I’ve written about why lawyers frustrate me, why FAS 157 (Topic 820) sucks and why the current state of patent law stinks.  In each case, I’ve tried to not just be a critic, but be part of the solution.

Specifically, I wrote an entire series on how law firms could change their ways to not piss me (and their clients) off and have been very active within the NVCA and personally trying to change the way that software patents work. 

As for FAS 157 (Topic 820), if you can’t beat them, join them.  Today it was announced that I’ve been invited to a “blue ribbon panel” organized by the Financial Accounting Foundation (FASB) to help determine the proper valuation techniques of private companies.  Either I’ll have a positive effect, or I’ll have a ton of fodder to bitch about.

But enough of that – what’s next?  Well, I’ve decided my next target will be copyright law.  There are a ton of things wrong with the current state affairs, none greater than the fact that most of the doctrine was developed before electronic media and what has come since has been a knee-jerk reaction to lobbying efforts by large content owners.

I’ll whet your appetite with  specific cases that want to make me scream:

1. ASCAP has used copyright law to go after royalty fees from girl scouts who sung popular songs around campfires;

2. Book publishers claim that Google copying their works in order to search them is a copyright infringement.  If held true, all Internet search would be subject to copyright law and effectively banned;

3. There is no clearing house for performance rights meaning that I can own a piece of music, but am limited to where I can actually play it unless I negotiate individually with the content holder; and

4. Incidental uses of content subject the user to infringement claims.  A woman recorded her 13-month old son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.”  The video (all 29 seconds of it) was posted on YouTube and immediately was subject to a DMCA takedown notice.  Google complied.  The mother is now suing Universal (the entity that owns the song) for violation of fair use laws.  (Good for her). 

But these are old news and frankly, there are bigger fish to fry which I’ll get into during the series.  These are just tastes of how the archaic ways of copyright laws have not kept up with the times.  (And no, I’m not going argue that Napster was legal). 

If you are looking for a new opportunity, a new (but stealth) startup is looking for help.  I’ve promised not to “out’ the company, so if you re interested, email:

jlcardjsm@gmail.com

In their words:

A Denver-based online education start-up, with a founding team which played leadership roles in creating two of the Internet’s most iconic brands, is seeking a hands-on VP of Engineering. The ideal candidate will:

- Be enthusiastic about the opportunity to both architect and develop the company’s initial product as well as to build and lead the Engineering team for years to come;

- Have achieved stretch goals leading Engineering teams in architecting and building high-availability, scalable web applications within test-driven agile start-up environments; and

- Have a strong technical background including in-depth, hands-on knowledge of Java and open source web architectures.

Sorry, I can’t answer any questions, as I’m sworn to secrecy.

Seriously.  They are hiring engineers.  And you know that you love music, love working in an ultra-cool environment with great folks and want to get in on the ground floor and make a real difference.

They have VC funding from Foundry Group, Alsop Louie and SoftTechVC.  They have tons of plans, too, to make a world-class product.  What’s missing?  You are. 

The only potential downside is you’ll have to listen to me at meetings, but you’ll be able to tease me about my bad hip and receding hairline.  Also, Samir, their CTO is cuddly. 

Come on Boulder, respond!  And if you aren’t from Boulder and want to live in a great place and work for a kick-butt company, let us know!  We love transplants, as we are all from elsewhere ourselves.

The other day, Nick Cronin, CEO of Lawbidding.com emailed me for me to check out his site.  In short, allows folks to confidentially post their legal issues for free, and then allows attorneys to search through the cases and place bids on that work, also for free. 

The bids can be based on an hourly fee, flat fee, contingent basis or ‘other’ bid.  This allows attorneys and clients to easily create alternative fee arrangements.   The client can then select their attorney based on the bids and by looking at the profile the attorney has set up.  The selected attorney is then sent the clients contact info. The website has attracted thousands of users (attorneys and clients) from all over the U.S.

