Update 9/8/2011 141 Internet Entrepreneurs

108 Intellectual Propery Law Professors
Professor John R. Allison McCombs School of Business University of Texas at Austin
Professor Brook K. Baker Northeastern University School of Law
Professor Derek E. Bambauer Brooklyn Law School
Professor Margreth Barrett Hastings College of Law University of California, San Francisco
Professor Mark Bartholomew University at Buffalo Law School
Professor Ann M. Bartow Pace Law School
Professor Marsha Baum University of New Mexico School of Law
Professor Yochai Benkler Harvard Law School
Professor Oren Bracha University of Texas School of Law
Professor Annemarie Bridy University of Idaho College of Law
Professor Dan L. Burk University of California-Irvine School of Law
Professor Irene Calboli Marquette University School of Law
Professor Adam Candeub Michigan State University College of Law
Professor Michael Carrier Rutgers Law School – Camden
Professor Michael W. Carroll Washington College of Law American University
Professor Brian W. Carver School of Information University of California-Berkeley
Professor Anupam Chander University of California-Davis School of Law
Professor Andrew Chin University of North Carolina School of Law
Professor Ralph D. Clifford University of Massachusetts School of Law
Professor Julie E. Cohen Georgetown University Law Center
Professor G. Marcus Cole Stanford Law School
Professor Kevin Collins Washington University-St. Louis School of Law
Professor Danielle M. Conway University of Hawai’i Richardson School of Law
Professor Dennis S. Corgill St. Thomas University School of Law
Professor Christopher A. Cotropia University of Richmond School of Law
Professor Thomas Cotter University of Minnesota School of Law
Professor Julie Cromer Young Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Professor Ben Depoorter Hastings College of Law University of California – San Francisco
Professor Eric B. Easton University of Baltimore School of Law
Anthony Falzone Director, Fair Use Project Stanford Law School
Professor Nita Farahany, Vanderbilt Law School
Professor Thomas G. Field, Jr. University of New Hampshire School of Law
Professor Sean Flynn Washington College of Law American University
Professor Brett M. Frischmann Cardozo Law School Yeshiva University
Professor Jeanne C. Fromer Fordham Law School
Professor William T. Gallagher Golden Gate University School of Law
Professor Laura N. Gasaway University of North Carolina School of Law
Professor Deborah Gerhardt University of North Carolina School of Law
Professor Llew Gibbons University of Toledo College of Law
Professor Eric Goldman Santa Clara University School of Law
Professor Marc Greenberg Golden Gate University School of Law
Professor James Grimmelman New York Law School
Professor Leah Chan Grinvald St. Louis University School of Law
Professor Richard Gruner John Marshall Law School
Professor Bronwyn H. Hall Haas School of Business University of California at Berkeley
Professor Robert A. Heverly Albany Law School Union University
Professor Laura A. Heymann Marshall-Wythe School of Law College of William & Mary
Professor Herbert Hovenkamp University of Iowa College of Law
Professor Dan Hunter New York Law School
Professor David R. Johnson New York Law School
Professor Faye E. Jones Florida State University College of Law
Professor Amy Kapczynski University of California-Berkeley Law School
Professor Dennis S. Karjala Arizona State University College of Law
Professor Anne Klinefelter University of North Carolina College of Law
Professor Mary LaFrance William Boyd Law School University of Nevada – Las Vegas
Professor Amy L. Landers McGeorge Law School University of the Pacific
Professor Mark Lemley Stanford Law School
Professor Lawrence Lessig Harvard Law School
Professor David S. Levine Elon University School of Law
Professor Yvette Joy Liebesman St. Louis University School of Law
Professor Lydia Pallas Loren Lewis & Clark Law School
Professor Michael J. Madison University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Professor Gregory P. Magarian Washington University-St. Louis School of Law
Professor Phil Malone Harvard Law School
Professor Christian E. Mammen, Hastings College of Law University of California-San Francisco
Professor Jonathan Masur University of Chicago Law School
Professor Andrea Matwyshyn Wharton School of Business University of Pennsylvania
Professor J. Thomas McCarthy University of San Francisco School of Law
Professor William McGeveran University of Minnesota Law School
Professor Stephen McJohn Suffolk University Law School
Professor Mark P. McKenna Notre Dame Law School
Professor Hiram Melendez-Juarbe University of Puerto Rico School of Law
Professor Viva Moffat University of Denver College of Law
Professor Ira Nathenson St. Thomas University School of Law
Professor Tyler T. Ochoa Santa Clara University School of Law
Professor David S. Olson Boston College Law School
Professor Barak Y. Orbach University of Arizona College of Law
Professor Kristen Osenga University of Richmond School of Law
Professor Aaron Perzanowski Wayne State University Law School
Malla Pollack Co-author, Callman on Trademarks, Unfair Competition, and Monopolies
Professor David G. Post Temple University School of Law
Professor Connie Davis Powell Baylor University School of Law
Professor Margaret Jane Radin University of Michigan Law School
Professor Glenn Reynolds University of Tennessee Law School
Professor David A. Rice Roger Williams University School of Law
Professor Neil Richards Washington University-St. Louis School of Law
Professor Michael Risch Villanova Law School
Professor Betsy Rosenblatt Whittier Law School
Professor Matthew Sag Loyola University-Chicago School of Law
Professor Pamela Samuelson University of California-Berkeley Law School
Professor Sharon K. Sandeen Hamline University School of Law
Professor Jason M. Schultz UC Berkeley Law School
Professor Jeremy Sheff St. John’s University School of Law
Professor Jessica Silbey Suffolk University Law School
Professor Brenda M. Simon Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Professor David E. Sorkin John Marshall Law School
Professor Christopher Jon Sprigman University of Virginia School of Law
Professor Katherine J. Strandburg NYU Law School
Professor Madhavi Sunder University of California-Davis School of Law
Professor Rebecca Tushnet Georgetown University Law Center
Professor Deborah Tussey Oklahoma City University School of Law
Professor Barbara van Schewick Stanford Law School
Professor Eugene Volokh UCLA School of Law
Professor Sarah K. Wiant William & Mary Law School
Professor Darryl C. Wilson Stetson University College of Law
Professor Jane K. Winn University of Washington School of Law
Professor Peter K. Yu Drake University Law School
Professor Tim Zick William & Mary Law School
source

