Category Archives: Economics & Commerce

The iBooks Author EULA does not create an exclusive license, and doesn’t steal your copyright

This is a follow up to my previous post on the iBooks Author End User License Agreement (EULA) and what it actually means. Rather than posting an update to that post, I decided to follow it up with a simple breakdown of why all of the people who believe the EULA takes away (or tries …

January 27, 2012 – 11:28 am | By John William Nelson | Posted in Copyright, Economics & Commerce, Property | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

The iBooks Author EULA: What does it really mean?

Apple has announced iBooks Author—a new program that makes it easy for anyone to create stunning and compelling eBooks. The End User License, however, restricts anything made with iBooks Author to distribution on Apple’s channels unless you give the book away for free. NOTE: You can read a follow-up to this post outlining in more …

January 21, 2012 – 6:18 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Copyright, Economics & Commerce, Property | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (9)

Can you steal the idea for a product or service?

The Telegraph has an article about claims that the founders of the Huffington Post ‘stole’ the blueprint for the popular website.  Can you ‘steal’ an idea, be it for a product or a service? On some level this questions appears to ridiculous.  The Huffington Post, for example, is modeled after many community sites before it, …

May 26, 2011 – 2:02 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Copyright, Economics & Commerce, Polemics, Trade Secret, Trademark | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Ownership vs. License: How an English Pub highlights copyright ownership shifts

Karen Murphy, the landlord of a British Pub, wanted to provide her customers the ability to watch British Premiere League football (soccer).  The commercial licenses offered by the exclusive UK broadcaster of BPL football –  Sky — became too expensive.  Murphy turned to a Greek broadcaster, NOVA, to supply her the broadcasts for a tenth …

October 12, 2010 – 10:00 am | By John William Nelson | Posted in Economics & Commerce | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (6)

Capturing the value of information — How Newscorp and AP can profit from the news, and how they can’t

Information is valuable.  Governments know this.  Companies know this.  Consumer rights know this.  The Associated Press and NewsCorp know this. Those last two run an entire business on the gathering and dissemination of information.  Both want us all to stop stealing their product. The Associated Press announced details on how they are going to be …

November 17, 2009 – 3:51 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Economics & Commerce | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Myth of Electronic Identity

Conventional thought is that transactions occurring over a distance create problems that are new and unique to those posed by face-to-face transactions. The reality is that both of these transactions face the same problem: verifying the identities of the parties involved. Many may take issue with this simplification of the ‘identity problem.’  ‘Of course,’ you’ll …

November 12, 2009 – 11:52 am | By John William Nelson | Posted in Economics & Commerce | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)