RTP-area local music and culture

[Fikri Yucel <fikri_y AT yahoo.com>]

I am not a lawyer either, but I know a bit about
intellectual property issues.  A patent grants
exclusive rights and protection to an idea, whereas a
copyright grants protection to a specific expression
of an idea.  So, yes, you can patent a concept--that's
what patents are for.

But a patent only grants you exclusive rights for 20
years, and after that, into the public domain it goes.
 (Copyrights generally last until 70 years after the
death of the author.)  It's useful to keep in mind
that the purpose of patents is NOT to promote
monopolist power; the real purpose is "to promote the
progress of science and useful arts" which ultimately
serve the public good.  Many innovations require a
huge amount of research and development which costs
huge money; without some limited amount of protection,
the thinking goes, far fewer people would undertake
that research and development, and so, there would be
far less progress.

Having said all that, it's also useful to keep in mind
that historically lots and lots of patents never
amounted to anything, and those that did were often
challenged in court.  Up until the 1970s the courts
were not very sympathetic to patent holders.  Since
then, revisions to the laws have strengthened the
patent system.  Now intellectual property issues
(patents, copyrights, trade secrets, etc.) are
uber-hot stuff, especially because of the challenges
of keeping up with rapidly evolving information
technologies (and other technologies for that matter).

For a patent to be granted, the patent office has to
assess whether or not the idea is "useful, novel, and
not obvious" at the time of the invention.  The patent
now held by Clear Channel was issued in 2003.  If
someone could demonstrate that the technology
described in the patent was already used, offered for
sale, or described publicly before the patent was
issued, then the patent could be lost.  I suppose you
could also challenge them on the "non-obvious"
criterion, but any of those challenges would take big
bucks in legal fees.

Anyhow.  Here's an informative link if yr interested:

http://www.piercelaw.edu/tfield/ipbasics.htm

-Fikri


--- sorren AT mindspring.com wrote:
> I read it all the way through and completely agree
> with Mr. Rossi.  I hope that you can't patent a
> concept, like the car, but only a unique execution
> of the concept, like the Pontiac Firebird.   If you
> could patent a concept, there would only be one car,
> right?  It would have a propulsion device (current
> technology uses something called an engine), a
> device for transferring propulsion (drive shaft),
> and a propulsion consumption device (wheels), with a
> passenger support device on top.   
> 
> Rachel
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Rossi <rossi AT webslingerZ.com>
> Sent: May 29, 2004 10:27 AM
> To: RTP-area local music and culture
> <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: Re: more clear channel insanity
> 
> i'm not a patent lawyer (or any kind of lawyer) but
> just reading that 
> patent it seems like it's so general and
> non-technologoy specific that 
> it includes:
> 
>    a) any system anyone could ever come up with
>    b) nothing
> 
> a) is obviously more in keeping with what clear
> channel wants to do but 
> b) is more in line with my understanding of the
> spirit of patent law.
> 
> rossi
> 
> 
> alex verhoeven wrote:
> >
>
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story?id=6066617&pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1&rnd=1085518316199&has-player=true
> 
> > 
> > 
> > In the past few years, fans leaving some concerts
> have discovered a 
> > souvenir
> > far better than a T-shirt: a live recording of the
> show they just attended.
> > Bands including the Allman Brothers, moe. and
> Billy Idol have sold instant
> > concert discs, and the Pixies and the Doors plan
> to launch similar programs
> > this summer. The recording-and-burning company
> DiscLive estimated on April
> > 12th that it would gross $500,000 selling live
> discs this spring alone.
> > 
> > But in a move expected to severely limit the
> industry, Clear Channel
> > Entertainment has bought the patent from the
> technology's inventors and now
> > claims to own the exclusive right to sell concert
> CDs after shows. The
> > company, which is the biggest concert promoter in
> the world, says the 
> > patent
> > covers its 130 venues along with every other venue
> in the country.
> > 
> > "We want to be artist-friendly," says Steve Simon,
> a Clear Channel 
> > executive
> > vice president and the director of Instant Live.
> "But it is a business, and
> > it's not going to be 'we have the patent, now
> everybody can use it for
> > free.'"
> > 
> > Artists net about ten dollars for every twenty- to
> twenty-five-dollar
> > concert CD that's sold, no matter which company
> they use. But with Clear
> > Channel pushing to eliminate competition, many
> fear there will be less 
> > money
> > and fewer opportunities to sell live discs. "It's
> one more step toward
> > massive control and consolidation of Clear
> Channel's corporate agenda," 
> > says
> > String Cheese Incident manager Mike Luba, who
> feuded with Clear Channel 
> > last
> > year after promoters blocked the band from using
> CD-burning equipment.
> > 
> > The Pixies, who are booking a fall reunion tour
> with several probable Clear
> > Channel venues, say Clear Channel has already told
> them DiscLive can't burn
> > and sell CDs on-site. "Presuming Clear Channel's
> service and product are of
> > equal quality, it may be best to feed the dragon
> rather than draw swords,"
> > says Pixies manager Ken Goes. "Still, I'm not fond
> of doing business 
> > with my
> > arm twisted behind my back."
> > 
> > Clear Channel doesn't plan to stop Phish, Pearl
> Jam, the Who or other bands
> > that make live recordings available days after the
> show. It has also 
> > granted
> > one-dollar licenses to a few up-and-coming bands
> to record and sell instant
> > CDs of their own shows. But Clear Channel
> executives maintain that they 
> > have
> > the right to stop anyone who tries to infringe on
> the patent. Many say this
> > strategy prevents inventors from jumping into a
> marketplace and creating
> > further innovation. "We'd like to see this
> industry opened up to 
> > everybody,"
> > says Erik Stubblebine, founder and vice president
> of Hyburn, a Phoenix
> > company that has sold instant CDs for dozens of
> concerts in the past three
> > years. "They're trying to squeeze us."
> > 
> > the patent in question:
> > 
> >
>
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=6,614,729,&OS=6,614,729,&RS=6,614,729,
> 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors
> alt.music.chapel-hill --
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors
> alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors
> alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene



        
                
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