It’s a relatively new site (and I can’t vouch for it, as I haven’t used it), but it is yet another example of people thinking creatively about the legal profession business model.

Good luck Nick. 

Brad and I are thinking about updating our Venture Capital Term Sheet Series. We’ve heard over the years from folks that they’ve used our series to teach classes.  We are delighted by this and whenever we’ve been asked, we’ve always said (and will continue to always say) “with our blessing.”  However, we haven’t kept track of any of this over the year and have a few ideas for things we can do to update the material now that five years have passed.

So – I’m writing with a simple request.  If you’ve used, or encountered, our Term Sheet series in a college (undergraduate or graduate) course or any other teaching / seminar environment, can you leave a comment below with the information (school / program / year / professor) or email me the information?

For those of you concerned about nefarious plots on our part, I assure you that we are delighted this material is out there in the public and are happy to have it freely used and passed around for all eternity.  I promise we won’t send Jack Bauer your way.

When they say Farmhouse, they aren’t kidding! I’m not much for barns and farm animals, but if there was a good way to describe all of these aromas, they are in this beer. It’s a really nice and complex Saison Dupont offering, much more involved than their more standard “Brasserie” offering (also commonly called just Saison Dupont). Think a musty farmhouse, but yet still really attractive with a lighter body and a sharp front palette. It has some traditional Belgian bitterness, but is smooth with a dry finish. An excellently crafted beer this is a real treat. It’s light, but able to stand up to heartier dishes and is very unique.

Mendelson Rating: 9/10

Yesterday I posted about Young Startup Ventures trying to rip off Boston-based entrepreneurs.

Today, I’m pleased to report that after hearing of the pay-to-pitch requirements of Young Startup Ventures, Microsoft has done the right thing and no longer is allowing the group to use their facilities.  We should all congratulate them on doing the right thing. 

It appears that the event is no longer on their website, either.  Nice.

I’d also like to thank Dan Primack for the real estate on PEHub and all of you who supported my position via retweets. 

If any of you hear of other similar scams, let me know.  I’d like to weed out as many of these as possible.

Apparently, our work to weed out unscrupulous venture events is not done.  Today, I learned that Boston entrepreneurs will be the next victims to be fleeced out of their cash in order to have the opportunity to pitch to VCs. 

To quote my partner Seth:

THERE IS NO CIRCUMSTANCE IN WHICH ENTREPRENEURS SHOULD PAY TO PITCH THEIR BUSINESS TO PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS.

PERIOD. END OF STORY.

It’s not just Seth.  Much of the credit goes to Jason Calacanis for leading the charge against such practices.  But while Jason was instrumental in dissolving a few pay-for-pitch groups, it seems like this one has managed to survive.  (Hopefully not for long).

Name:  Young Startup Ventures

Date and Location: April 21st, at the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center in Boston, MA. 

Cost to Pitch: $4,500.  (Attendance only is a hefty $1295 unless you early register for $895)

Now unlike some other events like this, there are a list of credible VCs attending and it is being held at Microsoft.  This makes it all the more worse.  I bet that some are unaware of the payment mechanism. 

Just for toppers, this group offered one company that I know a featured “Top 20 innovators spot” if they paid their bounty.  So these con artists are also trying to con the VCs on what the best companies are by who pays.  Nice work.  This just makes the whole thing dirtier than it already was.

Overheard from one VC planning to attend is that he wouldn’t fund a company that pays for access like this, as it shows they aren’t that smart.  Question why the VC is attending, I don’t know.  But I bet it’s not a unique viewpoint.

I’d encourage both entrepreneurs and VCs to boycott this event.  There is plenty of money around the table here to have an event that doesn’t steal from founders.  Most all credible VCs I know are happy to take an email from you and discuss your venture.  You showing up at an event like this isn’t necessary. 

