FACEBOOK 2 BLACKBERRY AND DATABASE TRADING SYSTEMS: MORPHING SOCIAL NETWORKING TO BUSINESS GROWTH IN A GLOBAL RECESSION

Roger M. Groves, Florida Coastal School of Law

Abstract

FACEBOOK 2 BLACKBERRY AND DATABASE TRADING SYSTEMS: MORPHING SOCIAL NETWORKING TO BUSINESS GROWTH IN A GLOBAL RECESSION Summary Facebook has now applications to the Blackberry Smartphone and IPhone. And Facebook has exploded internationally. If the Facebook social networking technology has applications to Blackberry, why not business? And as any business looks for growth, the market is not an existing heavily saturated United States, but a global market. Can the Facebook model of data sharing be customized to propel US technology firms into new international markets? This article claims the affirmative, through a multilateral clearing system, with credits and vouchers, as part of the exchange of a commodity, and the creative use of an evolving new trade practice termed “countertrade.” The voucher system is not dissimilar to the successful use of environmental tradable credits that provided incentives to major corporations to stop using environmentally harmful products that harmed our Ozone. But such a model must confront the reality that the data sharing and franchise agreements related thereto are between entities of different countries, and the exporting of electronic data is a technology transfer subject to international regulation. As such, international laws must be navigated. And the intellectual property rights of database creators are still amuck in murky waters. Through a comparison of the United States Supreme Court’s database decision in Feist Publications v Rural Telephone Service Company, with the international Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement and the European Union Database Directive, this presentation explores the issues and potential opportunities for clarity to generate technology-friendly laws for this Facebook clearing system model.