56 VCs
Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz
Brady Bohrmann, Avalon Ventures
John Borthwick, Betaworks
Mike Brown, Jr., AOL Ventures
Brad Burnham, Union Square Ventures
Jeffrey Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Partners
John Buttrick, Union Square Ventures
Randy Castleman, Court Square Ventures
Tony Conrad, True Ventures
Ron Conway, SV Angel
Chris Dixon, Founder Collective
Bill Draper, Draper Richards
Esther Dyson, EDventure Holdings
Roger Ehrenberg, IA Ventures
Brad Feld, Foundry Group
Peter Fenton, Benchmark Capital
Ron Fisher, Softbank Capital
Chris Fralic, First Round Capital
David Frankel, Founder Collective
Ric Fulop, North Bridge
Brad Gillespie, IA Ventures
Allen “Pete” Grum, Rand Capital
Chip Hazard, Flybridge Capital Partners
Rick Heitzmann, FirstMark Capital
Eric Hippeau, Lerer Ventures
Reid Hoffman, Greylock Partners
Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz
Rob Hutter, Learn Capital
Mark Jacobsen, OATV
Amish Jani, First Mark Capital
Brian Kempner, First Mark Capital
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital
David Lee, SV Angel
Lawrence Lenihan, FirstMark Capital
Kenneth Lerer, Lerer Ventures
Jordan Levy, Softbank Capital
Greg Mauro, Learn Capital
Jason Mendelson, Foundry Group
R. Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate
Howard Morgan, First Round Capital
John O’Farrell, Andreessen Horowitz
Tim O’Reilly, OATV
David Pakman, Venrock
Eric Paley, Founder Collective
Alan Patricof, Greycroft Partners
Danny Rimer, Index Ventures
Neil Rimer, Index Ventures
Bryce Roberts, OATV
Bijan Sabet, Spark Capital
David Sze, Greylock Partners
Andrew Weissman, Betaworks
Albert Wenger, Union Square Ventures
Eric Wiesen, RRE Ventures
Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures
source
Katarina Fake source

