On Innovation
The Australian Government is doing a bit of a whirlwind review of innovation in Australia to establish what barriers there are to participation in an attempt to reduce out trade deficit.
Of course the first thing that came to my mind was intellectual property law and private funding of University-based research which usually leaves the knowledge gained from that research locked up in patents owned by corporations rather than contributing to the broader scientific community.
Then I come across this, the Attorney-General has released a new copyright issues paper on private copying of films and photos (paper can be found here). Which is good to see as the Howard government made a complete mess of it but I’m not holding my breath that it will improve the way we are legal able to deal with digital media (amongst other things).
If I can find the time I’ll write to Kim Carr about IP and put in a submission to the Attorney-General as well but time is something I don’t have a lot of at the moment. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Centre and would like to help with this submission please shoot us an email at centre [at] democracyandjustice [dot] org.
But while we’re on the topic, over at Copyfight:
In the past I’ve referenced Gibson’s dictum that “The street finds its own uses for things.” The basic premise is that attempts to control how people will use technology once it’s out in the wild are doomed to failure. Many startup companies and published hacks are built on this premise.
They then point to the blog of Kevin Kelly which is dedicated to innovative “street uses” which is not only fascinating but, at times, quite hilarious as well.
Which brings me to my final point. Over the festive season I was in Egypt. One of the books I took with me was Thomas Homer-Dixon’s The Up Side of Down, an exceptional book which I recommend to everyone. One point that Homer-Dixon makes is that the more complex a society gets the more specialised and compartmentalised it gets which makes the society more ridged and reduces it’s ability to innovate or deal with catastrophe. Reading that book in a “less-complex” society like Egypt is certainly an eye opener because I was astounded by the level on innovation I saw. Perhaps this is the biggest barrier to innovation Australia faces.
Update: Further to my point about IP law (and DRM) stifling innovation is this (Via Boing Boing):
Adobe After Effects (the loving companion to any motion graphics pro) has been crippled by the new Quicktime DRM. When After Effects renders out an animation Quicktime throws up an error telling you that you do not have permission to view the Quicktime movie that you just created.Here you are using a mac as your trusty creative tool and now it’s telling you that you are not allowed to access something you just created.
Apple DRM bitch slaps the very creative pros who love their products.
