New approaches to intellectual property in the digital age

New approaches to intellectual property in

the age of web 2.0

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 South Africa licence

‘In the new economy, information is the

scarce resource’

‘Downloading music for free is piracy’

(1)Some basic economics of

information production and innovation

a) Characteristics

•Non-rival

a) Characteristics

•Non-rival

•Both the input and output of its own production process

a) Characteristics

b) information production strategies

Public domain Intrafirm

Barter/sharing

Rights-based exclusion

Romantic maximisers Mickey RCA

Nonexclusion-Market

Scholarly lawyers Know-How

Learning networks

Nonexclusion-Nonmarket Joe Einstein Los Alamos

Limited sharing

networks


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Romantic maximisers

• firm sells software to a larger firm

• author sells rights to a book or film


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Mickey

• Disney reuses inventory for derivative works;

• buy outputs of Romantic Maximizers.


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

RCA

• companies hold blocking patents;

• create patent pools to build valuable goods.


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Scholarly lawyers

• Write articles to get clients

• Bands that give music for free and charge money for gigs

• software companies who develop free software but charge for customization, training etc


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Know-How

• Firms that have cheaper or better production processes because of research;


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Learning networks

• share info with similar organisations e.g. newspapers fund wire services, professional societies for engineers etc.


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Joe Einstein

• give away info for free in return for status, reputation, value of the innovation to themselves

• e.g. amateur choirs, academics, op-eds, mailing lists, free software developers etc.


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Los Alamos

• share in-house information in order to get govt grants


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Limited sharing networks

• release paper to small number of colleagues to get comment;

• share information on formal condition of reciprocity (e.g. copyleft)


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

Dramatic decline in costs of means of

production


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

< nonmarket production of information

+< information centre of

advanced economies

your company?


Barter/sharing



Nonexclusion-Market


Learning networks


Limited sharing

networks

(2)Commons-based peer

production

200110 contributors

2002472 contributors

200548,721 contributors

Commons-based peer production

A

•allow commercial use?•allow derivatives?•share alike?

(3)Let’s get practical

dammit!

How to stimulate peer production around your

brand?

icommons.orghblog.org

[email protected] Commons Attribution 2.5 South Africa licence

mailto:[email protected]

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New approaches to intellectual property in the digital age