Showing posts with label trade secrets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trade secrets. Show all posts
08 January 2018
I will soon have spare slots in my
freelance writing schedule for regular weekly or monthly work, and
major projects. Here are the main areas that I've been covering,
some for more than two decades. Any commissioning editors interested
in talking about them or related subjects, please contact me at
glyn.moody@gmail.com (PGP available). I am also available to speak on these topics at relevant conferences.
Surveillance, Encryption, Privacy,
Freedom of Speech
For the last two years, I have written
hundreds of articles about these crucial areas, for Ars Technica UK
(http://arstechnica.co.uk/author/glyn_moody/), Privacy News Online
(https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/author/glynmoody/) and
Techdirt (https://www.techdirt.com/user/glynmoody).
Given the challenges facing society this year, they are likely to be
an important focus for my work in 2018.
China
Another major focus for me this year
will be China. I follow the world of Chinese IT closely, and have
written numerous articles on the topic. Since I can read sources in
the original, I am able to spot trends early and to report faithfully
on what are arguably some of the most important developments
happening in the digital world today.
Free Software/Open Source
I started covering this topic in 1995,
wrote the first mainstream article on Linux for Wired in 1997
(https://www.wired.com/1997/08/linux-5/), and the first (and still
only) detailed history of the subject, Rebel Code
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Code) in 2001, where I
interviewed the top 50 hackers at length. I have also written about
the open source coders and companies that have risen to prominence in
the last decade and a half, principally in my Open Enterprise column
for Computerworld UK, which ran from 2008 to 2015.
Open Access, Open Data, Open Science,
Open Government, Open Everything
As the ideas underlying openness,
sharing and online collaboration have spread, so has my coverage of
them. I wrote one of the most detailed histories of Open Access, for
Ars Technica
(http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/what-is-open-access-free-sharing-of-all-human-knowledge/).
Copyright, Patents, Trade Secrets
The greatest threat to openness is its
converse: intellectual monopolies, which prevent sharing. This fact
has led me to write many articles about copyright, patents and trade
secrets. These have been mainly for Techdirt, where I have published
over 1,500 posts, and also include an in-depth feature on the future
of copyright for Ars Technica
(http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/07/copyright-reform-for-the-digital-age/).
Trade Agreements - TTIP, CETA, TISA,
TPP
Another major focus of my writing has
been so-called "trade agreements" like TTIP, CETA, TPP and
TISA. "So-called", because they go far beyond traditional
discussions of tariffs, and have major implications for many areas
normally subject to democratic decision making. In addition to 51
TTIP Updates that I originally wrote for Computerworld UK
(http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.nl/2016/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-ttip-as-told-in-51.html),
I have covered this area extensively for Techdirt and Ars Technica
UK, including a major feature on TTIP
(http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/05/ttip-explained-the-secretive-us-eu-treaty-that-undermines-democracy/)
for the latter.
Europe
As a glance at some of my 318,000 (sic)
posts to Twitter, identi.ca and Google+ will indicate, I read news
sources in a number of languages (Italian, German, French, Spanish,
Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Swedish in descending order of
capability.) This means I can offer a fully European perspective on
any of the topics above - something that may be of interest to
publications wishing to provide global coverage that goes beyond
purely anglophone reporting. The 30,000 or so followers that I have
across these social networks also means that I can push out links to
my articles, something that I do as a matter of course to boost their
readership.
12 October 2011
Facebook Says Some of Your Personal Data Is Its 'Trade Secrets or Intellectual Property'
A few weeks back, Techdirt posted a story about a European campaign group called "Europe vs. Facebook", which is trying to find out exactly what information Facebook holds about its users. It is doing this using European data protection laws, thanks to the fact that Facebook' s international headquarters are in Ireland.
On Techdirt.
Posted by
Glyn Moody
at
9:11 pm
0
comments
Labels: facebook, ireland, privacy, techdirt, trade secrets
09 April 2007
Coincidence? I Don't Think So....
Last week I noted a highly partial piece of writing that leapt to Microsoft's defence over its dispute with European Commission. And what do we have here? Why, a highly partial piece of writing that leaps to Microsoft's defence over its dispute with European Commission:
the Commission alleges that Microsoft has established "unreasonable" prices for its protocol licensing of its server technology in Europe. The Commission characterizes Microsoft's proprietary server software protocols, which is protected by patent, copyright and trade secret law, as containing "virtually no innovation." The Commission then remarkably concludes that everyone in the industry, nonetheless, "needs" Microsoft's protocols, and that Microsoft should provide them "royalty-free." What the EC demands in the end is that Microsoft make its intellectual property available to its competitors for free.
Now, where have I heard that before? Oh, yes:
The heart of the commission's theory, to quote its press release, is that "there is no significant innovation in the interoperability information" supplied by Microsoft and "hence the prices proposed by Microsoft are unreasonable." On this basis, the assertion is that Microsoft may charge only a nominal fee for the 10,000 pages of technical documentation it has provided and may face fines of up to 2 million to 3 million euros a day if the company does not yield.
The commission is silent on some inconvenient truths. European and U.S. patent offices have awarded Microsoft 36 patents for the technology in these interoperability protocols, and the company has an additional 37 pending applications being reviewed by patent offices around the world.
In order for technology to be patentable, it must be novel, "non-obvious," and make a technical contribution—in short, it must be innovative. What's more, trade secrets and knowhow also are valuable intellectual property, valued independently of their patentable character and protected by law and precedent internationally and in the EU. Indeed, the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement, to which all EU 27 member states are bound, expressly protects undisclosed information as a form of intellectual property, different from but co-equal with patents.
Uncanny: it's almost as if they were part of a concerted campaign, or something.
Posted by
Glyn Moody
at
12:26 pm
0
comments
Labels: apis, european commission, interoperability, microsoft, patents, protocols, trade secrets, trips
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)