Lately, I’ve had the “pleasure” of lying in bed (most of the time in traction) recovering from hip surgery.  Given the liberal doses of Percocet and other pain meds, I’ve refrained from doing any work-related emails.  But it’s boring as crap and I can only read so much (poor attention span due to drugs) and watch so many bad movies (Max Payne was one of the worst ever).  I relegated myself to surfing around the Internet and getting caught up on all the cool stuff that I’m behind on.

One site that I’ve neglected the past 6 months has been Facebook.  Besides playing Zynga games Poker and Mafia Wars, I had stopped updating my status, uploading pictures and maintaining my profile.  Whereas, I used to be on FB a couple of times a day, I was now spending all of my social media time on Twitter. I figured that with my copious amount of free time, I’d rediscover my interest in FB and get sucked back in.

Surprisingly to me, it hasn’t happened.  And it’s day 4 of trying.  I’m not sure that I need FB anymore.  What I perceived as the value before has clearly changed.  And when I look at the value proposition then, versus now, I can’t imagine what FB would have to do to win my social media time away from Twitter.

Here is why Twitter is better than Facebook (in scorecard fashion):

1. Meeting and / or reconnecting with friends.  I have 1,110+ friends on Facebook. I have about 1,700 on Twitter.  But there are two factors that must be considered above quantity: quality of friend and velocity of friend acquisition. 

Quality-wise, my networks are probably about equal with a mix of real friends, acquaintances and folks that are just network builders.  I find this interesting, as on FB I have to allow folks to be my friends, but on Twitter people can essentially befriend me unilaterally.  (I accept all FB friend requests, by the way).  I’m very much overweighted with high school connections on FB and over weighted with business  friends on Twitter.  (This is a good thing, nothing against my high school friends).

Velocity, however is no match.  While FB started strongly, I’ve only added about 200 friends in the past 3 months.  I’m adding about 250 a month in Twitter.  Just this week alone, I’ve added several dozen Twitter followers and only a couple new FB friends. 

Winner:  Twitter

2. Relevant Information. This one isn’t even close.  Besides knowing when a birthday occurs, the information stream inside Facebook sucks.  It’s 90% noise.  Yeah, I know that I can go and configure the info stream, but the interface stinks and it’s always changing.  Twitter?  Simple.  I follow those who provide me interesting information and can always check out “@jasonmendelson.”  If someone is creating too much noise, I can unfollow them with one button.  Plus, for those in my life whose opinions I really trust, I can pay attention to who they are retweeting and pick up others to follow. For this reason, friend discovery is better on Twitter, as well. 

Winner:  Twitter

3. Activity.  So which network sees more activity from those that I care about?  This one is mixed.  It’s all over the map, so let’s punt on this analysis. 

Winner:  Tie

3. Fun.  So life isn’t all work.  Fun matters.  Which one is more fun?  I think FB still wins this one with the games, applications and photos that Twitter doesn’t have.  Plus the persistence that exists with content is nice, as well.  That being said, Twitter is catching up and some of the Facebook fun is moving off the FB platform.  One of our recent investment, StockTwits shows that a great application can be built on top of the Twitter platform and game makers like Zynga have more and more standalone offerings (like Farmville). 

Winner: Facebook (but, isn’t a guaranteed long-term advantage)

4.  Efficiency.  Putting aside all jokes about Twitter’s infrastructure aside, the cumbersome nature of FB, plus the ever-changing and poor UI make this one no contest.  Plus, I think 140 characters is a better format for folks to connect up, instead of the three page dissertation from the girl from high school telling me about her high school crush on me.  And don’t even get me started about FB email and chat – two more complete time sucks in my life that I see no benefit to.   

Winner: Twitter (In a landslide, but please scale your infrastructure)

5. Privacy.  Let’s see… On one hand we have a founder (Facebook) who believes privacy is dead and on the other hand we have a really simple platform that allows me control over what the public sees.  Even more inscrutable is knowing what Facebook’s du jour policy on privacy really is. 

