Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Explaining copyright with a drawing

  While obviously a bit of an oversimplification, I think Erik’s drawing really does a great job of capturing the base dynamics of how copyright works ( via Dan ).   Basically, anything in the left circle requires permission; anything in the middle requires justification under the Fair Use test; and anything on the right is allowed by law. Posted Jun 10 2008, 08:33 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Intellectual Property, Copyright, Law

• Simultaneous Discovery and its impact on stealth mode

  We’ve talked a lot about the anti-stealth movement here and on the nextNY list, and the topic has resurfaced again recently thanks to Brad Burnham’s post about the advantages of being open . I noticed that, at least anecdotally, there was a correlation between how open entrepreneurs were with us and their ultimate success. Simply put the entrepreneurs who are aggressively open in describing their plans seem to do better than the ones who are cagey. There is absolutely no data underneath this observation. It is just my sense after meeting hundreds of entrepreneurs over 15 years as a VC. If it is true, it could be for lots of reasons. The more experienced an entrepreneur, the more likely they are to understand that ideas are rarely unique, but the ability to assemble a team and execute against that idea is rare. Perhaps they are just more confident, and it is confidence that is correlated with success. But recently, I have started to think that there might be something more going... Posted Jun 08 2008, 09:49 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Intellectual Property, Rants, Patent, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Social Behavior, NextNY, Notches

• Free can make you a lot of money

  I’ve talked a bit in the past about the economics of free , and anyone who reads TechDirt knows that Mike Masnick has long been a proponent of these “new economics”. Mike recently gave an awesome presentation at mesh08 presentation called the The Infinite Good on this subject, making the case why free is not a bad thing and how it can actually make you more money. The video is available at rabbletv . Unfortunately, they allow you to embed but not link to a specific video. To watch, select “On-Demand”, choose “mesh Conference 2008″, then select Mike’s presentation. ( via Rob , who also happens to be a co-founder of mesh). When dealing with infinite supply, artificial scarcity is not the answer – limiting a resource shrinks the market. On top of this, infinite goods are much more prevalent in our digital world. The trick is to figure out how to use the infinite goods (i.e., the music that can be easily copied) to make the scarce goods that you control (i.e., the artist, the concerts) more... Posted Jun 04 2008, 03:21 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Intellectual Property, Business, Startup, Venture Capital

• Being better than free when copies are ubiquitous

  The digital world fundamentally changes what a copy means for copyright. I wrote about this in the past from the legal perspective, suggesting an implied license to reproduce and a greater reliance on other rights. Kevin Kelly has a great post up about the Internet's role as a super-distribution center and how to make money in the face of this ( via Andrew ). Yet the previous round of wealth in this economy was built on selling precious copies, so the free flow of free copies tends to undermine the established order. If reproductions of our best efforts are free, how can we keep going? To put it simply, how does one make money selling free copies? I have an answer. The simplest way I can put it is thus: When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable. When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied. In other words, money is no longer in the distribution, but "rather... Posted Feb 22 2008, 10:15 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Copyright, Business, Law

• Friday Fun: Hillary's inner Flick

  Tim Lee on TechDirt discusses the copyright implications of this Slate video . The copyright discussion is interesting and worth revisiting next week, but I figured for this edition Friday Fun I'd share the video if you haven't already seen it. (It helps if you've seen Election ). Clever. Posted Jan 25 2008, 08:03 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Intellectual Property, Things that amuse me, Copyright, Friday Fun

• Scoble, Facebook and Data Ownership

  I've sort of ignored the whole Scoble/Facebook fiasco, with people arguing on both sides who "owns" the data. Jimmy Gutterman misses the point a bit , because Facebook has already opened up the social graph through the Facebook Platform API. What they don't expose - and why this script resorted to screen-scraping - is any contact information. He paints this as a "lock in" issue, but I doubt that's their primary goal. We already complain enough about the spam we get on Facebook, and I would hate it if someone in my network shared - accidentally or on purpose - that contact information with spammers. So, yeah, I think what Facebook did is a good thing, which seems to be the majority sentiment. Mike Arrington said Plaxo flubbed it and Jeff Jarvis agrees . Loren Feldman called Robert Scoble a corporate spy . Allen discussed how we should approach the data ownership problem . Dare says Facebook is right - since Scoble did not enter any of the contact information... Posted Jan 09 2008, 11:08 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Copyright, Privacy, Blogging, Law, Facebook

• When will the NFL Network standoff end?

  Like so many others , I was furious when I couldn't watch the Packers-Cowboys games a few weeks back. The NFL Network is only carried on satellite which is simply not an option for many of us in urban areas like NYC. For those who haven't been paying attention, there's been a long-running standoff between the cable companies and the NFL network. (ComCast carries it at a premium, but neither Time Warner or Cablevision offer it, free or otherwise). To sum up: The NFL wants its network carried on basic cable packages with channels such as ESPN or CNN, where it can reach the broadest possible audience. Cable companies including Time Warner Inc. say it belongs on a sports package, or tier, where its audience would include only those fans willing to pay extra. I am a huge fan of the NFL and would certainly subscribe in a second. Much like the issues with net neutrality, the problem is that we're not dealing with a perfect market. If Time Warner doesn't offer me the ability... Posted Dec 27 2007, 12:22 PM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Things that bother me, Sports, Law, NYC

• Why Notches isn't "Anti-Stealth"

  There's been a lot of discussion about being anti-stealth . A stealth startup is one that isn't telling anyone what they're building and being very protective about the idea. Anti-stealth is the polar opposite - broadcasting everything, from your long-term vision, project status, and even financials. Anti-stealth is, in its purest form, about complete transparency in the business. Being "stealth mode" was in part about protecting the idea, but also gives the impression that the idea itself is revolutionary. In a sense, it's At one point this might have worked, but we realized more and more that many of these companies in "stealth mode" had average ideas at best. Being "anti-stealth" has its own pros and cons. The real value in broadcasting your message is that you'll get feedback and opportunities that would otherwise go undiscovered, as Charlie discovered . There are many benefits I can see being completely transparent. Of course, you actually... Posted Nov 26 2007, 11:08 AM by Tim with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Intellectual Property, Business, Entrepreneurship, NYC, Startup, NextNY, Notches

• Professional bloggers get journalist rights

  On August 1st, a congressional panel voted to protect journalists from having to reveal their confidential sources, and explicitly included "professional bloggers" in the category ( via Lena ). This is definitely a step in the right direction. Ultimately, I believe it should be a functional test - if you act like a journalist, you deserve the protections reserved for journalists - regardless of what medium you are publishing into. This is especially important since newspapers are on their last legs and many journalists are learning they can make more money publishing for themselves. Posted Aug 17 2007, 06:37 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Intellectual Property, Blogging

• Friday Fun: The perfect car for Manhattan?

  The perfect car for Manhattan - or just an extra from the Transformers movie? Posted Jul 06 2007, 11:23 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Intellectual Property, Patent, Friday Fun