14 Public Interests Groups
Anonymous
American Association of Law Libraries
Association of College and Research Libraries
American Library Association
Association of Research Libraries
Center for Democracy and Technology
Demand Progress
EDUCAUSE
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Human Rights Watch
Rebecca MacKinnon, Bernard Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
Public Knowledge
Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders
Special Libraries Association
source

4 Trade Groups
Computer & Communications Industry Association source
Government Accountability Office source
Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry source
Industry Canada source

3 News Organizations
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
source
AdAge source

5 Internet Infrastructure Technologists
Paul Vixie
Danny McPherson
Dan Kaminsky
David Dagon
Steve Crocker
source

2 US Congress
Rep. Ron Wyden source

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren source

US Presidential Candidates
Gary Johnson source

141 Internet Entrepreneurs
Jonathan Abrams, Nuzzel, Founders Den, Socializr, Friendster, HotLinks
Asheesh Advani, Covestor, Virgin Money USA, CircleLending
David Albert, Hackruiter
Will Aldrich, SurveyMonkey, TripIt, Yahoo
Courtland Allen, Syphir, Tyrant
Jean Aw, NOTCOT Inc.
Andy Baio, Upcoming, Kickstarter
Edward Baker, Friend.ly
Jonathan Baudanza, beatlab.com, Rupture
Katia Beauchamp, Birchbox
Idan Beck, Incident Technologies
Matthew Bellows, Yesware Inc., WGR Media
David Berger, XL Marketing, Caridian Marketing Labs
Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock, Hackruiter
Ted Blackman, Course Zero Automation, Motion Arcade
Matthew Blumbergm, MovieFone, ReturnPath
Nic Borg, Edmodo
Bruce Bower, Plastic Jungle, Blackhawk Network, Reactrix, Soliloquy Learning, ZapMe! Corporation, YES! Entertainment
Josh Buckley, MinoMonsters
John Buckman, Lyris, Magnatune, BookMooch
Justin Cannon, Lingt Language, EveryArt
Teck Chia, OpenAppMkt, Omigosh LLC, Gabbly.com
Michael Clouser, iLoding, Market Diligence, CEO Research, New Era Strategies
Zach Coelius, Triggit, Votes For Students, Coelius Enterprises
John Collison, Stripe
Ben Congleton, Olark, Nethernet
Dave Copps, PureDiscovery, Engenium
Jon Crawford, Storenvy
Dennis Crowley, Foursquare, Dodgeball
Angus Davis, Swipely, Tellme
Eric DeMenthon, PadMapper.com
Steve DeWald, Proper Suit, Data Marketplace, Maggwire
Chad Dickerson, Etsy
Suhail Doshi, Mixpanel
Natalie Downe, Lanyrd Inc.
Nick Ducoff, Infochimps
Jennifer Dulski, The Dealmap
Rod Ebrahimi, ReadyForZero, DirectHost
Chas Edwards, Luminate, Digg, Federated Media, MySimon
David Federlein, Fowlsound Productions, Soapbox Coffee, Inc.
Mark Fletcher, ONElist, Bloglines
Andrew Fong, Kirkland North
Tom Frangione, Simply Continuous, Telphia
Brian Frank, Live Colony
Ken Fromm, Vivid Studios, Loomia, Iron.io
Nasser Gaemi, BigDates, ASAM International
Matt Galligan, SimpleGeo, SocialThing
Zachary Garbow, Funeral Innovations
Jud Gardner, Comprehend Systems
Christopher Golda, BackType
Eyal Goldwerger, TargetSpot, XMPie, WhenU, GoCargo
Jude Gomila, Heyzap
Jeremy Gordon, Department of Behavior and Logic, Secret Level, MagicArts
Steve Greenwood, drop.io
James Gross, Percolate, Federated Media
Sean Grove, Bushido, Inc.
Anupam Gupta, Mixpo
Mike Hagan, LifeShield, Verticalnet, Nutrisystem
Tony Haile, Chartbeat, Chi.mp
Jared Hansen, Breezy
Scott Heiferman, Meetup, Fotolog
Eva Ho, Factual, Navigating Cancer, Applied Semantics
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn, Paypal, Socialnet, Investor in many more, including Facebook, Zynga & GroupOn
