Morgan Reed on Kojo Nnamdi Tech Tuesday Show
ACT's Morgan Reed was a guest today on the nationally syndicated public radio program, the Kojo Nnamdi Show. He appeared on the Tech Tuesday show on User Experience and Technology to feature member companies that are innovating in the UX space and to highlight the MoDevUX Conference April 19-21 that ACT is sponsoring. One ACT member that is doing remarkable things is Interknowlogy which has created a Kinect Touchless Operating Room. The company has built custom controls for Kinect [...]
And it’s On – Appeals Court Revives Viacom v. Youtube
This is an important victory for Viacom and the rule of law. Another court has firmly rejected Google's continuing claims that Internet innovation Will Just Die unless Google can legally build content-distribution business knowingly or intentionally based on the "copyright piracy on a commercial scale that the World Trade Organization requires all civilized nations to criminalize--not 'harbor.'" The full opinion is here.
Mobile Ads and Privacy Policies
TRUSTe has announced a unified, open solution for mobile advertising privacy management. App developers can use the solution to address the evolving privacy compliance standards, growing consumer privacy concerns, and complicated technology requirements unique to the mobile ecosystem. The project is currently in beta and is expected to go live in the coming months. We hope that this effort will help to resolve the issues related to the use of UDIDs in apps. Be sure to check out TRUSTe's Free [...]
Senators to FTC: Let’s Fight Back Against Foreign Manufacturers Using Pirated Software
A number of Senators from the Small Business Committee have drafted a letter advancing an issue that should be very important to U.S. manufacturers and software innovators. Specifically, the Senators wrote to the Federal Trade Commission, reprising an issue raised by 39 state Attorneys General last November, stating that our trading partners should not be competing unfairly by using stolen software. Software piracy is widespread, particularly so in a few countries that compete with American manufacturers. A study funded [...]
ACT Files Comments for NTIA Multistakeholder Process to Develop Privacy Codes of Conduct
ACT filed comments today to offer guidance to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's efforts to initiate a multistakeholder process to develop privacy codes of conduct. Initial indications by the agency that it would target apps before addressing industry-wide issues is of great concern to our organization. Targeting technology instead of behavior is the cardinal sin of regulation. The key issue is not apps or the devices that run them, but consumer data. Users are concerned about their personal information [...]
$8 Billion iPod? Not if you know anything about property rights enforcement.
There was a Ted Talk by Rob Reid recently posted titled The $8 Billion iPod. His talk attached some pretty remarkable figures to the economic cost of copyright infringement. Unfortunately, this was simply an attempt to confuse consumer and commercial piracy. No consumer has ever been sued for having unauthorized songs or ringtones on their iPod. Copyrights are no different from any other property right in the following sense: If enforced as vigorously as possible, whenever possible, stupid results would [...]