For end users of communication and information technologies, interoperability, (in fact, non-Interoperability, as far as interoperability, when it works, is ?invisible?), is generally considered as a technical obstacle for using a product or a service. More than ever, this obstacle is negatively felt in the world of the Internet, where interoperability is assumed to be completed, allowing all types of exchanges, for any content, of any kind.

But interoperability is a multifaceted question: technical, of course, (this one is not always the most difficult to solve), but also economic, legal, regulatory and policymaking. Each dimension face specific internal tensions. These may be: protection of intellectual property and promotion of competition, innovation on the upstream markets and fragmentation on the downstream markets, opening and effectiveness/control/safety, flexibility and certainty, originality and standardization.

ITU proposes a definition of the interoperability: ?the capacity of two systems or applications, or more, to exchange information and to use mutually exchanged information? (Rec. Y101 of the ITU-T). Yet, one cannot set a unique widely accepted definition or at least overall optimal ?state of interoperability?. As a consequence, each economic player considers the interoperability from its own point of view.

For instance, the definition of ITU is mainly related to the development and the adoption of the standards: the general principle is that if the products and services are complying with the standards, interoperability is guaranteed. Although there remain standards incomplete or subjected to interpretation which make interoperability less ?guaranteed? that expected.

More generally, alternative important questions have also to be risen as regards interoperability : what are the various kinds of interoperability and in which extent do they support innovation, promote competition, develop the markets and finally satisfy the consumer.

 

There is no simple answer to these questions. The general consensus is that interworking is good for innovation, but the impact on the radical innovations is less clear and the incentives to innovate find sometimes their source, precisely, in the lack of interoperability. The theory of competition assumes that interoperability leads to an increased competition (and consequently to more innovation)  by reduction of ?lock-in? effects and entry barriers, but does not prevent, actually, certain anti-competitive behaviors by the means of proprietary standards or de facto standards.

 

Even if most of the analyses conclude that the advantages of interoperability largely exceed its disadvantages, interoperability is not an end, but remains a means to boost markets development keep the consumer satisfied. Moreover, in the digital economy, the consumer intervenes more and more in the mechanisms of innovation and interoperability must also allow innovation by the users.

 

The Microsoft case and the decision of the European Court of Justice, in 2007 condemning Microsoft for abuse of its dominant position, illustrate all these debates. Microsoft considered that to offer the interoperability at the level required by the competition authority imply to reveal information protected by intellectual property rights and consequently subjected to business secret. For Microsoft, the application of its intellectual property laws could not be regarded, in any way, as an abuse of dominant position (despite the 90 to 95% of market share on the market considered by the European commission). At the end, Microsoft considered that interoperability was what the customer wants/needs and argues that, today, Windows 7 and Linux can operate in parallel on the same machine. Beyond the Microsoft case, the decision of the Court clarified the conditions under which a company in dominant position could act as regards interoperability (at least in Europe, the situation remaining different in the United States) which can be summarized by the level of information which must be delivered by a dominant company allowing a competitor or a partner to propose to the consumer a reasonable alternative.

It remains to find the best ways to reach the right level of interoperability. The range is large, from a top-down approach making interoperability mandatory, to the bottom-up open approach making interoperability emerging from the game between all the players.

 

INTEROPERABILITY - Workshop in Paris - June 23rd-24th, 2009

Urs Gasser, Law Ewecutive Director, Berkman Center and St Gallen, ICT Interoperability and eInnovation

Mario Carugi,  Vice President ITU, Senior Advisor Nortel, Some ITU-T standardization topics and related interoperability aspects

Nicolo Zingales, Berkeley University, Bocconi University, DRM Misuse

Jean-Pierre Témime, Deputy CTO, Orange Group, Fragmentation vs Interoperability

Mikko Valimaki,  Professor, Helsinki University of Technology, How to license interoperability? A start-up perspective

Bruno Jullien, IDEI, Toulouse School of Economics, Monetizing Business Assets in Multisided Markets: An Economic Perspective

Philippe Baumard, PREG-CRG, Chaire Innovation & Regulation des Services Numériques, Service making vs Interoperability

