IPcentral.info - About Us

IPcentral.info is the Internet arm of the Center for the Study of Digital Property, which is a wholly-owned (and some times wholly disowned) part of The Progress and Freedom Foundation. The Center started operating on January 1, 2003.

Our Pole Star is the belief, convincingly demonstrated by the troubled and triumphant history of the 20th Century, that commitment to free markets and property rights, combined with the rule of law rather than the rule of micro-regulation or the whim of a ruling class, is the best way to organize human economic activity. Further, this wisdom applies to the rising world of intellectual creations and digitization as much as to the conventional worlds of physical goods.

In the age of the computer and the Internet, the belief in property rights, markets, and limited regulation is under attack. There is a rampant assumption, especially in academia, that technology has rendered these institutions passé, to be replaced by communitarianism, cooperation, and open access. And once again a great illusion stalks the economic landscape - that government regulatory agencies are fit to hold the One Ring of Power, untrammeled by ignorance, political cynicism, capture, or bureaucratic self interest. We disagree.

Our position should not be misunderstood. Intellectual creations are indeed different from physical products in crucial ways, and the differences have profound impacts. Concepts of property rights and markets have always been and must continue to be plastic, adapting to the changing possibilities created by technological advance. For an extended argument on this point, see James V. DeLong, Property Matters: How Property Rights Are Under Assault-And Why You Should Care, pp. 24-91 (Free Press 1997), and for a more exalted source, see Intellectual Property Rights, Remarks by Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, at the Economic Policy Summit of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (February 27, 2004).

Beyond this basic dedication to property rights, markets, and minimal regulation, we regard everything as subject to analysis and dispute. How to adapt classic institutions to the computer age presents devilish and intriguing problems.

IPcentral.info is a resource for people who are concerned with the dilemmas created by the age of the computer and the Internet. It will provide short guides to important issues, deep thinking by leading intellectuals, multiple links to resources on and off the web, and off-the-cuff journaling on current developments. It will also provide a forum for feedback, a function that will, we hope, increase with time.

The person primarily responsible for IPcentral.info is James V, DeLong, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for the Study of Digital Property. He is assisted by other members of the PFF staff.

The site is funded out of general PFF funds, which are provided by a number of generous supporters. They may or may not share the views expressed here. Our supporters share our general dedication to property rights, markets, and limited regulation, but differences, occasionally intense ones, rage over exactly what these principles mean in the real world.

Noel Le is a Research Fellow, focusing on intellectual property-innovation policy. Before joining PFF, Le worked in the technology industry; in legislation and policy, regulatory affairs, R&D coordination and knowledge management systems roles. Le holds a bachelors degree from the University of Chicago, and is now pursuing graduate studies at Harvard University.

Thomas Sydnor is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for the Study of Intellectual Property at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation, Sydnor served as a copyright advisor in the Office of International Relations at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Before his work with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Sydnor served as Counsel for Intellectual Property and Technology for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. During his time with the Committee, Sydnor helped to secure Senate passage of various pieces of legislation in the 108th Congress, including the Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation (PIRATE) Act, the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act, and the Intellectual Property Protection and Courts Amendments Act. He also helped to negotiate proposed legislation on diversion of patent fees from the USPTO. Prior to his work with the U.S. Senate, Sydnor worked in private practice at two major law firms, specializing in intellectual property law. Sydnor is a graduate of Duke Law School.

Amy V. Smorodin

Amy V. Smorodin is Director of Communications at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation, she worked as a public policy communications specialist at the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), a global tech industry association. She began her media and public relations career at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, where she acted as liaison between families, law enforcement, and the media. Smorodin attended American University in Washington, DC.