I think there is merit in the p2p/social lending concept, however I think Prosper's method is essentially that it is behaving as a bank rather than a marketplace.
So the problem lies in emulating the poor banking practices that characterised the Financial crisis. If Prosper was more of a marketplace platform then I think the behaviour and returns would be better.
The situation with the BBC iPlayer is even more ridiculous. I've paid for my TV license which gives me the right to view BBC shows including iPlayer. Unless of course I happen to be on holiday. When I can't view the content that my license fee has paid for.
The ridiculousness is simply having a verified account would address the problem. I create an iPlayer account and then verify that account with the Tax people saying I've paid my license fee. Then I should be able to log in anywhere in the world watch shows I've paid for (compulsory payment as well).
I came across a similar issue with terms of service of an online merchant. Specifically, you were allowed to re-sell something you brought from them. I reported them to the UK Consumer watchdog and the result was the company changed it terms of service.
Would reporting both Nanda and eBay to the US equivalent (Better Business Bureau or the FTC?) help? It is a violation of consumer rights.
Increasing transparency is important in reducing the probability that a financial crisis will happen. I doubt it will stop them from ever happening (humans have a rather ingrained habit of opening doors even when sign says otherwise). Indeed it will lead to complacency about the risk leading to another crisis.
Transparency needs to be combined with managing consequence of failure. One part of managing the consequence is to set capital requirements for firms based on impact of their failure. So larger firms would have greater capital requirements as the consequence of their failure is greater.
But managing consequence is more than setting capital requirements for firms. More broadly it is about shaping how the system (economy) as a whole responds to an event. Managing the impact includes how redundancies are managed, how bankruptcies are managed etc.
The area that I see having a large amount of impact is how redundancies are managed. In effect you want hiring and firing to be as easy as possible. The problem is that a redundancy causes demand destruction which on large scales intensives impact. Problem with statutory redundancy payments is it hits a company's cashlfow at a time when they can least afford it. Unemployment benefits can go away towards addressing the problem but do result in large taxes.
A solution to the problem is to provide government back loans for redundancy payments that are recouped through the businesses taxes. It avoids the cashflow hit while also addressing demand destruction caused by redundancies.
I think one of the items that leads to abuse of these types of laws is that there is no ready penalty for misuse. There is a long standing argument about "day in court" but I think this has gone to far. I know that defendants can win in court but the lopsided strength of the parties is going to lead to out-of-court settlements that don't "punish" companies for abuse.
All laws particular ones like DMCA, should include server penalties for mis-use that can be applied either by a regulator or via petition to a court. Mis-use would include failure to take in account fair use, falsely claiming copyright etc. Penalties would be along the lines of:
* Suspension of rights on a piece of material
* Suspension of action or re-course for a duration
The DMCA isn't going to go away any time soon. The problem is companies receive no penalty for abusing the system and until they do they aren't going to stop.
I think rather than worry about open source software the key to drive adoption and competition in electronic health records is an open data structure.
Define a standard format for eHealth Records (probably XML based) that all health systems have to be able to import and export. How it is stored internally is immaterial, what matters is the information can be retrieved using standard format and potentially a standard API calls. Make it an open protocol.
The actual software isn't the key its the data. Make that open then proprietary lockin is avoided and data can move around various systems as needed.
Perhaps incorporate in the UK as a charity or under the auspices of a medical establishment in the UK. Have the program/document tested and used by the Ambulance service/NHS with a view to getting it adopted across the NHS.
Once it is firmly established in the NHS it can then migrate out to other regions. The US is then left without a system with by then demonstrated benefits and good press with Priority Dispatch in the dock for being intransigent.
Assumption is that the company doesn't have worldwide/UK patents (software still can't be patented in the UK).
Other track would be to see if you can't get someone like Mark Cuban to tackle Priority Dispatch.
The latest New Scientist has an interesting article on language and framing of problems particularly in Physics. The point of the article is that given that English is a language of objects and Quantum physics is more about flow, then it is possible the slowness in the development of quantum mechanics is due to the poor framing of problems by English.
