Gurry acknowledged that digital technology and the internet

have created unprecedented access to knowledge. They

“Rather than resist it,” Gurry
created “the most powerful instrument for the
democratization of knowledge since the invention of
said, “we need to accept the
moveable type for printing,” he said. “They have introduced
perfect fidelity and near zero-marginal costs in the
inevitability of technological
reproduction of cultural works and an unprecedented
capacity to distribute those works around the globe at
change and to seek an intelligent
instantaneous speeds and, again, near zero-marginal
costs.”
engagement with it. There is, in
But he argued that there must be economic incentives to

any case, no other choice – either

reward creativity and “foster a dynamic culture.” It was
unclear whether he would agree that dynamic cultures had
the copyright system adapts to
always evolved without copyright as well.
Rather, the new technologies “have given a technological

the natural advantage that has

advantage to one side of the balance, the side of free
evolved or it will perish.”
availability, the consumer, social enjoyment and short-term
gratification.”
And as it is impossible to reverse technological advantage and

resulting change, it must not be resisted. “Rather than

 The Past, Present and Future
of Protecting Software in a
Digitalized, Wired World

ITechLaw 2011 Annual Meeting &

World Technology Law Conference
San Francisco, CA, USA
2011-05-12

Speaker: Mladen Vukmir

01-07-29

Ÿ VUKMIR, 2002
 Topics & Theses
Keep it simple!

People digitaly wired flattened the Globe, means no soverignty

as we know it

No sovereignty means no territoriality principle in the future IPR

systems

Technologies bring consequences, always did, legislation only

follows the business models established by new technologies

Lawyers always had difficulties predicting or driving social

change, but in the flat world this might spell the end of the road

04/06/02
 Topics2 & Theses2
The emergence of brain-machine interfaces means that humans
will be able to communicate to the machines directly by thought

This means that machines might become able to communicate to

other humans by thought

As a consequence we will abandon embodying the ideas and the

copyright will cease to exist as we know it

IP law will change because the creativity needs it to change

IP will change but our relation to the creativity results is going to

remain property based

Now, let’s take things in turn and look finally at the two
technologies that will move things even further

04/06/02
 Topics & Theses
World digitaly wired, the globe flat means no soverignty

No sovereignty means no territoriality principle in IP

Technologies bring consequences, always did, legislation follows

No law in creativity creation, little law in creativity exploitation

Technical means content exploitation management

Brain-machine interface means no embodiment. No copyright?

IPis going to change because the creativity needs it to change

04/06/02
"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Victor Hugo
http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/
http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/
http://fabbaloo.com/blog/2011/4/5/the-anything-factory.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed
http://www.3dsystems.com/
 1950)
(The Law, Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.; Foundation for Economic Education, (1850),
"Life, liberty, and property do
not exist because men have made
laws. On the contrary, it was the
fact that life, liberty, and
property existed beforehand that
caused men to make laws in the
first place.”

(Fréderick Bastiat, The Law)

Liberty
property
John Archibald Wheeler, A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime, Scientific American Library 1990, 1999, p. 13
Thank you
mladen.vukmir@vukmir.net
 To Stephen J. Davidson

Thank you! E: vukmir@vukmir.net

T: +3851 376 0511

F: +3851 376 0555
S: vukmirassociates
01-07-29 A: Pantovcak 35, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
© VUKMIR, 2011 All rights reserved.
Ÿ VUKMIR, 2002