Winner:  Twitter

6. Spam. I’ve had to defriend folks on Facebook due to spam (mostly politicians) and I’m sure we’ve all made a mistake or two where we’ve invited our entire address book to something that we weren’t aware that we were doing.  With Twitter, I only follow those whom I enjoy, it’s easy to audition folks by following / unfollowing, where the “Remove Friend” button seems to change location often. 

Winner:  Twitter

7. Ability to Network.  connections / help:  At one point, I thought that FB would replace Linked In.  I was wrong, Twitter did.  I sent out a tweet and almost instantaneously whatever I need is addressed.  Instead of spamming folks on FB, I just send out a 140 character missive and folks decide whether or not they want to help or not.  With FB, I’d have to create an email and send to everyone and annoy them as they would at least have to go delete the message or forever show new messages in their inbox (especially annoying on the iPhone client). 

Winner:  Twitter

8.  Sharing.  I think FB still wins.  Granted, if you want to share each and every part of your life, there is no substitute for posting pictures and letting everyone know which Sex in the City character you are most like. I think the novelty of this wore off on me a while ago and I prefer sharing information and content that I find find interesting and I find Twitter to be the perfect platform to do this.  That being said, I may not be norm.  And perhaps those that rank sharing as their top attribute for participating in a social network will always flock to FB, but I’m not sure how many people feel this way. 

Final Score:  Twitter: 5  Facebook: 2 Ties: 1

Now that Twitter has effectively taken over friend discovery, connection, networking and information for me, the only real use that FB has if for fun.  And I’m finding more fun in the Twitter platform everyday.  Given that I only have so many hours a day for social media, I’m allocating my hours to Twitter (and blogging, of course).  I wonder if others are finding the same thing? Or is sharing the killer app?

One of our portfolio companies, Organic Motion is hiring.  They are a really exciting company right in the middle of our Human Computer Interaction Theme.  In the company’s own words:

“Organic Motion is a global leader in the development of breakthrough markerless motion capture and analysis technologies. Our software products utilize state-of-the-art computer vision techniques and high performance graphics hardware to deliver an industry first set of production, entertainment, and research tools for use in a variety of industries.

We are seeking to expand our Manhattan, NY based engineering team with applicants who have a solid mastery of practical C/C++ development skills combined with strong analytical and problem solving skills in a variety of areas including computer vision, computer graphics, networking, pipelining and optimization, biomechanics, and more.

We are looking for candidates having 2 or more years experience in a professional development setting in addition to a PHD, Master’s degree, or an exceptional Bachelor’s.

Required skills include some of the following:

* C, C++ (required)

* Stereo vision – 3d reconstruction / mesh creation & optimization 
* 3D programming (DirectX, OpenGL, Shaders, HLSL, CG, GPU) 
* Multi-threaded / multi-process programming

* Networking – sockets, RPC, streams, low latency hardware

* Computer vision / image processing

* Low-latency / real time 

Secondary skills:

* Game development
* Distributed systems
* Motion capture creation / analysis 
* Physics

* Scripting languages (Python, Lua, Bash, Perl, etc)

* UNIX, Linux

* Mathematical modeling, filtering, signal processing
* Biokinematics
* GUI development (MFC, Qt, WxWidgets) 
* Autodesk 3d animation suite API

Responsibilities include: 
* Optimization (single-core / multi-core / multi-process) 
* Algorithm development (raw 3D data analysis) 
* Application development (server and client side)

* Code maintenance and troubleshooting
* Supporting conferences and shows (past shows: SIGGRAPH, GDC, CES, I/ITSEC)

This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic team with potential for rapid growth and access to a great deal of compelling technological resources. We are looking for individuals with fresh ideas and the skills to put those ideas to the test. This is a unique opportunity to have a major impact on a growing company!

If you are an excellent candidate, then please reply with your resume in Word or PDF format to careers@organicmotion.com. A code sample would also be a big plus!”