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Cents and Censorbility

Google recently forfeited a half billion dollars generated by counterfeit drugs sales after being being held responsible by the United States Department of Justice.  Google stock then quickly dropped 22 percent from $627 to $490 per share.  Is it possible that investors may lose some confidence that Google is able to generate the same profits legally?  After all, their business model replies upon the presumption that nothing online has value until it is found on Google and then monetized by their ads.  This is a clear conflict of interest between the gathering of ‘free’ information and advertising around that same content.  No wonder they oppose a bill that would limit the illegal distribution of copyrighted works online.

The other day I read a post on Facebook from a friend who said that the real elephant in the room isn’t censorship.  It is that the average person has been stealing music, movies and software for years and nobody wants the free buffet to end.  The concept that all ‘knowledge should be free’ is absurd.  While it is noble that Wikipedia remains ad-free, its founder Jimmy Wales pleads for donations totaling $16 million annually.  The world needs to get reacquainted with the concept that we all win when everyone is compensated for their hard work and creativity.

Google already censors sites they deem objectionable for content such as pornography,  racism and political protests.  They even blocked The Pirate Bay in 2009 and then backpedaled after some criticism.  Their problem with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is not whether content on the web is blocked, it is over who does it: them or our democratically elected officials.

Last week Google distributed a Goebbels-worthy propaganda cartoon that gathered four million signatures protesting SOPA in one day.  I would be hard pressed to believe that many of those folks actually read the bill before falling in suit.  This did not demonstrate the power of the Internet, but that of one organization.  Shortly thereafter, Barack Obama made a public announcement against the bill.  This is contrary to the president’s previous commitment to remain neutral due to the fact that his two largest supporters, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, are diametrically opposed on this issue.  I don’t think I need to be a psychic detective to predict the direction of his fundraising strategy for the 2012 election.  Maybe the argument should not be about limiting the power of our government or even that of one massive corporation.  Perhaps we should focus on stopping them from becoming one and the same.

Now I’m going to finish my coffee…

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January 23, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , Views

Don’t Drop the SOPA

Imagine a world where all of the world’s creative works are reduced to ones and zeros and the control of that art is in the hands of a few tycoons.  A world where those same few Wall Street companies have enough money, influence and power to force all creators to work for free.  That time is now.

Beginning midnight on Wednesday January 18th, 2012 a few popular websites shut down for 24 hours as a planned protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act known as SOPA & PIPA, respectively.  In fact, one protester’s website says “Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge.”  Reducing my creative works to ‘knowledge’  or ‘data’ that can be commoditized is so Skynet.

Some people spend their entire lives creating that one toy, one song, one book, one clothing accessory.  Their legacy.  In most cases, this creation is the only property of value they will have  to pass onto future generations.  Only to have some tycoon call it ‘information’ and re-purpose it for their own profit.  A creative work is not mere ‘knowledge’.  It’s a human creation.  Someone’s child.

This Ain’t a Movie…

Here is an excerpt from the popular movie The Matrix where the villain explains to the hero how, in the film’s bleak future, one organization controls the masses:

  • “Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from… …Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.

What Agent Smith did not understand was that the human condition is more than ones and zeros.  Our ideas are more than data that can be distributed perfectly with algorithms and without complication.  Humanity is suffering and pain.  Humanity is joy and laughter.  Humanity is complication.  Imposing any perfect-world scenario should not be mistaken as naive.  The last organization to almost succeed in creating a Utopian society were the Nazis.  How’s that working for you, Agent Smith?

The American dream used to be to learn a trade, earn a decent living, have a house, and make your mark.  That is still my dream and the dream of many others but it is no longer the dream that is being fed to us.  This new dream is to start a company, sell it to Wall Street for a hundred million dollars; rinse and repeat.  Although we are being told it is our dream, doesn’t it look a lot like a plan for world domination?

