Copyright Law Should Not Be Used As A Weapon To Limit Interoperability. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in advance of the Google v. Oracle Supreme Court oral arguments, Google’s Kent Walker and Microsoft’s Brad Smith made a strong case in support of software interoperability and argued why companies should not be able to use copyright law as a weapon to limit interoperability. “A ruling in Oracle’s favor would threaten interoperability, letting incumbents control which products could communicate with one another,” wrote Walker and Smith.
Google v. Oracle Ruling Will Significantly Impact Startup Growth. Engine’s Abby Rives warns about the harmful impact a Supreme Court decision favoring Oracle would have on America’s startups in a recent op-ed. If Oracle prevails with its argument that software interoperability should be eligible for copyright protection, Rives wrote, “it would expose startups and software developers across the country to substantial new risks, generate a great deal of litigation, and throw up sizable barriers to innovation and startup growth.”
Instagram Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary. This week marked the 10 year anniversary of Instagram. With more than 1 billion users, the popular social media app has significantly changed the way people publish content and share their lives with one another. A Wall Street Journal article highlights how Instagram has specifically benefited artists and creators during the last decade. One rookie photographer said, “Instagram allowed me to come into spaces—not even me physically, but my work—and be acknowledged in the same way as photographers I admire.”
Niskanen Urges Rollback Of IP Excesses. The Niskanen Center is out with a new paper, “Faster Growth, Fairer Growth: Policies for a High Road, High Performance Economy,” that includes recommendations to roll back regulatory capture. Writing that the longstanding limits on scope and duration of patent and copyright laws have been “systematically shredded”, authors Brink Lindsey and Samuel Hammond lay out some key steps to “restore sanity” to the area of IP. Read the full paper here.