Public Knowledge Presents Fourth IP3 Awards to Wu, Love and OK Go; Young Receives President’s Award
Public Knowledge Presents Fourth IP3 Awards to Wu, Love and OK Go; Young Receives President’s Award
Public Knowledge Presents Fourth IP3 Awards to Wu, Love and OK Go; Young Receives President’s Award

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    Public Knowledge President Gigi B. Sohn announced that PK's 2007 IP3 awards will be presented to Columbia University Law Professor Tim Wu, activist James Love and the members of the band, OK Go — Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka, and Andy Ross. Robert Young, founder of Red Hat Software, will receive the President's Award.

    Awards are given to individuals who over the past year (or over the course of their careers) who have advanced the public interest in one of the three areas of “IP” – Intellectual Property, Information Policy and the Internet Protocol. The awards will be presented Oct. 11 in Washington, D.C.

    Wu, from Columbia University, is the winner for his work on Information Policy. Wu has long been an advocate for a free and open Internet. His book, “Who Controls the Internet: Illusions of a Borderless World,” written with Jack Goldsmith looked at the issue on the international level. His recent paper, “Wireless Carterfone,” was the inspiration for a widely supported policy proposal to the FCC that the Commission open the equipment market for wireless devices much as it did for wired telephones in 1968 and for conditions granted by the FCC in the 700 MHz auction. He is working on a new book about anti-discrimination rules in communications.

    Love, the director of the group now known as Knowledge Ecology International, spearheaded the earliest efforts to get public interest groups involved in international forums like World Intellectual Property Organization. Last year the MacArthur Foundation recognized KEI for “Advancing the Public Interest in Intellectual Property Policy,” citing the group's work in making medicines more available around the world and working toward a more balanced copyright regime.

    OK Go used the Internet, not traditional publicity outlets, to spread the word about their band. The group created a video for the song, “Here It Goes Again,” uploaded it to YouTube and it went viral, becoming a world-wide phenomenon approaching 23 million views on YouTube. They also encouraged fans to make and post online their own videos with the band's music. OK Go visited Capitol Hill earlier this year to talk with members of Congress about the Net Neutrality policy that made their success possible.

    Young is being recognized for founding and sustaining a company built on open-source software. Founded in 1993, Red Hat Software proved that Linux and open-source software are more than the domain of hobbyists. They are the building blocks of a company and the foundation for products that businesses could use. Red Hat, founded in 1993, has about 2,000 employees located in more than 50 offices worldwide, and more than $400 million in revenue. In addition, he founded and endowed the Red Hat Center, which became the Center for the Public Domain, the first serious funder of the copyright and patent reform movement, including support for Public Knowledge.

    Judges for this year were: Markham Erickson, executive director and general counsel to NetCoalition; Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project; Laurie Racine, president of dotSub, senior vp of strategy and business development, Eyespot and Board Chair of Public Knowledge; Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition; and Fred von Lohmann: senior intellectual property Attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    IP3 winners in 2006 were Yale University Law Professor Yochai Benkler, technology entrepreneurs Blake and Jason Krikorian from Sling Media and University of Michigan Law Professor Jessica Litman.

    Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.