While President Obama made many interesting points during his State of the Union address last night, I’d like to focus on his discussion of international trade. Obama made several key points: 1) Small business can be a growing part of trade, including entrepreneurs. 2) Americans can produce exports unrivaled by the rest of the world. [...]

Thank you to Rob Atkinson and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation for allowing me to participate Tuesday in a forum titled “‘Info-Communism:’ A Progressive Path Forward or a Political and Intellectual Dead End?” I had the pleasure of responding to Syracuse University Professor Milton Mueller and his compelling paper, “Info-Communism? Ownership and Freedom in [...]

Next week two important Subcommittees in the House and Senate are holding hearings on the proposed acquisition of 51% of NBC Universal by Comcast. Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts is expected to testify at that hearing. This morning he gave a sneak preview of his testimony in a Q&A with Alan Murray The Wall [...]

U.S. Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk today gave perhaps the most eloquent statement I’ve heard in some time on why enforcing international trade treaties is not protectionism, but common sense. When the U.S. government seeks enforcement of treaty obligations, he said, “we’re fighting for the rights of our American businesses.” Ambassador Kirk has spoken before about [...]

The national nonprofit dedicated to advancing the arts in the United States, Americans for the Arts, released today the National Arts Index by Roland J. Kushner and Randy Cohen, a report that analyzes the health and vitality of the arts and culture in the United States. It looks at 76 national-level indicators of artistic and [...]

The first round of comments in the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rulemaking on network neutrality have been filed, and there are a number of filings of interest to copyright owners and creators. I’ve taken the liberty of summarizing a few here, with links to the full filings. Note that according to the FCC web site, [...]

One of the great success stories of the digital age has been the growing app industry. For as long as there has been software, there have been clever entrepreneurs who have developed a nifty game or tool and marketed it directly to the public, but in the smart phone era professional possibilities exist like never [...]

As an exhibitor, preparing for a convention reminds me much of being in theatre. (At least the experiences I’ve had with high school and community theatre.) The day before the opening, there are a lot of moving pieces. The convention hall is chaotic, booths are half constructed, cargo trucks come and go, and a lot [...]

NASHVILLE — Every time I travel to Nashville I enjoy the company and talents of songwriters and musicians, and this trip was no exception. But this time I also was able to enjoy the company and talents of many visual artists, as I attended ImagingUSA, the Professional Photographers of America’s annual show. The vast majority [...]

This has been a good week for artists speaking out for their rights. I highlighted earlier this week a number of independent artists on an indie label who spoke out against infringement of their creative works. There have been other positive voices as well, nicely summarized by my friend Chris Castle on his blog. One [...]