the legal framework to the reality of the Internet in order to maximize its usefulness. In our economy there are times when advancing the public good requires some adjustment.

indexing & searching may drive additional value
Publishers and other holders of copyright might be interested in reading up on what is referred to in economics and law as information goods and uncertainty. They may learn that better indexing and searching of their content actually increases the value of their goods. If so, they may decide there may be new and/or better markets for them to exploit.

-pmh

update:
January 18, 2006
If you haven’t seen it already, Lawrence Lessig now has a very nice piece of media on the Google Book Search issue entitled: Is Google Book Search Fair Use?

Grumbles, New Paradigms

Consumers hit in shoot-out between big media thugs

If you thought that digital rights management (DRM) was mostly about protecting copyright in the digital age then this story on Barry Ritholtz’s Big Picture blog may disturb you.

It seems that in this case the media production establishment has finally lost its collective mind and is engaged in all out commercial warfare. In a war between Sony and Apple the consumer has become a victim of collateral damage.

When you’ve read the story, continue on with the posted comments. In the end consumers always have the final say.

-pmh

New Paradigms, Open Source

Novell in New Zealand

Open source software finds home with New Zealand government

This is in line with a trend I have been watching for. In this case, it appears the NZ government is taking a very balanced approach to open source in government.

It seems that Novell is also providing support for JBoss and MySQL… something that I was not aware of. That would indicate Novell’s advantage over some other Linux providers.

As well, Novell offers what I see as a very well rounded collection of software and services – many for the back-end and some proprietary – that provide for integration with existing & legacy systems. I feel that differentiator should place them in the lead if and when open source moves to this stage of adoption in the private sector.

In any case, Novell is in a different position from Red Hat. Today Red Hat is considered by many to be in the lead. It will be interesting to see which approach works better in the long term.

-pmh

ECM infrastructure architecture… and unrelated matters.