Washington, April 24 — Once again, the Institute for Policy Innovation has assembled a compelling conference to mark World Intellectual Property Day (I hope you purchased balloons and noisemakers, even though IP should be celebrated every day). Their opening keynote today featured Entertainment Software Association President Michael Gallagher, who clearly has made a smooth transition from his time both in private practice and of course at the U.S. Commerce Department's NTIA. (Full disclosure: ESA is a Copyright Alliance member.)

Gallagher rightly noted that piracy affects all entertainment industries, citing IPI research showing $58 billion lost in the US annually due to piracy, along with a total of more than 373,000 lost jobs. (These and other figures can be found in our Documents and Research section.) 

But he also noted how his industry, like other creative industries, is exploring all sorts of new business models. There are games coming out that are free but are supported by ads placed within the games; there are games that can be played free, but upgrades can be purchased; and there is more experimentation with virtual payments such as Microsoft Points found with the XBox system.

Gallagher also gave a sneak peek at an upcoming ESA-sponsored study showing how virtual worlds and related technology are being used for recruitment, training and retention of employees. Apparently virtual worlds will involve more than congressional hearings witnessed by giant bumble bees.

But what most excited me had nothing to do with IP policy, and not much to do with how employers will embrace virtual worlds. It involved forthcoming technology from the Lego(tm) company. I spend a lot of time playing Legos with my 9-year-old son; last night we were working together to construct a big police tractor-trailer. What I don't believe my son has yet realized is that I may enjoy Lego construction even more than him. So I was thrilled to hear that Lego is going to allow you to design a Lego structure online, and then have the company ship you the exact Legos you need to construct it in real life.

Based on the experience I had with my son and that truck last night, however, I hope it comes with very clear instructions.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 11:02 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under economy, market forces, piracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.