Ben Ifeld, Macer Media
Jason Jacobs, FitnessKeeper
Daniel James, Three Rings Design
David Jilk, Standing Cloud, eCortex, Xaffire
Noah Kagan, Appsumo, GetGambit
Jon Karl, iovation, ieLogic
Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Skillshare
Bryan Kennedy, Sincerely.com, AppNinjas, Xobni, Pairwise
Derek Kerton, Kerton Group, Telecom Council of Silicon Valley
David Kidder, Clickable, SmartRay Network, THINK New Ideas, Net-X
Eric Koger, ModCloth
Kitty Kolding, elicit, House Party, Jupiter
Pete Koomen, Optimizely, CarrotSticks
Brian Krausz, GazeHawk
Amit Kumar, Socialscope
Ryan Lackey, HavenCo, Blue Iraq, Cryptoseal
Jeff Lawson, Twilio, Nine Star, Stubhub, Versity
Peter Lehrman, AxialMarket, Gerson Lehrman Group
Michael Levit, Bluelight.com, Redbooth, Spigot, Founders Den
Michael Lewis, Stellar Semiconductor, Cryptic Studios
Marissa Louie, Ness Computing, HeroEX, AD-Village
Eric Marcoullier, OneTrueFan, Gnip, MyBlogLog, IGN
Michael Masnick, Floor64
Jordan Mendelson, SeatMe, Heavy Electrons, SNOCAP, Web Services Inc
Dwight Merriman, DoubleClick, BusinessInsider, Gilt Groupe, 10gen
Scott Milliken, MixRank.com
Michael Montano, BackType
Dave Morgan, Simulmedia, TACODA, Real Media
Zac Morris, Caffeinated Mind Inc.
Rick Morrison, Comprehend Systems
Darren Nix, Silver Financial
Jeff Nolan, GetSatisfaction, NewsGator, Teqlo, Investor in many more
Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media, Safari Books Online, Collabnet, Investor in many more
Michael Ossareh, Heysan
Gagan Palrecha, Chirply, Zattoo, Sennari
Scott Petry, Authentic8, Postini
Mark Pincus, Zynga, Tribe Networks, SupportSoft, FreeLoader
Chris Poole, 4chan, Canvas
Jon Pospischil, PowerSportsStore, AppMentor, FoodTrux, Custora
Jeff Powers, Occipital
Jeff Pulver, 140Conf, Pulver.com, Vonage, Free World Dialup, VON Coalition, Vivox
Scott Rafer, Omniar, Lookery, MyBlogLog, Feedster, Fresher, Fotonation, Torque Systems
Vikas Reddy, Occipital
Michael Robertson, DAR.fm, mp3tunes.com, Gizmo5, Linspire, mp3.com
Ian Rogers, TopSpin, MediaCode, FISTFULAYEN, NullSoft/AOL, Yahoo! Music
Avner Ronen, Boxee, Odigo
Zack Rosen, ChapterThree, MissionBicycle, GetPantheon
Oliver Roup, VigLink
Slava Rubin, IndieGoGo
David Rusenko, Weebly
Arram Sabeti, ZeroCater
Peter Schmidt, Midnight Networks, NorthStar Internetworking, Burning Blue Aviation, New England Free Skies Association, Lifting Mind, Analog Devices, Teradyne, Ipanema Technologies, Linear Air
Geoff Schmidt, Tuneprint, MixApp, Honeycomb Guide
Sam Shank, HotelTonight, DealBase, SideStep, TravelPost
Upendra Shardanand, Daylife, The Accelerator Group, Firefly Network
Emmett Shear, Justin.tv
Pete Sheinbaum, LinkSmart, DailyCandy, Alexblake.com, Shop.Eonline.com
Chris Shipley, Guidewire Group
Adi Sideman, Oddcast, Ksolo Karaoke, TargetSpot, YouNow
Chris Sims, Agile Learning Labs
Dan Siroker, Optimizely, CarrotSticks
Rich Skrenta, Blekko, Topix, NewHoo
Bostjan Spetic, Zemanta
Joel Spolsky, StackExchange, Fog Creek Software
Josh Stansfied, Incident Technologies
Mike Tatum, Whiskey Media, Listen.com/Rhapsody, CNET
Khoi Vinh, Lascaux, NYTimes.com, Behavior Design
Joseph Walla, HelloFax
Brian Walsh, Castfire, Three Deep
David Weekly, PBWorks
Evan Williams, Blogger, Twitter, Obvious
Holmes Wilson, Worcester LLC, Participatory Culture Foundation
Pierre-R Wolff, DataWorks, E-coSearch, AdPassage, Impulse! Buy Network, Kinecta, Impermium, First Virtual Holdings, Revere Data, Tribe Networks
Dennis Yang, Infochimps, Floor64, CNET, mySimon
Chris Yeh, PBWorks, Ustream, Symphoniq
Kevin Zettler, Bushido, Inc.
source
Eric Schmidt, Google Inc. source

