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FTC Wants To Straighten Out IP Law

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-and-what-army dept.

coondoggie writes with this excerpt from NetworkWorld: "What do you get when you mix the government, the court system, company lawyers and Joe Consumer? A serious mess that would send most people screaming into the night. But the Federal Trade Commission is no such entity. It wants to straighten Intellectual Property (IP) out and today said it will hold a series of hearings — the first in Washington, DC on Dec. 5 — it will use to examine IP law and the myriad issues surrounding it. Interested bigwigs from the tech industry, including Cisco, Yahoo and the Computer & Communications Industry Association are expected to testify along with professors, lawyers and other industry players. The patent system has experienced significant change and more changes are under consideration, the FTC said." The FTC held some different, but related hearings this week which addressed topics such as copyright law and DRM interoperability. Transcripts, podcasts, and summaries of the talks are available on the FTC-hosted "Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade" site.

7 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. BOHICA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I sure hope the industry isn't colluding here and the government is looking out for our interests...

    vc: buyers

  2. Straighten out? by dada21 · · Score: 4, Funny

    When did it go gay?

    1. Re:Straighten out? by Joce640k · · Score: 1, Funny

      Right after they allowed software patents.

      --
      No sig today...
  3. Re:Minnie by schon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nonono..

    Mickey and Minnie *were* married, but they got divorced a few years back. Disney did an awesome job of keeping it out of the press, but I got the following story from an insider:

    While it was happening, Mickey went to his lawyer and explained why things weren't working out between them. He ranted for over an hour, and when he was finished, his lawyer said

    "Well Mr. Mouse, while I can sympathize with you, I'm afraid you can't divorce your wife simply because you think she's a bit odd."

    Mickey jumped up and shouted "No! I didn't say she was odd - I said she was fucking Goofy!"

  4. Re:no, no, you don't understand U.S. elections! by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Obama won't be president until he's sworn in, in January.
    THEN everything will magically and instantly be fixed.

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  5. Re:Those are easy odds to figure by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

    imagine putting the beneficiaries of any other taxation scheme in charge of the rates and revenue, without having to ever justify the cost.

    Don't worry. They're just having committee hearings. These put two of the most useless concepts in human behavior (committee, meeting) together in one room. It's carefully designed so nothing of substance gets done.

    That's for the little get together in the bar after the meeting.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  6. Re:no, no, you don't understand U.S. elections! by Spatial · · Score: 4, Funny

    Weren't you paying attention? YES. WE. CAN!