idk. i just dk. (c) Jason Fawaz

I have about 10 open Firefox and Safari windows. They've been open for days...weeks even. Interesting articles that have popped up thanks to Google Reader and some widgets on my iGoogle page. Yes, all bow to the great Google. Anywho, I haven't had time to read them yet. Clearly I thought, at some point, that they are worth my while. Clearly, I still think they are worth my while, because I have not X'd out of them yet. Here are three of them:

IP Strategies for True Innovation

Copyright Battle Comes Home

Something about the show Glee from Billboard Magazine

Maybe you will find them interesting, too. And maybe one day, being a 1L will stop.

The Big Mean IP Machine

The World Economic Forum released a list of countries ranked by how strong their IP protection is. The U.S. was number 19, with a ranking of 5.4 (where 7 was strongest and 1 was weakest). The rankings were determined by business leaders polled by the WEF in their respective countries. Its no surprise that business leaders/content owners/the like all want stronger IP protection in the US -- and abroad -- because hey, the Internet/new media (which they all use to their advertising advantages) is (allegedly) destroying the value of content by distributing it all over the universe for free. If the US is ranked weak, well then doesn't that present the idea of stronger IP here in a much more favorable light? Also interesting to note is that the UK, with its copyright term now at life of the author + 90 years (20 years longer than US copyright term), ranks below the US at #21, with a score of 5.3. So it looks like we're about equal in the ranking there -- but the UK has 20 years of copyright protection on us? It seems to boil down to the general ideas of a society; in other words, the US and the EU have different philosophies on what is strong protection. Look at the #2 country on the list: Sweden - home of the defunct-go-not-defunct Pirate Bay torrent hosting service. They think they have the strongest protection there? Something, somehow, somewhere, is skewing the minds of these American business leaders...

Thanks to Ars, as always. The List is here, on IP Watch