Corrections or additions? Leave it in the comments or tweet me at @nsputnik with #PROTECTIP hashtag.

Take action:
Demand Progress
EFF

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It is a great idea, but the tone of the complaining seems rather childish, since it is Atari’s own fault for not keeping up with the pace of the industry. Competing with the sale of second hand items is just the cost of doing business for any type of product that has a resale value. If they don’t want customers to resell games, it is only going to force the companies like Atari to make more compelling games. Atari is perhaps one of the oldest game companies still around. It got to where it is by selling packaged goods. Upstarts have outmaneuvered by creating more innovative, compelling, and profitable games like World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, or Rock Band.

In a way, Atari is complaining about second hand game reselling the same way it might complain about piracy. It admits that it can’t deal with it’s own externalities. At least they are not trying to outlaw game reselling which is clearly legal in the US under the First Sales Doctrine.

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• Episodes #5: “Real or Fake?”
• Episode #6: “Fame & Forgery”
• Episode #7: “Accidental Archeology”

Episodes 5 and 6 are about the Israeli Antiquities markets where each player strives for the right to participate in a free market of goods within the context that the goods are authentic and that the sale was legal, or allowed by the authorities. Archaeologists are shackled by protocol and the need for proper financing. Targeted claims about forgeries can make or break a collector, archaeologists, or exhibit. Episode 7 covers the construction projects that discover ancient ruins and the chilling effects that jealous archaeologists cause when they discredit discoveries are made accidentally by non-archaeologists.

These topics are interesting because there are many parallels to the challenges facing business; in particular, the ones that rely on intellectual monopoly in the age of digital abundance and the success that can be had by amateurs. Producers of text, music, film, business methods, systems, and apparatuses are still at odds with where they want the market to be, and where it is today.

Bureaucracy Slows Progress, Maybe on Purpose
Archaeological excavations on new sites sponsored by the state or by western universities need to do everything by the book, and in accordance with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). As a result, the excavations never find anything worthwhile. There must be funding, and it must come from the right sources. Permission must be granted, official documentation must be made, and so on. The cynical may believe that the excavations that are permitted will be fruitless, planned so there are fewer pieces in the marketplace.

Keeping the Marketplace Artificially Small
There is a perceived right by some to stifle the market. Dealers and private collectors such as Oded Golan, owner of the controversial James Ossuary. His collections rival the IAA’s own collection. The IAA, in its position as the authority, does not want such rivals. So, it goes after the best private collectors and their collections by claiming that some artifacts are either forgeries, or artifacts were purchased from tomb raiders who’s digs were not authorized by IAA. The IAA website goes at great lengths to document their victory in catching and apprehending unauthorized excavations like this man found using a metal detector in the middle of the desert. Such publications seems like a simple scare tactic. In any case, the IAA is taking moral authority over their competition in the name of propping up monopolies.

