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The is a crucial year for the Internet in Europe, because 2017 will see key decisions made about the shape of copyright law in the EU. Tha...

As Techdirt has noted many times, the patent system is broken, and in various ways. One major problem is the way it inhibits innovation, ...

As I've pointed out many times in previous posts, one of the key benefits of mandating network neutrality is that it promotes innovat...

One of the problems with the debates around copyright and patents is that they too often assume that intellectual monopolies are necessar...

Beyond the fact that you are using it to read these words, the Web has undeniably had a major impact on a large part of the world's p...

Techdirt has been pointing out for years that more patents is not the same thing as more innovation, even though many around the world w...

Techdirt has been writing for a while about China's policy of providing incentives to file patents -- regardless of whether those pat...

Techdirt has had many posts pointing out that the huge and vibrant fashion industry is a perfect demonstration that you don't need mon...

I've been writing about why software patents are bad from every viewpoint for far too long, but I'm heartened by the recent upswing ...

There's a column doing the rounds at the moment that is generating some interest. It comes from the King of the Patent Trolls, Nathan ...

One of the more unexpected interests of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is the Allen Human Brain Atlas : Using an innovative approach to hum...

Here's a textbook case of how gene patents not only do *not* promote innovation, as is so frequently claimed, but slow it down - and wi...

Rather patronisingly, the West has tended to regard China as little better than a copy-cat in advanced technologies, not least on the Web. ...

There has been understandable excitement over David Cameron's announcement - out of the blue - that the UK government would be looking a...

Although I have never owned an iPhone, nor even desired one, I do recognise that it has redefined the world of smartphones. In that sense, ...

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I write a lot about software patents. The reason is simple: they represent probably the g...

For some months now, I've been touting "Avatar" as a good example of how the film industry should be concentrating on enhancin...

As you may have heard, last week there was a bit of kerfuffle over Google's Buzz and its implications for privacy. And Google has respon...

Sorry to rattle on about ACTA, but it seems there's something of a concerted campaign to "counter" all the noise we little peo...

One of my heroes, Sir John Sulston, has a piece in the Guardian today with the intriguing headline "How science is shackled by intell...