Intellectual Property Enforcement and Its Fiscal and Cultural Value to Society

Piracy has become a major issue in the United States. For every motion picture that has been featured in theaters also has been pirated onto the Internet the next day, and for every new musical album that is released, yet there is a free torrent file of the album within the same hour. Even though these online pirates steal music and movies from other companies and make a drastic profit, yet these “rogue” websites receive 53 billions visits a year from across the globe according to Creative America. The persistence of the thieves that break copyright laws of the productions has lead the entertainment business to place a definitive complaint to the U.S. government of the constant notion of piracy. While the notion of piracy was not left

Piracy has always been an issue for intellectual property owners. Piracy existed even as early as the 1500’s. In one famous instance, Renaissance artist Marcantonio Raimondi copied some of Albrecht Dürer’s works and claimed it was his own (Gambino, 2011). Politicians and content creators try to combat piracy with laws and lawsuits, but people engaging in piracy remain active and elusive. However, the development of the Internet has exacerbated this issue. Technological advancements, specifically the advancements in file sharing, have made the exchange of information extremely inexpensive, quick, and easy. People have direct access to unauthorized copies of millions of movies and songs due to programs such as Napster and Limewire. Thus, illegal

An Introduction to the Law and Economics of Intellectual Property Author(s): Stanley M. Besen and Leo J. Raskind Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 3-27 Published by: American Economic Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1942699 . Accessed: 24/11/2011 08:39

The purpose of the copyright system has always been to promote creativity in society and protect the creators’ interests. In applying copyright laws to any creation, three basic guidelines apply. First is the fair return for a creators labor, second is “Fair Use” of the creators’ labor and finally the Progress of Science and useful Arts to further the public good. The application of these three guidelines in litigation for A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, found that the rights of reproduction, and distribution had been violated, in effect upholding the copyrights of nineteen different music companies represented under A&M Records name, this ruling had protected the music industries interests. However it would seem that the publishing industry would not be so lucky, litigation in Authors’ Guild vs. Google ruled that Google’s actions constituted fair use. Under these two scenarios’ the copyright laws’ have, effectively, protected the rights of music artists’, protected the public’s right to “fair use” and sparked new opportunities for creative growth. However, lawmakers continue to struggle to define copyright boundaries between the public’s right of use and the creators right to profit from their efforts.

With all the groups mentioned above, intellectual property protection and stricter copyright laws are being discussed, which is a step forward in the right direction. The more these organizations reach out to inform others that intellectual property protection is imperative, the more minds will be had in building ideas for a better tomorrow. The biggest question is why should the average individual care about the protection of intellectual property? The answer is, everyone should strive together as human beings to protect each other’s ideas, creations, and fortunes. If that is not a good enough reason to persuade the average individual, then maybe protecting the loss of money from intellectual property theft is. The economy is constantly in the news and the nation 's debt is a big concern to millions of Americans. If the United States’ bank account is a big concern, then people should be worried or at least interested in the progress of intellectual property protection. The United States’ financial problems cannot be fixed with the successful implementation of intellectual property protection, but it is a positive place to start.

Intellectual property rights are a bundle of exclusive legal rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial. These rights give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations. Intellectual property rights safeguard creators and other producers of intellectual goods and services by granting them certain time limited rights to control the use made of those productions. These rights also promote creativity and the dissemination and application of its results and encourage fair trading, which also contributes to economic and social development. . With the wave of globalisation emerged a need of uniform intellectual property laws all over the world. To achieve this aim WTO stepped in through

Plagiarism, piracy, and bad netiquette are all scourges of the creative world. All three concepts reduce either the value of one’s created content or the ability to cooperate in a civilized manner. Lacking respect of these concepts will cause society to miss out on the immense opportunities for the advancement of our civilization that the interconnected world can now bring.

“Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away.” - Carmen Ortiz. While some of this statement is true, other parts of it are without merit. There has been much confusion about the Internet and the new problems and questions it brings to the table in terms of the court of law, and how law enforcement should deal with it. Then comes the matter of Intellectual Property, and what it covers and how to integrate it into the justice system. Intellectual Property is a grey area for many people and can also be a very controversial matter. In this paper I will clear up some misconceptions

In the recent years, there has been a growing conflict between American copyright holders and website owners, both domestic and foreign, over intellectual property theft. Indeed, these copyright holders have repeatedly made attempts to block websites from committing or facilitating online piracy, while websites claim that laws that try to limit the content within websites are encouraging censorship. With the internet as an international user-controlled domain, it has been a long struggle for both sides of the conflict.

As time goes by, the rate at which art changes increases at a seemly exponential rate. Our culture has more ways than ever to publish and distribute the things we make, and with the rise of the internet we can reach any audience with a Wi-Fi connection. This digital hyper-connectivity has led many artists to create new forms of art, some of which have gone on to start trends and cultures. One of these cultures that has become a significant part of online media is Remix Culture. The idea of taking someone else’s art and making it your own is embraced and cherished by some, and detested by others. As this genre of media has grown over the years, the line between what is and isn’t a remix has drastically blurred. Some will spend hours upon hours making a song sound completely different from its original counterpart, while others will simply chop it up and call it their own. Though laws were once effective when dealing with copyright infringement, the rate art has grown has significantly surpassed the rate at which these laws have changed. People are beginning to monetize their remixes in various ways, creating much controversy surrounding who should be getting paid, or if anyone should get paid at all. As artists, it is important to know what these laws are exactly, so we can either abide by them or find our own workarounds.

Furthermore, many artists, writers, and actors see the use of creativity as a thought of developing incrementally and not in a vacuum. Importantly, creativity, inventiveness, and ingenuity are mainly built upon the work and the ideas of other people and the use of long-term or extension of the copyrights time makes these works unavailable to other people to inspire more creativity (Cox 2017). However, the copyright law is carefully drafted so as it can balance between the private and public rights and this provide incentives for access and information while at the same time

Intellectual property (IP) is defined as property that is developed through an intellectual and creative processes. Intellectual property falls under the category of property known as intangible rights, which includes patents (inventions of processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter), copyrights (original artistic and literary works of), trademarks (commercial symbols), and trade secrets ((product formulas, patterns, designs). Intellectual property rights has a significant value to both individuals and businesses, providing in the case of large companies, over one half of their value on return. Since intellectual property rights are so important to the U.S. economy and its citizens, federal and state law provides

Bainbridge (2006), Gerdsen (2003), and Dinwoodie & Cornish (2008) all support the notion that intellectual property is complex and vast through the combination of many rights. Intellectual property describes how a creative person’s creative work is protected. It allows the creator to control the use, and management of their creative product once it is within the market (Gerdsen, 2003). Touse (2006) acknowledges that copyright “gives the right to authors … to exclude others from copying their work without permission, thus creating the intellectual property rights for literacy and artistic works” (p. 8-9).

One of the biggest inventions of the 20th century, Internet, has provided easy access to the countries across the globe to latest technologies and disseminates digitalized form of information to every corner of the world. Though Internet has benefited the copyright owners by providing a wider market for their works, the flipside of the same coin makes these works vulnerable to illegal access and distribution ; resulted online piracy being one of the most interesting

The Intellectual Property Department was put in place in 1990 to ensure some sort of protection when it comes to intellectual property rights. “Protection of intellectual property rights protects creativity. The efforts of writers, artists, designers, software programmers, inventors, and other talents need to be protected in order to create an environment where creativity can flourish and hard work can be rewarded.” (IP in Hong Kong, China). Hong Kong is full of creativity and innovation so that their intellectual property rights are greatly protected. Even though they are for freedom of intellectual property rights, it only pertains to ideas and creations that are beneficial to social growth and prosperity. “To balance the interest of intellectual property rights owners and the society as a whole, while a pharmaceutical invention may be protected by patent registration, a special medical treatment of a disease is not protected.” So a person could use that invention to perform surgery or diagnosis because it is relevant to the health of society and appealing to the human needs. Investors can be guaranteed protection for intellectual property because it is something Hong Kong takes seriously and needs so that their economy can grow. Ultimately, Hong Kong and China’s goal is to have the highest protection of intellectual property in line with “international standards”, which can give some peace of mind to future investors knowing that if they were to bring an idea to Hong