Unauthorized and Accidental Discoveries
If a tomb raider (particularly Palestinians) are caught on the streets in Israel, they can be punished. However, there is some sort of strange exemption they receive if they make into a dealer’s shop without getting caught by the authorities. Perhaps the Israeli dealers are covering for the tomb raiders who my be bringing them valuable items the dealer can resell. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by accidentally by a goat herder, and for this reason, we ignored by the larger archaeological community at first. Similar things are happening with companies that innovate in digital distribution who are at first blown off by incumbent content industries, and then sued instead of creating alliances, and then insist on doing it themselves.

Jealous archaeologists discredited the discovery that are not made by one of their own, such as the 2nd Century BC mansion found under a home in Jerusalem known as the Siebenberg House. Without much interest from the archaeological community since it was not discovered by one of their own, the Siebenbergs conducted the excavation themselves over an 18 year period. Now their home rivals some museums.

With the rapid commercial development, there is a cat-and-mouse game between archaeologists and contractors. Contractors are sometimes quick to secretly destroy ancient ruins so that projects are done on time. Discoveries that do get reported usually hold up new construction projects indefinitely, such as a the construction of new walkway for the Temple Mount which uncovered remains of the first temple.

“Pirates” Push the Boundaries
As with the artifacts that are sold by tomb raiders, forgeries also compete for prestige, sales dollars and attention in the Israeli antiquities scene. Corrupt officials could deem an artifact as a forgery in order to simply take it away from or to discredit a dealer. The irony is that some older forgeries themselves are now artifacts. In the 1880’s, Moses Shapira, an entrepreneurial antiquities dealer, knew that there was a great demand in antiques for Holy Land tourists but not enough authentic pieces to go around. He and his associate, Salim al-Kari manufactured thousands of fake antiques, selling hundreds of pieces to German museums. He was eventually caught by investigative journalists and outed in London newspapers when he tried and failed to forge a piece of parchment with Bible passages. In shame, he killed himself soon after. However, this is not a cautionary tale, since today’s pirates that push the boundaries are not claiming to pass originals. The irony is that this rich history now accounts for a demand in original Shapira forgeries, as they are shown at his one-time historic home, the Ticho House in downtown Jerusalem.

Conclusion
The market for antiques is abundant. The ability to discover them and fill voids is natural. Authority and protocols keep the rights to discover and sell antiques scarce, thus creating even greater scarcity of antiques themselves. The more abundant new discoveries become, the lower the value for pieces currently owned by museums and dealers.

Anyone can think up ideas and digital technology makes it easier to execute on ideas. Unnatural limits emerge to keep incumbents in control of the marketplace, and this is a danger to us all because it limits our liberty and ability to innovate. It is not the privileged that innovate. It is the “pirates,” early adopters, and amateurs who break the rules and forge ahead by breaking barriers disguised as rules.

(top photo by heatkernel)

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I see many parallels to the recorded music business. Some people might download music for free while others are willing to pay. Today we have the luxury of trying music before we buy it. If we download from p2p and we don’t like it, we never were a lost sale. But if you like the music enough, you want to buy special physical items (like vinyl) , go to shows, and become an evangelizing fan.

Most news organizations that are paying to syndicate AP’s content are probably advertising based. They depend on traffic for their business model. If people are willing to give traffic to the AP’s customers, the AP should be willing to ignore a “copyright violation” in order to help it’s customer reach it’s goal of receiving traffic.

There are companies who’s business strategy encourage would-be offense, such as the dreaded deep linker, or the free and open source software hacker, or the Creative Commons music sharer. But if your lawyers are not crying foul, ruining your business model for heir own short term gain, for you, you carry on as you wish. Threatening potential customers is no a sustainable business model. Laws are made by people, and the spirit of laws can be rationalized by people. The way to behave on the web (which came from the way the web was designed) existed before the arrival of traditional news organizations, and they need to play by these rules.

If the AP really want bloggers to buy a license in order to quote them, they need to do two things. First, They really need to improve their offerings, giving something more than just permission to quote them. Sites like Reddit and Digg encourage linking as part of their business plan and they give blogger tools that help them accomplish their own goals rather than fight against them (granted they are not sources, but they leverage exiting behavior). AP does not do this. Second, they need to understand the the resources to police the use of their quotes is going to cost for more than it is worth, and they are better off not doing it at all. People will link and/or take entire articles wholesale. This is not your target customer. Google will eventually figure out that a site is spam and ban it, and then the motives for scraping are gone.

