It seems reasonable that the presidential debates currently taking place on the major cable networks should be considered part of the public domain and therefore be freely posted and exchanged on the Internet. I would expect the RNC and DNC to negotiate this sharing of speech upfront with Fox, CNN and MSNBC, that the networks may own the rights to the broadcast but they have a public responsibility to share the content with YouTube, Blip.tv, and other sites.

Therefore, I was interested (but not really that surprised) to learn that these networks initially considered the presidential debates copyrighted content and sought to regulate the distribution of the candidates’ political speech. Lawrence Lessig has been leading the charge to get these networks to change their stance, with CNN and MSNBC agreeing to make the content available across Internet platforms. Fox thus far has not agreed.

CNN, copyright law, Court, DNC, Fox, Lawrence Lessig, Media, MSNC, presidential debates, RNC, Uncategorized

Microsoft is waging a legal fight against open-source providers such as Linux, claiming that the popular software violates at least 235 of its patents.  Fortune’s Roger Parloff in a terrific piece published today has the scoop from his interviews with the Microsoft legal team who are on a mission to get free and open-source software (FOSS) users to pay their royalities. 

The event may call to mind memories of IBM’s 2003 lawsuit against Unix vendor The SCO Group.  In the process of that legal event, Microsoft licensed the rights to Unix from The SCO Group. Now the intellectual property drama between ”the free world” and the Redmond, Wash. giant is back on the front page.

Linux and other open-source technologies are perhaps the perfect example of creative destruction, when emerging technologies cause great firms to fail (or perhaps demand royalities and legal cause).      

Court, Creative Destruction, Fortune, FOSS, Linux, Media, Microsoft, open source, The SCO Group, Uncategorized, Unix

Rupert Murdoch isn’t giving up his plans to buy The Wall Street Journal despite Bancroft family members today rejecting his $60-a-share bid. Could you imagine what would happen if the News Corp. head purchased this esteemed publication? Rumor has it that Murdoch, a modern day Citizen Kane, would love to feed its content into the new Fox Business Channel, growing the Fox News Empire.

I think Murdoch and his wingman Roger Ailes are partially responsible for the downfall of cable broadcast journalism. Do not take this statement to mean I’m implying anything against conservative or liberal undertones in journalism. I don’t want journalism to be laced with any political suggestions unless it’s a deliberate op-ed.

Murdoch and Ailes turned Fox into a celebrity-obsessed, missing-person chasing, pundit-controlled news channel that deprives viewers of in-depth, studied news on subjects of international affairs, business, politics, etc. This model focuses on just 2-3 stories and makes viewers endure endless hours of speculation, punditry, and worse – news that turns tragedies into infotainment.

Regrettably, the rest of cable news (CNN, MSNBC) and network news followed suit no doubt in pursuit of the ratings Fox garnered. People who wouldn’t think of buying Star Magazine are now consuming tabloid-inspired broadcast journalism. I’m told this is an example of institutional theory – organizations adopt practices and structures that are “rational myths,” things that everyone thinks are rational but which no one is really sure about and could very well be counterproductive.

If Murdoch owned the WSJ, would the esteemed paper turn into this confused dance of myth versus ceremony? Fortunately, most Wall Street analysts predict Murdoch’s bid to end in defeat.

Bancroft family, Citizen Kane, Financial Times, Media, News Corp, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, Wall Street Journal