Yahoo Comments on IP Scandal

Patents, copyright laws and rights and trademark issues are all a big blur nowadays, many say, because of the explosion of user-generated content that burst the bubble and spread all over, making it unclear who owns what and why. The technology sector is the most affected, although many others also suffer the consequences of this problem.

"Users have become copyright owners," said Joseph Siino according to internetnews.com, Yahoo's vice president for intellectual property. However, dealing with what millions of users post and share (including the copyrighted works of others) is really a tricky issue. Siino refused to comment on the billion dollar suit that Viacom has filed against Youtube, but wanted to give every assurance that Yahoo will not follow in its rivals footsteps and will develop the right mechanism to respect all rights. "We don't believe large companies have a monopoly on IP rights or should", he added.

In relation to Youtube being forced to withdraw media content from the site almost every day, Siino agreed that copyright holders have an obligation to say how their works may or may not be used as well as drawing attention to the fair use laws in order right now. He highlighted that Apple created a very good "vehicle for a functioning marketplace of sorts" with its iTunes, although it isn't perfect.

"In China there has absolutely been interest to infringe IP, but now they're switching to more protection," he said. "There have been a number of recent significant verdicts protecting the rights of intellectual property holders."

What will follow, according to him, is that some of the more authoritarian countries will prosecute IP crimes harshly, while the US complains that others are not enforcing copyright, patent and trademark law. "There are proposals abroad to criminalize IP with a vengeance", he said, according to the same source cited above.