[IP] more on more on Is Real's 'hacking' of iPod legal?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Grady <john_grady@yahoo.com>
Date: August 3, 2004 11:03:42 AM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on more on Is Real's 'hacking' of iPod legal?
Reply-To: john_grady@yahoo.com


> Chris Savage writes:
>
> A creator owning the exclusive right to reproduce their own work is not
> a monopoly situation.

This was true when creative works were limited to music compositions or 
other artistic endeavors.
However, in today's world you can gain exclusive rights over 
technologies or business methods that
establish new industries. This market power can easily become 
monopolistic in a fast moving
industry. Gaining exclusive rights to blue lasers, carbon nanotubes or 
DRM (none of which I would
put past our PTO) would constitute a monopoly in those newly enabled 
industries. If Betamax, MD or
Memory Sticks were our only recording altenatives due to IP protection 
for data storage, it would
hard to argue Sony didn't have a monopoly.

Apple's iPod certainly doesn't meet the definition of a monopoly at 
this point.

John Grady
Midwestern University - AZCOM

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