But with intellectual property, even more than with traditional goods, one encounters dissimilar products that are not substitutable. Shubha Ghosh, in The Fable of the Commons: Exclusivity and the Construction of Intellectual Property Markets, uses songs to illustrate this: one song is both the same as and different from another song, but they are not perfectly interchangeable. The same may be said for some chemical and industrial processes. As a result, the intellectual property market cannot allocate goods based on price alone, but also on other characteristics (like quality or type of product). This does not lead to efficient trades or distributional balance.

In addition, intellectual property markets are deeply concerned with the licensing of rights, such as royalties and similar pricing arrangements. The complexity–with dimensions going beyond simple price–means often there is an asymmetry in information and strategic behavior by creators and users. The result is inefficient and undesirable distribution.

As a final example, most analyses of ideal markets suggest that buyers and sellers will reach agreement, but such analyses typically ignore situations in which a customer’s life is at stake–leading to a tendency to pay any price to get a product. There is, notes Ghosh, “something troubling” about this situation. But it is not necessarily easy to select a better alternative to these market-oriented models–somehow justice needs to factor into the model, but how?

The marketplace of ideas is from in propria persona, © 2010 by Kristopher Nelson. Want to republish? Get permission. Want to quote? That's fair use.

Should so-called “shield laws,” intended to provide protection for journalists from being forced to reveal their confidential sources, apply to bloggers? The current answer seems to be “no,” although the question must be asked on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis.

In the United States, there is no federal shield law, for journalists or bloggers. There are, however, many shield laws at the state level. (For more on this, see A Guide to Journalist Shield Laws from Poynter Online, an excellent compendium of such laws.) Some states have already recognized the important of blogging to modern journalism: New York is currently debating whether to pass a bill to explicitly extend protection to bloggers.

In Australia, such laws are currently being debated for adoption at the federal level, according to Peter Timmons, a consultant working on freedom of information and privacy protection issues. It’s unclear to me whether the proposed Australian law would cover bloggers, however.

Cearta.ie, an Irish legal blog, has several good articles discussing “journalists’ source privilege” from an international perspective. I recommend you read through it to get a better idea of the global status of the issues, especially in Europe.

From a “free press” perspective, the privilege is incredibly valuable. On other hand, like any evidentiary privilege rule (spousal testimony, for example) it can be very frustrating for law enforcement in certain situations. Overall, I think it would be a net good, if written sensibly, and it would also be a net good to extend the privilege to bloggers who act like journalists – but again, with some specific language defining what that means.

Journalist Shield Laws and Bloggers is from in propria persona, © 2010 by Kristopher Nelson. Want to republish? Get permission. Want to quote? That's fair use.

Australian scientists have developed a blood test for African sleeping sickness that does not require the fancy equipment found in upscale medical labs. Even better, they made the details of their work available for free by publishing a paper in the Feb. 6 issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, which operates under a Creative Commons license.

An intriguing example of the sort of open-source or open-access research I’ve been looking into recently.

For those with a scientific bent, here’s a summary of the article (“Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Method for Rapid Detection of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense“) from the authors:

Control of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) or sleeping sickness relies on diagnosis and treatment of infected patients. However, the diagnostic tests in routine use have limited sensitivity, due to a characteristically low parasitaemia in infected individuals. Differentiation of infections by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (causes acute disease) and T. b. gambiense (causes chronic disease) is essential, as the two forms of disease have different treatment regimens. In the present work, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of DNA was successfully used to detect T. b. rhodesiense, with a sensitivity of up to one trypanosome/ml of blood. The LAMP test was efficient and robust, and results were obtained within 35 min. Amplification was possible when a water bath was used to maintain the temperature at isothermal conditions (60–65°C), and results could be read by visual observation of colour change. These findings have increased the prospects for developing a simple molecular test for HAT that can be used with limited equipment at point of care in endemic rural areas.

Blood Test for African Sleeping Sickness is from in propria persona, © 2010 by Kristopher Nelson. Want to republish? Get permission. Want to quote? That's fair use.

Australian High Court Judge Justice Kirby says computer code is more potent than the law–and that legislators are powerless to do anything about it.

Technology has outpaced the legal system’s ability to regulate its use in matters of privacy and fair use rights, said Kirby, speaking Thursday night at an Internet Industry Association (IIA) event.

Kirby said the judicial system has faced difficulties in coping with changes the Internet and computing have brought.

Australian judge on privacy: Computer code trumps the law is from in propria persona, © 2010 by Kristopher Nelson. Want to republish? Get permission. Want to quote? That's fair use.

Millions of people juggling a career with caring for a disabled family member are likely to receive greater protection in the workplace after a British secretary won the latest round in a long-running legal battle.

An adviser to Europe’s highest court said today that Sharon Coleman, a former legal secretary who is the primary carer for her disabled son, was entitled to the same rights against direct discrimination at work that disabled people already enjoy.

The responses to this ruling in the comments are particularly interesting, I think. Note that right now the ADA in the U.S., which protects the rights of the disabled, hasn’t yet been extended to offer any protection to caregivers. “Carers” (a term that’s found popular support in Australia and in the U.K., but has yet to really catch on in the U.S.) must look to other protections instead, perhaps equal protection or sex discrimination legislation.

Ruling gives boost to millions of carers is from in propria persona, © 2010 by Kristopher Nelson. Want to republish? Get permission. Want to quote? That's fair use.