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Europe entering the 'Internet of Things'

Sunday, March 18, 2007

I will go to Hannover to attend this year's CeBIT. And guess what I really plan to see: RFID stands!

I want to know what the latest RFID gadget can do and how the tech will affect regulation. The European Union has just recently unveiled its future RFID strategy and policies:
The Commission, in particular, proposes to address the privacy concerns of citizens to boost consumer confidence and Europe's position in a market experiencing 60% growth globally.
RFID Law is just beginning to evolve. Its orbit: health and environmental issues, freqency allocation and, our favourite subject, the internet of things. The EU's COM stated:
In the responses to the online questionnaire, 86% of respondents were concerned that the system for registering and naming of identities in the future "Internet of Things" should be interoperable, open and non-discriminatory.
Oh, in case you are not yet informed what internet of things means, it means that we can virtually hyperlink anything we have in the real world to the internet and locate them. That way I won't lose my keys anymore. If you want a start up info on this subject wikipedia is glad to help.

If you will be in Hannover on March 21st (that's, the last day of CeBIT), email me!

 

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The Chewbacca Defense

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

I've been interested in logical fallacy lately and I am a great fan of Southpark. When I did wiki-walking, I captured this fantastic article on one of southpark's episode:

Cochran: Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, Chef's attorney would certainly want you to believe that his client wrote "Stinky Britches" ten years ago. And they make a good case. Hell, I almost felt pity myself! But, ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!
Gerald Broflovski: Dammit!
Chef: What?
Gerald: He's using the Chewbacca Defense!
Cochran: Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, [approaches and softens] does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.[1]


The chewbacca argument was meant nothing but to confuse, hehehe. I remembered that a wise man used to say: Don't let them confuse you with their legal mumbo jumbo*.


*Homer Simpsons

 

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RFID in Indonesia

Monday, March 12, 2007

I received an email alert from RFID Asia that it will open a branch in Indonesia. This means that RFID market may grow rapidly in Indonesia. In the near future, there might be demands for regulation on the utilisation of RFID.

To get a glimpse on how technology such as RFID affects privacy in the future, have a look on my JP article archived by Kerry B Collison here.



ps: It was written before the "Maria Eva" scandal ;)

 

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European Union plans to open representative in Secondlife

Friday, March 9, 2007

I like the EU for its legal promulgation method. They always put everything on the net to be published and discussed. Now, they plan to open representative in Secondlife. Wew...
The European Union is looking into entering the virtual world and opening up an office in Second Life - an increasingly popular internet-based virtual world - which the Swedish government and the French presidential candidates have already entered. "It is certainly an idea we are looking into," commission spokesman Mikolaj Dowgielewicz told EUobserver.

Sweden had opened their embassy there. Dunno if we can apply visa there tho...

 

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The Toxicology of Nanomaterials

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Emily Monosson over at "the Neighborhood Toxicologist" pointed me to series of Nanotechnology Podcasts from Azonano and some Nanotoxicology articles. The article and podcast on "The Implications for Health, Safety and the Environment of the Nanotech Revolution." discusses data gaps in the toxicology and potential for environmental impacts of nanotechnology, and the suggested moratorium on nanotechnology development.

You can also find links to technical articles related to nanotoxicology on her blog.


 

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Essential facilities doctrine and molecular manufacturing

Friday, March 2, 2007

This is just a quick, general and preliminary comment on the development of the doctrine of essential facilities. After reading some papers (some of them also available in the ssrn here), I have a feeling that both IP and Competition Lawyers are in favour of a more restrictive application of the "essential facilities" doctrine to intellectual property.

Essential facilities has been heaviliy criticized. Some lawyers considered that when there is a competition case involving IP, a new approach must be created as essential facilities deal primarily with tangible property.

My impression is, however, that these "new approaches" attempts to put a more strict treshold when competition law inetervenes intellectual property. I wonder if in the future, when molecular manufacturing is available -- a stricter approach would still be relevant. In my opinion, when more and more tangible goods are transformable into information, there will be more demand towards lowering the standards of IP protection.

It would be interesting to see how competition law doctrines operates in the age of molecular manufacturing. The tendency towards differentiating between competition law test applicable to tangible property and competition law test applicable to intangible property is something positive. However, the trends that everything is transformable into information these days must also be put into consideration. Raising the threshold of IP protection in a world where tangible goods are nothing but information may seriously jeoperdize the future economy.

 

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Hernando de Soto on Land Title

Thursday, March 1, 2007

I came across an interesting insight from Hernando de Soto, on his views why land reform fails:

If a government does not give to everyone the impression that it is really trying to improve things, it opens the possibility for the left to protest in the name of all the discontented people. One main reason why the informal sector has not become formal is that from Indonesia to Brazil, 90 percent of the informal lands are not titled and registered. This is a generalized phenomenon in the so-called Third World. And it has many consequences.

The question is: How is it that so many governments, from Suharto's in Indonesia to Fujimori's in Peru, have wanted to title these people and have not been able to do so effectively? One reason is that none of the state systems in Asia or Latin America can gather proof of informal titles. In Peru, the informals have means of proving property ownership to each other which are not the same means developed by the Spanish legal system. The informals have their own papers, their own forms of agreements, and their own systems of registration, all of which are very clearly stated in the maps which they use for their own informal business transactions.

If you take a walk through the countryside, from Indonesia to Peru, and you walk by field after field--in each field a different dog is going to bark at you. Even dogs know what private property is all about. The only one who does not know it is the government. The issue is that there exists a "common law" and an "informal law" which the Latin American formal legal system does not know how to recognize.


In Indonesia, a person can get a lot of money by titling and registering a land. First they check out on the map which area is going to be projected for public-infrastructure development, and then they purchased the land from the poor people that owns them through customary law with a very cheap price and then they register the land at the land registrar. When the government come with their buldozer, land speculants show their certificate and demand compensation, of course, at a very high price.