Let Me Clear Up a Few Things…

SOPA will not break the Internet.  The Internet is a network of millions of networks controlled by millions of people.  It’s not one thing that can break.  Yes, this regulation will create more work for some large, not-so-poverty-stricken corporations.  But these new jobs that will be created will actually help keep the virtual streets safe for our kids.

SOPA is not censorship.  Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable.  This bill will not stop anyone from being original or objectionable.  It will, however, stop people from distributing your original works without your permission.

SOPA does not bypass due process.  In order for the owner of a creative work to enforce against a rogue site, they must prove to a judge that the site has received refuge from outside the United States and that there is no reasonable way to properly contact the host or registrar.  Only then will a judge sign an order to block the illegal website.

Google, Facebook and Twitter already have systems in place to filter content they deem objectionable such as spam, child pornography and even racism.  Piracy can join that mix without a ton of disruption.

I have been working to prevent the theft of others’ Intellectual Property my entire adult life just as my father did before me.  I have faith in our judicial system, which is comprised of thousands of officials whom we ourselves elect.  I do not trust a handful of tycoons.

Now, I’m going to finish my coffee…

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January 18, 2012 6 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , Views

SOPA: Taming the Wild West

Set in the year 1865, the television show Hell on Wheels centers on the individuals working on the construction of the first transcontinental railroad.  Colm Meaney plays Thomas “Doc” Durant, a greedy entrepreneur and the driving force behind this railroad, where he hopes to take advantage of the changing times and make a fortune. Although his mad quest is noble in many ways he goes, for the most part, unwatched.  He successfully kept the US government at bay by occasionally returning to lobby Washington while his operation ran as he saw fit.

Here we are in the 21st Century, where new railroads have been constructed and new entrepreneurs are taking subsidies and lobbying the US government on how they think their throughways should be governed.  The Internet is not just a bunch of wires and tubes, but the sidewalks, highways and railroads of our nation.  Profiteers want to bamboozle you into thinking that this is not the wild west.  It is.

I was recently on Capitol Hill presenting along side many of America’s labor unions in support of the pro-jobs bill known as Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  We were regular working joes presenting to congress and outside were teams of Google suits with wolfish grins.  I can tell you first-hand that those leading the charge against SOPA are the richest people in the history of mankind.  They want to make sure they can run their operations without regulation as long as they can.  The non-billionaires that oppose this bill are the gunslingers who also profit from this lawlessness.

Every nation has border security.  If a swindler tries to make his way across the American border he will likely meet with an enforcement agent and, if found a threat to American consumers, will likely be turned around and not make it across the border.  If a swindler makes it across the border, and is caught, he is deported.  SOPA is nothing more than a border protection act.

Google and Facebook are not their own nations and they do not deserve their own laws.  They are companies incorporated in the United States and want to do business here.  They also stand to benefit from the sale of illegal goods to American consumers.  Because they believe older generations’ learning curves are slower, they are making outrageous statements like we are going to “break” or “censor” the Internet.  Heed my warning — Do what is best for the consumer, not the billionaires and the gunslingers.

A great American Eleanor Roosevelt chaired a committee to draft The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  In 1948 it was adopted by the United Nations.  Article 27 Section (2) of this declaration states, “Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.”  In 2011 those rights are under attack.  Under attack by faceless perpetrators who are hiding behind these Rogue websites.   Forty-seven per cent of America’s gross national product now comes from Intellectual Property.  That means our nation’s most precious resource is its IP.  Rogue sites are not only the vessel of choice of the modern criminal, I have seen first-hand terrorist and other criminal organizations selling counterfeits online to fund their activities overseas.  I will tell you this —  They don’t care about the economic impact, labor standards or consumer safety.

The Internet is a real place with real people, and real businesses need real laws.  Don’t let these billionaires swindle you into thinking otherwise.  Wyatt Earp needs to clean up.  Let’s do this!

