1.4+Intellectual+property


 * 1.4 Intellectual property**

Intellectual property includes ideas, discoveries, writings, works of art, software, collections and presentations of data. Copyright, trademarks and patents exist to protect intellectual property. However, the easy and accurate duplication methods made available through IT can undermine such protection.

Read A Gift of Fire p. 4.1 and 4.2 (p. 199 - 212) and answer the following questions: >> >> >> >>
 * 1) What is intellectual property?
 * A work or invention where one has rights to apply patent, copyright or trademark.
 * 1) What is the difference between "intangible creative work" and it's "physical form"?
 * Intangible creative work is mostly ideas, creativity, researches and skills from the creator while physical form are just materials. Intangible creative work allows the invention to have higher value than the material itself.
 * 1) Do copyrights last forever? If no, what are the limitations?
 * No, the limitations are the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.
 * (95 years from date of publication or 120 years from date of creation for corporate authorship)
 * 1) What are some of the challenges that new digital technology present to maintaining copyright laws?
 * New technology that are developed with high quality of copying or high quantity of distribution such as Web for posting materials, scanners, hard disks, memory cards or CDs or DVDs and compress format to make files easier to download.
 * 1) One of the most notorious copyright cases was that of Napster in 1999. Why was this so significant? Today, there are similar programs such as Limewire, Frostwire, and Torrent applications. These companies typically argue that they are only providing a medium for file sharing and, therefore, cannot be held responsible for the actions of their users. Is this a fair argument? Why or why not (support your argument)?
 * Napster was so significant because it created a huge impact on the income of the artists and music company. It gave a negative impact on the sales of singles because people started to download songs from Napster instead of purchasing them.
 * The argument is unfair because Napster and other similar services are responsible for the actions of their users. Technology has evolved rapidly and developed with better inventions such as large amount of storage such as memory cards and fast distribution from one to another such as internet connections. Napster and other services these days used these technologies and allow people to share files easily by transferring files over Internet, however, they are responsible to supervise the action of the users because they have rights to prevent users from copyright infringement. They should be making effort in eliminating users who committed copyright violations because they are the one who provide these services to everyone. When users realized no one is taking action on the violations of copyright in file sharing, more users will be using the service because they realized there are no consequences from committed these violations.

September 15, 2011, Jeremy Hunt urges web firms to join anti-piracy drive


 * Jeremy Hunt suggests that sites promoting the downloading of copyrighted material (such as Cyberlockers) should be blocked in the United Kingdom. He argues that we don't allow shops to sell stolen goods, so why should the government allow websites that give access to copyrighted (stolen) material? Others would argue that this is an attack on net neutrality. Which position do you defend and why?
 * I choose to be on the Jeremy's side. I think government should not allow websites to give access to copyrighted materials. When people copy or share these materials with others, it doesn't seem to be a wrong or illegal thing because they think personal use or distribute works of others do not benefits much. Even though personal use of these materials do not bring huge impact like how commercial use of copyrighted material does, they are still consider to be illegal. Government should block all the unauthorized web sites to protect copyright holder's intellectual property because they deserve to gain the profits from all their hard works and efforts, not the unauthorized people who distribute their products.

August 30, 2011 Cyberlockers

Today Peer 2 Peer file sharing is quickly being surpassed by cyberlockers. What is a cyberlocker and what is the difference between a cyberlocker and peer-2-peer file sharing?
 * Cyberlocker is a centralized file-hosting service. The difference between a cyberlocker and p2p file sharing is that cyberlocker is designed to host user files and peer to peer file sharing is from one user connecting to another user's computer to search for files they wanted to download.

Cyberlockers and p2p file sharing is making it increasingly easier for people to download music, television shows, movies, software, books, and other electronic material that is under copyright. Read this article.

>> >>
 * 1) According to the article, why is the method used by corporations to fight piracy not working?
 * Because if they blocked all the file sharing software and torrent clients, it will interrupt all the uses of file sharing and all the social networks and some software application (Skype) will be blocked because of their file sharing feature.
 * 1) Do you agree with the article? Why or why not?
 * I agree because it is very hard to control users from file sharing when it has become the most convenient way to exchange information from one to another, if all the file sharing are considered illegal just to prevent copyright infringement, I think it will create many negative impact on other factors such as communication, we will not able to exchange information instantly. I also agree with the solution of making products easier to obtain by everyone because sometimes I get frustrated when something i wanted to buy was only available in certain countries or area, so when things are in affordable prices and easy to get, people will buy it.
 * 1) Can you think of any other methods to fight piracy?
 * Copyright Alerts systems. Entertainment companies and Internet service providers can form alliance to create a uniform system that will send warnings to Internet users when their accounts are found to be illegally downloading materials that are copyrighted. If the users continue to download illegally after receiving the warnings, Internet service providers can redirect them to a webpage that has information about the law of copyrights or reduce their Internet speed. (From this article Internet providers, entertainment groups partner to fight copyright infringement)

Sep 13, 2011, Authors sue universities over digital library

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 * 1) Do you think that it's fair that organizations are suing on behalf of authors?
 * Yes it is fair. Organizations are helping authors to protect their intellectual property from being copied or displayed for everyone without permissions. It shows that it is a serious matter for all the authors around the world because people are using their intellectual property for their own benefits and profits.
 * 1) Extended question: does the expense of educational information (especially at the post-secondary level) make the quest for a post-secondary degree or attaining a high-school diploma elitist?

Sep 13, 2011, Actor to Plead Guilty to Leaking Black Swan to BitTorrent and Sep 12, 2011, Internet customer names sought for Hurt Locker suits
 * 1) What is your educated opinion about large corporations such as "Voltage Pictures LLC" and "Motion Picture Association of America" to target single users for distributing copyrighted motion pictures? Do you agree that these users should be held accountable for their actions? Support your answer using your textbook, and evidence from both articles.
 * I think these large corporations targeting single users for distributing copyrighted motion pictures are a good way to tell people that there are consequences in committing copyright violations. It can be a good thing to intimidate users from committing the crime. However, I do not agree that users should be responsible for their actions because computer users are too widespread, they could be anywhere in this world and it is hard to target them and find the exact person who commit this crime. I think it is unfair to those who are being accused for such crime just because their IP address are tracked or found to be sharing copyrighted materials with other users. Their IP addresses could be used by someone else. I agree with the article that shutting down web sites are better way to stop people from sharing or uploading copyrighted materials because in that way all users will not be able to commit any copyright violations.