Techdirt/Paul Allen

“Is Paul Allen’s patent madness really an attempt to show the madness of patents?”, Techdirt, August 30, 2010. Larry’s blog post on Paul Allen’s patent lawsuit against leading Internet companies set off a minor firestorm. Mike Masnick of Techdirt doubted Larry’s speculation that Allen was really just showing up how broken the patent system is. In a later post, also on Techdirt, Masnick reviewed Larry’s comments about the particular problem of jury trials for patent infringement, especially now that the patent office approves pretty much everything. See also Larry Ebert’s comments on IPBiz.

SJ Mercury/NN Cold War

“Ending the net neutrality cold war”, The San Jose Mercury News, August 19, 2010. Larry responded to an op-ed by law professors Susan Crawford and Lawrence Lessig, pointing out the practical limits of wireless broadband Internet and the need to restrain the tendency of regulators to tinker with evolving technologies. See commentary at SiliconValley.com, The Internet Innovation Alliance, and Broadband Policy Watch.