Exploring probabilistic follow relationship to prevent collusive peer-to-peer piracy

P2P collusive piracy, where paid P2P clients share the content with unpaid clients, has drawn significant concerns in recent years. Study on the follow relationship provides an emerging track of research in capturing the followee (e.g., paid client) for the blocking of piracy spread from all his followers (e.g., unpaid clients). Unfortunately, existing research efforts on the follow relationship in online social network have largely overlooked the time constraint and the content feedback in sequential behavior analysis. Hence, how to consider these two characteristics for effective P2P collusive piracy prevention remains an open problem. In this paper, we proposed a multi-bloom filter circle to facilitate the time-constraint storage and query of P2P sequential behaviors. Then, a probabilistic follow with content feedback model to fast discover and quantify the probabilistic follow relationship is further developed, and then, the corresponding approach to piracy prevention is designed. The extensive experimental analysis demonstrates the capability of the proposed approach

Open and freemium music business models in Africa - copyright and competition consequences

This thesis considers how South Africa and Nigeria can apply copyright and competition laws to regulate the open and freemium music business model that involves the use of copyright-protected music content to generate revenue from advertising. To enhance their competitiveness and escape copyright infringement liability, the firms that deploy the business model impose contractual terms to explain their use of protected content and direct the actions of platform users. Using case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the thesis argues that although these terms result in free and wider distribution of copyright content, some aspects of their implementation may be unaligned with the regulatory framework. The thesis finds that these misalignments exist because the non-payment of royalties to copyright owners and their exclusion from revenue-sharing arrangements may adversely affect their viability of copyright owners as small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) while their inclusion necessitates the imposition of restrictions that may prevent innovative uses of copyright products. Further, the thesis finds that the misalignments are caused by legal uncertainties regarding the exclusive rights of the copyright holders and the scope of their limitations and exceptions, as well as unavailability of competition law enforcement criteria that protect the economic freedom of SMEs including copyright owners. Because of the copyright covering the music content and its use in the economic activity of advertising, which is regulated by competition law, the thesis argues for aligning the business model with the regulatory frameworks. Further, the thesis argues that by ratifying international copyright treaties in ways that provide exclusive rights limited by compulsory licensing, and by amending and enforcing competition law to recognise unconscionable conduct as xiv anticompetitive, copyright and competition laws may be used to regulate the open and freemium music business model. By adopting a South African and Nigerian perspective and proposing competition law solutions, this study aims at filling a gap in the academic literature, which does not appear so far to have attempted a pro-Africa assessment of the business model and/or considered the complementary role of competition law in copyright-related industries in specific jurisdictions

Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform

The United States economy is struggling to recover from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. After several huge doses of conventional macroeconomic stimulus - deficit-spending and monetary stimulus - policymakers are understandably eager to find innovative no-cost ways of sustaining growth both in the short and long runs. In response to this challenge, the Kauffman Foundation convened a number of America’s leading legal scholars and social scientists during the summer of 2010 to present and discuss their ideas for changing legal rules and policies to promote innovation and accelerate U.S. economic growth. This meeting led to the publication of Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform, a comprehensive and groundbreaking volume of essays prescribing a new set of growth-promoting policies for policymakers, legal scholars, economists, and business men and women. Some of the top Rules include: • Reforming U.S. immigration laws so that more high-skilled immigrants can launch businesses in the United States. • Improving university technology licensing practices so university-generated innovation is more quickly and efficiently commercialized. • Moving away from taxes on income that penalize risk-taking, innovation, and employment while shifting toward a more consumption-based tax system that encourages saving that funds investment. In addition, the research tax credit should be redesigned and made permanent. • Overhauling local zoning rules to facilitate the formation of innovative companies. • Urging judges to take a more expansive view of flexible business contracts that are increasingly used by innovative firms. • Urging antitrust enforcers and courts to define markets more in global terms to reflect contemporary realities, resist antitrust enforcement from countries with less sound antitrust regimes, and prohibit industry trade protection and subsidies. • Reforming the intellectual property system to allow for a post-grant opposition process and address the large patent application backlog by allowing applicants to pay for more rapid patent reviews. • Authorizing corporate entities to form digitally and use software as a means for setting out agreements and bylaws governing corporate activities. The collective essays in the book propose a new way of thinking about the legal system that should be of interest to policymakers and academic scholars alike. Moreover, the ideas presented here, if embodied in law, would augment a sustained increase in U.S. economic growth, improving living standards for U.S. residents and for many in the rest of the world