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December 28, 2011 2 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Views

Curiosity Killed the Case

One of the great joys in my life is that, every morning, I wake up and get to walk my two dogs Chauncey, a West Highland Terrier, and Lucky, a Chihuahua, around the block.  When Chauncey gets a scent he follows it until he locates the source.  Then he sniffs until he gets all of the data he feels he needs, or satisfies his curiosity.  Once this is achieved Lucky decides to mark his territory on the spot that Chauncey found.  One day, due to Chauncey’s amazing focus, he ended up with a stream of Lucky’s pee pee on his head.

I have been in private investigations most of my life.  In my twenties I thought my tenacity and curiosity were my greatest assets.  Once I was promoted to working larger, more complex, cases I began to realize how much time was actually wasted extracting more data from a lead than needed or following leads that did not pan out.

Very often the greatest skill an investigator can have is knowing when a lead is dead or when to put it down for a while.  The word ‘lead’ rhymes with ‘seed’.  Think of the concept of sowing seeds.  Except the opposite.  When you sow seeds you lay dozens, and maybe hundreds, and expect only one or a few to ever bear fruit.  Most leads do not take you to the end.  Most are distractions.  The greats know which are which.  Solve the case without ending up with pee pee on your head.

Now, I’m going to finish my coffee.

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November 22, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , Views

Audio

Top 10 Tips for Fighting IP Cybercrime

I was recently interviewed by IQPC as a preview for my IPCybercrime Boot Camp that I will be giving in conjunction with their Anti-Counterfeiting & Brand Protection conference in San Francisco in January 2012.  This will be the second time I’ve partnered with them to do a Master Class.  Last year was a great time and I’m excited to kick off the New Year with my 2012 material at their event.  Please listen to the below podcast/video for a preview of some of the topics I will discuss.  You know you want to press ‘play’.  So do it.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

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November 15, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , , Views

Video

Hunt People Online – Los Angeles and Toronto Classes Coming This Month!

My IPCybercrime Boot Camp has been well-received all over North America and in Europe.  Whether you are an investigator by trade, a paralegal, a lawyer or a small business person you will benefit greatly from taking this all-day course.

My class is the only class of its kind.  Instead of teaching the traditional parlor tricks we focus on my proprietary techniques and philosophy that are universal in all aspects of investigation.  The Internet has been my territory for almost two decades and I can teach you to navigate it better than ever before!

Seating is limited and time is running out.  So register now for Los Angeles on 11/14 or Toronto on 11/29.  CLICK HERE NOW!

November 8, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , Views

Are you a Salmon or a Bear?

Sport fishing is a $125 billion dollar industry.  No matter how good man gets at it, he is nothing compared to the Alaskan grizzly bear.  At first glance you would describe one of these formidable creatures as large brutes.  But let me tell you something.  Although most of us know that this so-called brute is a fast runner, many folks don’t know that this beautiful creature is so agile, patient and graceful that they can catch Salmon with their teeth even when their quarry is swimming at full speed.

One of the best films of the 1980s is Michael Mann’s “Manhunter“.  In this film our protagonist FBI agent Will Graham has a conversation with our favorite psychopathic psychiatrist, the brilliant Hannibal Lecktor, through prison bars:

      Graham admits, “I know that I’m not smarter than you.”  

     Lecktor then inquires, “Then how did you catch me?”

     ”You had disadvantages.”, says Graham.

     Lecktor asks, “What disadvantages?”

     Graham replies, “You’re insane.”

It is common for a detective or criminologist to state that, in order to catch a criminal, you must think like a criminal.  It is not only unnecessary to think like the criminal, it is imperative that you do not.  You don’t think like a criminal and you don’t want to.  You hunt them.  Their values are different than yours.  Their brain works differently than yours.  In order to catch a criminal, you must think like someone who catches criminals.

In your career you have investigated hundreds of bad guys.  You are smart with years of investigative experience and an above average IQ.  But you do not, by any means, believe you are smarter than every one of the people you investigate.  You think differently than they do.  Your desires, motives and goals are different than theirs.  You know that your advantage is that you do not think like them.  Good.  Don’t think like them.  Hunt them.