Now following that reasoning one of the issues remains a language of objects really trying to describe something that is about flow (of which objects exist in). It would be interesting to approach the issuing using language of flow (say fluid dynamics comes to mind) as opposed to objects.
From a purely market view non-competes are an anti-competitive tool. They act to depress the market price for a person's labour. Whether broad or narrow this is what happens. It also provides an unfair negotiation advantage to an employer during salary negotiations. Particularly, if the negotiations are brought on by an approach from another company.
I know Fred Wilson's portfolio companies pay the person to site in the club house for six months, they don't make up the money that the employee would otherwise be getting in the new job. I do wonder if non-competes would be used as much if it was required that the old company had to pay the employee at the new salary for the period of the non-compete.
The new laws still retain enforcement powers within the police and do not give them out to extra judicial organisations (i.e. RIAA). Yes, there is civil proceedings but that still requires a "balance of probabilities" evidence rather than the much lower evidence level of US legislation.
AT&T is going to find that competing in the rest of the world is a lot different from the US. For one the regulators tend to be much more active and take a dim view of many of the practices of the US Telcos.
Many of the markets that AT&T is likely to want to expand into are also more highly competitive than the US market not only amongst a particular delivery method (cable, dsl etc) but also between methods. I can hardly see AT&T (or any US telco) establish a significant market presence in Europe, Japan, China, India or Brazil to the point where they can dictate tiered Internet access.
These are civil suits so isn't the burden of proof at balance of probabilities? It is not enough to show reasonable doubt but on the balance of probabilities the RIAA method is unreliable.
If the judge does rule before the Patent Office's final ruling, RIM would have a case for appeal based on failure to provide natural justice. I'm not to sure that a judge that ignored natural justice would go very far.
I think what would work for Amazon would be videos of the authors talking about their books. What motivated them to write etc. Something that ties in properly with what they are selling.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Simon.
Or is that because Prosper is another bank?
I think there is merit in the p2p/social lending concept, however I think Prosper's method is essentially that it is behaving as a bank rather than a marketplace.
So the problem lies in emulating the poor banking practices that characterised the Financial crisis. If Prosper was more of a marketplace platform then I think the behaviour and returns would be better.
BBC iPlayer is even more ridiculous
The situation with the BBC iPlayer is even more ridiculous. I've paid for my TV license which gives me the right to view BBC shows including iPlayer. Unless of course I happen to be on holiday. When I can't view the content that my license fee has paid for.
The ridiculousness is simply having a verified account would address the problem. I create an iPlayer account and then verify that account with the Tax people saying I've paid my license fee. Then I should be able to log in anywhere in the world watch shows I've paid for (compulsory payment as well).
Report to watchdog
I came across a similar issue with terms of service of an online merchant. Specifically, you were allowed to re-sell something you brought from them. I reported them to the UK Consumer watchdog and the result was the company changed it terms of service.
Would reporting both Nanda and eBay to the US equivalent (Better Business Bureau or the FTC?) help? It is a violation of consumer rights.
Increasing transparency is important in reducing the probability that a financial crisis will happen. I doubt it will stop them from ever happening (humans have a rather ingrained habit of opening doors even when sign says otherwise). Indeed it will lead to complacency about the risk leading to another crisis.
Transparency needs to be combined with managing consequence of failure. One part of managing the consequence is to set capital requirements for firms based on impact of their failure. So larger firms would have greater capital requirements as the consequence of their failure is greater.
But managing consequence is more than setting capital requirements for firms. More broadly it is about shaping how the system (economy) as a whole responds to an event. Managing the impact includes how redundancies are managed, how bankruptcies are managed etc.
The area that I see having a large amount of impact is how redundancies are managed. In effect you want hiring and firing to be as easy as possible. The problem is that a redundancy causes demand destruction which on large scales intensives impact. Problem with statutory redundancy payments is it hits a company's cashlfow at a time when they can least afford it. Unemployment benefits can go away towards addressing the problem but do result in large taxes.
A solution to the problem is to provide government back loans for redundancy payments that are recouped through the businesses taxes. It avoids the cashflow hit while also addressing demand destruction caused by redundancies.