If the AP wants to play with bloggers on the internet, it needs to play by the bloggers’ and Googles’ rules. We link to sources, and we quote as much as we see necessary. Where we come form, respect is earned, regardless of the interpretation of copyright law or fair use. Help us kick ass, and we’ll be your biggest fans. Figure out how to monetize that, and your golden.

Sean‘s opinion.
Profy takes AP’s side and choose to site the part of fair use that cannot interfere with “potential market value.”
Arrington says: AP is banned.

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But for now, the transition is rough for music industry veterans. Almost every week for the past two years the music industry manages to make one puzzling move after another, while independent artists are free to make decisions who’s only stockholders are themselves along with their artistic and commercial aspirations. Increasingly, independent artists commercial strategy is not in selling CDs, but in the more scarce goods such as early access to new releases, performances, and limited edition vinyl or DVDs, reliable discovery and immediate access to files on iTune or Amazon MP3 . They now they need to sell their fans something they cannot get for free.

People love to talk about the music they love. Allowing them to share it easily and legally, and talk about it online, and put it in new contexts is the new path to commercial success.

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However, regimes such as patents put an artificial price on ideas and slow down innovation. One great example is the push-back on copyright by artists who license their works under Creative Commons. They are aware that someone else might be able to execute on their ideas better than themselves, and the license grants these permissions. Open APIs (application programming interfaces) allow 3rd party developers to use applications in ways the original application developers did not yet imagine. Execution is the natural and scarce barrier that differentiates competitors. It should not be an artificial price on ideas, methods, abstract processes, or the discovery of naturally occurring mathematics, physics, or biologies. The patents that are most dangerous to innovation are software patents. When patents first came on the scene in the US, it was intended for mechanical processes or methods, not necessarily for abstract ideas. Patents on software methods and business process are more akin to abstract ideas.

All of the money spent on patents and the barriers they creates for others is useless in “promoting the useful arts and sciences” unless you can successfully execute on them. And failure for one party to successfully execute holds everyone back, thus prohibiting the promotion of the useful arts and sciences. Your R&D resources are also a waste if you fail to execute. But this is the risk business must take. Even if you have a patent or a copyright, you can fail in the execution.

One might argue that there is a cost to making ideas, since you need to pay for R&D. This may be a leftover thinking from the industrial area. Sure, even for the development of abstract systems such as software applications and business methods, the time resource of engineers and the scarcity of their skills are necessary. But in a situation where one party has spent resources to come up with the same ideas that someone else might develop with fewer resources, and without any influence for the first party, it is as if the act of spending any resources whatsoever means that the idea deserves exclusive rights to execute. The context for protection comes from the belief that party A can “steal” ideas or the fruits of research from party B. These protectionist schemes make no room for the fact the two parties can come up with similar solutions independently, nor do that allow for the ability for some to ideate at no cost, and there is an automatic assumption that they are “anti-market”. It is as if the shareholder value for a couple individuals or firms is more important than the health and well-being of the world over. Or, the appearance that if the executioner is following protocol is going to covers some of their liability for failing and the false stigma of failure.

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In the web app space, new entrants continue to appear, competing with each other and incumbents, each tweaking their strategy slightly. One thing that will separate each app is the quality of the user experience and user interface. Thus, users of these apps are increasingly spoiled. The best-in-class app emerges in a Darwinian competition. The web app space has to be the most fast-paced example of this paradigm, but it could be true of other products, services, or experiences who’s design can be constantly re-iterated.

I know I am spoiled. I have Google apps (search included) at my fingertips. I can use 37Signal apps to communicate complex ideas around my projects. I can communicate back and forth with web power users in an instant from almost any location without e-mail by using services like Twitter.

However, as I look at other apps I have no choice to use such as the web interface for my bank, government websites, or the CRM software at my last job, I am very intolerant of old, bad software. I expect that this software should not make me think. I only want to think about how to solve hard problems once, and then have have a software solve the problem when it comes up. In other words, I think software should do the repetitive mental heavy lifting.