Cecilio Madero-Villarejo, Director-DG Competition-European Commission, The Microsoft case

Carlo Piana, Lawyer, Interoperability, Open standards, free software after Microsoft

Mark Lange, Senior Officer Microsoft

Laura DeNardis, Yale Information Society Project

Ashwin Vanrooijen, Clifford Chance, The Software Interface between Copyright and Competition Law. A Legal Analysis of Interoperability in Computer Programs

 

 

Writing Competition and Call for Papers

Workshop on Interoperability

June 23-24, 2009

Deadline for  writing competition: May 15^th, 2009

Deadline for Journal publication: September 15^th, 2009

 

The Innovation & Regulation Chair of digital services (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris & Telecom ParisTech) and the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy (IJCLP) are pleased to announce their first joint call for interdisciplinary papers in occasion of the Workshop on Interoperability taking place on June 23-24, 2009 in Paris, France.

 

We invite students, scholars, policy-makers, technologists, practitioners and industry representatives to submit papers on interoperability related issues, analyzed from a legal, economic and/or technological perspective.

Conference Description

 

Interoperability may be defined as the ability of two or more systems to exchange information between them or to ask services one another. Software interoperability has been at the core of several recent antitrust cases and policy debates, as the European Community?s Microsoft case and the discussion concerning interoperability between Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems. Web 2.0 related developments, such as mega-sites and mashups, involve significant interoperability issues as well.

 

The Workshop will bring together scholars from various fields of research (including economics, law and technology), operators and policy makers from the US and Europe to examine the issue of interoperability at various levels, encompassing a positive analysis of the legal status of interoperability information, but also a more economically founded analysis of compatibility between different systems in innovation driven markets (potentially with several normative implications).

 

A non-inclusive list of panel topics for the Workshop includes interoperability issues arising with respect to:

 

 

We encourage creative approaches and we welcome the submission of theoretical contributions, case studies, empirical researches or surveys offering new keys to the reading of interoperability related issues.

 

A full conference description, including a dedicated bibliography and speakers? bios and abstracts, will be made available at the Innovation & Regulation Chair?s website, www.innovation-regulation.eu. Conference proceedings will be published in a dedicated printed volume of the IJCLP, as well as made available under an open access policy at the IJCLP?s website at www.ijclp.net.

 

Writing Competition

 

Submissions for the writing competition must be received by noon EST, May 15^th    2009. The author of the winning paper will be invited to present his/her work at a panel during the conference and he/she will receive coverage of his/her travel to and accommodations at Paris. At its discretion, the selection committee, composed of representatives of the Chair, may extend the aforementioned invitation to the best runners-up. Selected papers will be announced by June 1^st, 2009. The authors of the award-winning papers will automatically be invited to publish their work in a special volume of the International Journal of Communications Law & Policy (http://www.ijclp.org) devoted to Interoperability.

 

Journal Publication

 

Submissions for publication must be received by noon EST, September 15^th, 2009. The selection committee, composed of representatives of the Chair, will review and consider all submissions for publication in the special volume of the journal, including submissions for the writing competition. Authors will be notified of acceptance by November 15^th, 2009.

 

Submission Guidelines

 

Submissions for the writing competition must be received by May 15^th, 2009 (full papers). All submissions should be written in English and submitted in .doc, .rtf, .odt, or .pdf format. Submissions should conform to academic citation standards (for more information look at http://www.ijclp.net/submissions.html) and be no longer than 15,000 words (footnotes included), including an abstract of no more than 300 words.

 

Authors who are not participating in the writing competition have to submit long abstracts of at least 1,500 words by the deadline of July 15^th, 2009. The final deadline for submission of full papers for publication in the special issue of the IJCLP is September 15^th, 2009.

Submissions should be e-mailed simultaneously to Simone Francesco Bonetti, Chief editor of the IJCLP (simo.bonetti(at)tiscali.it); Pierre-Jean Benghozi, Director of the Innovation & Regulation Chair at the Ecole Polytechnique (pierre-jean.benghozi(at)polytechnique.edu); and Federico Morando, Associate editor of the IJCLP and co-organizer or the Workshop (federico.morando(at)email.it).