Enjoy.  Salmon tastes good.

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October 25, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , , , Views

Defining Creativity and Theft

[NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The below article was written by an impressive high school student who interns at our office.  I wanted to give him a shot at expressing his views of IP and what he is learning to the Community.  I am hoping this will give you insight into the minds of the younger tech generation, as well as give Mason a chance to see what some of you think.]

This is my first guest post here on Knockoff Report so I think I should introduce myself.  My name is Mason Pelt and I am an intern at the intellectual property firm IPCybercrime.com.  I also own a small production company.  As a result I’m highly opinionated when it comes to intellectual property.  People create things.  It’s one of the things that make people awesome.  People steal things.  It’s one of the things that stink about people.  I, as I’m sure most people do, think creating things is good.  Think about it.  People created most of the awesome stuff that fills our lives.  People even made a lot of the stuff we all take for granted.  When I got up this morning, I brushed my teeth.  I used a toothbrush instead of a stick because, at some point, someone realized a need and created the tool “The Toothbrush”.  According to the American Dental Association, the first toothbrush was crafted in 1498 by an emperor in China who did so using hog bristles and a bone handle.  Now, when that Chinese emperor made the first toothbrush it physically existed as an object.  If someone had taken the toothbrush it would have been clear-cut theft.  The lines, however, became blurred if you talk about the Intellectual property of the toothbrush.  Could I, as someone working in the palace in 1498, see the idea and make my own?  What about making toothbrushes for friends?  How about selling the toothbrush as if it were my own idea?  Which of the previous things are theft?  My point is that theft is simple in the world of matter (Did you take something that wasn’t yours?).  But, in the world of ideas, theft is not so simple to understand, and it becomes anything but simple to define, if you talk something like art.  Art borrows ideas, tweaks them, remixes them and changes them in many ways that make it hard to clearly define the theft of an idea.  The fashion industry is a great example of this.  My pockets are sewn inside my paints.  Odds are good that yours are too.  We no longer keep a bag tied to a belt.  Clothing evolves.  I used to work with a company that did photography and videos for one of the largest clothing retailers in the US, and many brands of clothing looked very similar.  With any brand, we took pictures of shirts looked like shirts and graphic tees that had similar designs.  That’s not so much intellectual property theft as it’s just how art works.

In music, something that has been pent-up in litigation, for decades now, is the song “Kookaburra,” by Marion Sinclair, vs  “Land Down Under,” by Men At Work. The first 7 notes or so of “Land Down Under” are a direct steal from “Kookaburra,” and then the tempo completely changes.  This could be considered theft or just an homage to the most famous Australian song ever.  The bottom line is, I can find hundreds of songs that sound similar.  It’s how things like Pandora radio work.  But, more than just that, you can listen to a song from a specific time period and hear how music has changed over the years.  It’s grown.  Genres have developed.  And that is, in part, due to a healthy degree of plagiarism on the part of everyone.

If you look at movies, it’s the same thing.  Certain stylistic things just catch on.  I love the TV show M*A*S*H (Largely because Alan Alda is completely brilliant, but I digress).  One of the trademarks of the show (not literally a trademark) was the ending.  Every show would freeze frame and play a slide show of still frames taken from that episode.  It was a very distinct look– so  distinctive that it likely could have been trademarked.  The technique later became fairly common and has since fallen out of use, more or less.  And, I have to mention color.  Watch some movies and notice the trends.  Horror films usually have a blue tint.  Apocalyptic movies are gray and washed out.  It’s so common Cracked.com made fun of that in a post called 5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same.

Like I said, art borrows ideas, tweaks them, remixes them and changes.  I’d like to refer you the Everything is a Remix podcast.  It’s well put together and worth watching.  They cover both the need to protect intellectual property  and why it becomes so difficult to do just that.  All I’m really trying to say is, intellectual property theft is not as clear as we sometimes treat it.  When it comers to Patents, Copyrights and even Trademarks, it’s a blurred line between infringement and progress.

