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Free market solutions to today's technology issuesTechnology impacts our daily lives in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. From email, VoIP and cell phones, high-speed Internet access, and even social networking sites. Just think about the many ways technology has improved our lives. From the way we communicate with our friends and families to how we manage our finances and organize our lives; technology continues to give us more mobility, more choices and flexibility; increasing our efficiency and saving us money. And the future holds even greater promise. Online medical records and tele-medicine offer the promise greatly reducing our health care costs. Cooperative learning can help improve the education of our children. And even benefiting our economy with high paying technology jobs. |
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From the Blog
Today’s New York Times has an article about Google asking artist to give up their intellectual property in exchange for ‘exposure’ on their site. Many artists have bristled at the idea of having a very profitable company use their intellectual property for free. The New York Times quotes one artist in their article:
Other in the article feel that Google - of all companies - should pay them for their work:
ATL believes that IP rights are an essential foundation to the success of the technology industry. In addition, IP laws will continue to impact how we watch TV, listen to music, share information and communicate. Simply put, the system of IP rights established in the coming years will have a profound effect on the way we will live far into the future. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports: “The Internet search giant recently began crunching data from employee reviews and promotion and pay histories in a mathematical formula Google says can identify which of its 20,000 employees are most likely to quit.” Google is an innovative company that is continually finding new information to collect and ways to use that information. As Google continues to collect and use this unprecedented amount of information on its users, ATL believes there should be more transparency about what information is collected and how that information will be used. We applaud Facebook for listening to consumers by reversing their previous decision to change their terms of service and for their moves to bring more openness to their terms of service. As we pointed out in a statement last week, in today’s technology environment, companies have a responsibility to their consumers to be transparent about their business practices, the personal information that will be retained and for what purpose it will be used. Companies should be open about their terms of service and about their privacy policies. Facebook could have avoided the entire issue if they had simply been more transparent when changing their policies. |
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