When a great design ecosystem along with a great feedback channel to the designers and developers is available, we become even more spoiled. But I don’t think the spoilage is a bad thing. It creates an awareness for good design. It creates an awareness for the need for UI and UX designers. It creates awareness of the advantages of user feedback channels. It creates an awareness that rapidly releasing new code helps designers make better choices.

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Right now, there are a bunch of SEOs listening to what Danny Sullivan has to say about social media strategy because they trust him. But some SEOs refuse to re-evaluate what brings value to their clients, (note: this Sphinn user was not in attendance) even saying that Jason should not be allowed at conferences. These sentiments just prove to him that what he is doing is right. It is innovators dilemma. SEOs got where they are today by being great at SEO strategies. Asking them to adopt social media as a new strategy is new and foreign. As Danny tries to lead his followers to new territory, some think he is betraying them and the strategies that made them the stars they are today. Some might be too afraid to go back to their clients to tell them they are going to try some new strategies to help their clients succeeded. They should remember that this does not mean the work they did in the past did not allow for successes or was a bad idea. SEO definitely has been one of the main ways to help clients succeed on the web for the past 10 years. But, there is no need to defend past actions with future ignorance. They need to redefine their metrics. The longer they wait, the more likely they will get their lunch eaten.

Thus, the knee-jerk reaction to Jason Calicanis’s rhetoric that SEO is a dying or bad strategy. Yes, let’s admit that Jason loves to agitate people by rubbing strategy decay into SEO’s faces, bad Jason . No one is going to tell an SEO that they are not giving value to their clients using SEO techniques. It just that the tactics they are using need to evolve.

Less attention is going to be paid to traditional SEO because (especially in the creation of static pages) now it is so much easier and valuable to create site with an open source blog, CMS, wiki or other application platform that may or may not rely on search engine traffic. Sure, even with these there are some ways to tweak them from an SEO perspective, but not as much as you might have needed to do 10 years ago. This is disruptive technology, bad news for the traditional SEOs that build sites from scratch, sprinkling in their elusive, magical SEO code. But, the developers of these open source CMS apps have figured out how to do the complicated SEO work for you (why else would Matt Cutts speak, attend, and endorse Wordcamp?). Here (along with social media application designers) is where good SEO needs to happen, and smart web strategists will realize that this is where it should continue to happen, because it scales and eliminates redundant work. You just need to wait for the search engines to spider your site. Now, traditional SEOs (which should now be called web strategists) should have more time available to add additional types of value for their clients by either engaging in social media on their behalf, or teaching them how to engaging with their prospects in a way that will help them efficiently meet their goals over the web. This is done by creating “meaningful relationships” (for lack of a better term) with people. At this point, SEO is just one of many tactics used by a web strategist. So calling a person an SEOs or SEM will soon be a way to show how outdated or limited that person’s strategy toolbox is. SEO competes with other value-adding strategies if all you do is SEO. Thus, SEO people see social media strategy as a threat. Being a web strategist is where it’s at.

Update 4/25/08: Oh yeah, add semantic web to the list in the title.

Do you need a web developer for a Drupal or WordPress project? A marketing strategist to manage your social media profiles, search ads, or SEO? Contact me here or call +1-562-285-7029.

Do you need a web developer for a Drupal or WordPress project? A marketing strategist to manage your social media profiles, search ads, or SEO? Contact me here or call +1-562-285-7029.

If, for example, you have a strategy that gets people to buy virtual goods that cost you nothing to duplicate as the seller, and then create an ecosystem where they are scarce (because they cost real money), and then get people to give you money for them, I say congratulations, that is damn creative of you.

In other words, you cannot make money in content on the net unless there is something scarce (naturally or artificially) you can offer someone. You or someone very close to you needs to be the content creator, the marketer, the seller, the PR person. There are too many people out there that have figured it all out to let you compete in the same space. They are remarkable, and if you have no strategy other than to create content and expect something to fall into your lap, you are not.

Do you need a web developer for a Drupal or WordPress project? A marketing strategist to manage your social media profiles, search ads, or SEO? Contact me here or call +1-562-285-7029.