Lack of penalties
I think one of the items that leads to abuse of these types of laws is that there is no ready penalty for misuse. There is a long standing argument about "day in court" but I think this has gone to far. I know that defendants can win in court but the lopsided strength of the parties is going to lead to out-of-court settlements that don't "punish" companies for abuse.
All laws particular ones like DMCA, should include server penalties for mis-use that can be applied either by a regulator or via petition to a court. Mis-use would include failure to take in account fair use, falsely claiming copyright etc. Penalties would be along the lines of:
* Suspension of rights on a piece of material
* Suspension of action or re-course for a duration
The DMCA isn't going to go away any time soon. The problem is companies receive no penalty for abusing the system and until they do they aren't going to stop.
Open Data Formats would be better
I think rather than worry about open source software the key to drive adoption and competition in electronic health records is an open data structure.
Define a standard format for eHealth Records (probably XML based) that all health systems have to be able to import and export. How it is stored internally is immaterial, what matters is the information can be retrieved using standard format and potentially a standard API calls. Make it an open protocol.
The actual software isn't the key its the data. Make that open then proprietary lockin is avoided and data can move around various systems as needed.
Try UK/Europe
Perhaps incorporate in the UK as a charity or under the auspices of a medical establishment in the UK. Have the program/document tested and used by the Ambulance service/NHS with a view to getting it adopted across the NHS.
Once it is firmly established in the NHS it can then migrate out to other regions. The US is then left without a system with by then demonstrated benefits and good press with Priority Dispatch in the dock for being intransigent.
Assumption is that the company doesn't have worldwide/UK patents (software still can't be patented in the UK).
Other track would be to see if you can't get someone like Mark Cuban to tackle Priority Dispatch.
Objects or Flow?
The latest New Scientist has an interesting article on language and framing of problems particularly in Physics. The point of the article is that given that English is a language of objects and Quantum physics is more about flow, then it is possible the slowness in the development of quantum mechanics is due to the poor framing of problems by English. Now following that reasoning one of the issues remains a language of objects really trying to describe something that is about flow (of which objects exist in). It would be interesting to approach the issuing using language of flow (say fluid dynamics comes to mind) as opposed to objects.
Non-competes are anti-competitive
From a purely market view non-competes are an anti-competitive tool. They act to depress the market price for a person's labour. Whether broad or narrow this is what happens. It also provides an unfair negotiation advantage to an employer during salary negotiations. Particularly, if the negotiations are brought on by an approach from another company.
I know Fred Wilson's portfolio companies pay the person to site in the club house for six months, they don't make up the money that the employee would otherwise be getting in the new job. I do wonder if non-competes would be used as much if it was required that the old company had to pay the employee at the new salary for the period of the non-compete.
Important point
The new laws still retain enforcement powers within the police and do not give them out to extra judicial organisations (i.e. RIAA). Yes, there is civil proceedings but that still requires a "balance of probabilities" evidence rather than the much lower evidence level of US legislation.
Has Rambus sued IBM
I can't see any lawsuit against IBM. I wonder if they are afraid of taking on ol' Big Blue?
Competing in the US different from the rest of the
AT&T is going to find that competing in the rest of the world is a lot different from the US. For one the regulators tend to be much more active and take a dim view of many of the practices of the US Telcos.
Many of the markets that AT&T is likely to want to expand into are also more highly competitive than the US market not only amongst a particular delivery method (cable, dsl etc) but also between methods. I can hardly see AT&T (or any US telco) establish a significant market presence in Europe, Japan, China, India or Brazil to the point where they can dictate tiered Internet access.
Dead Networking Technology Walks again
I wonder if this isn't technology companies dusting off all the old network technologies that where killed off by IP/Ethernet combination.
Civil Suits
These are civil suits so isn't the burden of proof at balance of probabilities? It is not enough to show reasonable doubt but on the balance of probabilities the RIAA method is unreliable.
Natural Justice
If the judge does rule before the Patent Office's final ruling, RIM would have a case for appeal based on failure to provide natural justice. I'm not to sure that a judge that ignored natural justice would go very far.
Videos to Watch
Two words: Monty Python.
I think what would work for Amazon would be videos of the authors talking about their books. What motivated them to write etc. Something that ties in properly with what they are selling.