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October 18, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , News, Views

Tenth Anniversary of the Jackpot

Happy Tenth Birthday, IPCybercrime!

Ten years ago on this date you may have seen a goofball driving down Washington Boulevard in Culver City blasting the Tom Petty song ‘Free Falling’ while joyfully singing out the car window as if he were Tom Cruise in ‘Jerry Maguire‘.  That was me.  The reason for this occasion was that, just like the title character of the aforementioned film, I quit my job with no safety net or certain future in order to start my own business.

Six years prior to that, I married the love of my life.  Believe it or not, the anniversary of our marriage doesn’t equate to me as much as the day I told my wife that we were never going to have to have jobs again.  I stopped off at the grocery store on the corner of Doheny and Beverly and came home with that chilled  ten-dollar bottle of California sparkling wine.

Rob at work in 2001

I began my company in the kitchen of my one-bedroom apartment on Oakhurst Drive in Beverly Hills.  All I had was a desk, a fax machine, and a computer that I assembled myself from scraps.  I spent the next week or two learning Quickbooks.  During this time I attended the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition’s Fall Meeting in Las Vegas.  This was the first time I showed up in public as Rob Holmes, proprietor.  Just as for my father before me, this organization and its members are my family and home.  I look forward to spending my tenth IACC Fall Meeting in Orlando with these fine people.

Since 2001 I have carved a niche for myself in the areas of Intellectual Property and the Internet.  I catch bad guys and get paid for it.  Half of the time I’m sitting on my ass at Starbucks.  Life is good.  Thanks to all of you who have made this a possibility for me.  I love you all.  Let’s have another great decade.

Now I’m going to finish my coffee.

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October 3, 2011 2 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , Views

Virtual Goods Are In As Physical Goods Are Slowing

This morning my wife and business partner Nastassia mentioned something while we were enjoying our morning coffee ritual.  Capital One Bank has moved into Cityville.  Yes, she plays the Zynga game Cityville on Facebook along with hundreds of millions of others, most of whom are over the age of thirty.

Ever since the initial popularity of virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, The Sims and Second Life I have anticipated that virtual goods will replace, or at least enhance, the public’s interest in designer goods in the real world.  Until these Facebook games took the world by storm, the idea of virtual gaming was only for the geeky.  The folks who enveloped themselves in a world of fictional characters and rode dragons.  But not anymore.  Now, people are growing farms, raising families, fighting mafia wars and playing poker with friends near and far.  And it’s as effortless as checking their email.  But twice as fun.  The way Cityville works, as you may figure, the player creates a working town and maintains it and builds it while their friends get points/credits for participating.  Participating can be as simple as visiting and as complicated as directing a tour bus from your town to theirs to direct revenue to your friend’s city.

Until recently, each establishment in your city would require you to choose a name for it.  For example, she added a coffee shop and called it RobBucks in honor of her Starbucks enthusiast husband.  No trademarks, just make-believe business names.  Last month she told me that Best Buy had moved into town and I, being a Best Buy enthusiast as well, got a little giddy.  These items are currently free but there are tons of items within the game that cost money.  It may cost a measly dollar to repair your car, or put on nice rims.  Perhaps an extra five dollars to buy more land.  Soon, we will be paying for Nike sneakers,  Budweiser t-shirts and MacBooks.  Don’t scoff at this.  The Chinese market alone for these types of ‘microtransactions’ has eclipsed the $10 Billion mark and the USA is right behind.

I predict that these virtual establishments will soon lead to real online shopping  outlets offering both physical and virtual goods creating revenue streams previously unimaginable.  These games will soon be creating tens of billions of dollars of advertising and sales revenue for legitimate brands.  Folks, this world is about to explode and we’re in the middle of it.  If you are a trademark geek like I am, get excited.  This is our industrial revolution.

Trademark departments… Start your engines!

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September 20, 2011 2 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , Views

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