Intellectual property rights were first born as far back as medieval Europe. During these times, groups of artisans in a particular industry were given permission from the government to control conduct in other industries. These group’s job were to oversee what items were being imported, marketed, produced as well as how new inventions were introduced to the market. [1] Intellectual law during this time period was driven mainly by political and religious reasons since they were a huge part of everyday life. In 1710, intellectual law was made more specific with the passing of the Statute of Anne. This gave inventors an initial 14-year protection period and a possible 14-year renewal. However, it did not protect the inventor from foreign-language translations and the people were able to complain if prices were too high. [2]
The start of intellectual property rights in Europe gave way to a birth of our own system of intellectual law in the United States. Once the colonies were seceded from British rule, each of the original 13 colonies created its own copyright law. At the time, this sounded like a good idea, however it was later realized that having separate copyright laws only made things confusing. [3] Laws in one colony were not enforceable in another and a solution needed to be made.
It was decided that to fix this problem, the national government should be responsible for coming up with a copyright law that has to be followed by the country as a whole, not individual
During the mid-1790’s the Constitution had enact a law for a system of copyright for United States of America but actually for United Kingdom or Britain that intellectual property law became a statute in the early 1700’s also known as, “The Statue of Anne”(Feather, 19). However, for England the book was published by an “approved” printer which did
One needs to have a basic understanding of the purpose behind copyright laws as the founding fathers had intended. As stated in the “Constitution. Article I, section 8, clause 8 of the United States Constitution provides that Congress shall have the
Copyright is the legal right, to an inventor to perform, print, publish, film, or record artistic, literary, or musical material, and to allow others to do the same. Copyright law was developed to provide the creators and inventors of any works with powerful and effective rights of exclusivity over their creations (Patterson & Lindberg, 1991). Over the past, these rights were almost unlimited. People would use existing developments as if they were their own without any regard of the creator’s exclusive rights. The need to balance and limit such rights arose, and governments established these limits for the general good of the public.
One of the most common, yet controversial, issues of First Amendment law is the subject of copyright and infringement. Although the subject may not seem major at first, many different issues and controversies have risen and become more common than ever over the years. The issues that have become pertinent to this subject are endless, including trademark infringement, piracy, theft, fraud, plagiarism, and many more. With the coming of age and advancement of technology, these cases have become more common and appear more often than ever before. Government officials have always been strict about copyright rulings, and have tried to deliver fair and just rulings for both parties involved under First Amendment rules. Because the owner’s work and material is protected under the First Amendment, it gets tricky when involving another party that can claim the same work of art. In short, the definition of copyright has always been cut and dry: allowing owners of creative works the right to control and profit from their creations. It is basically recognized as a form of property ownership.
Despite copyright law 's prevalence in out everyday life, few are wary of the potential risks of its uncontested expansion. The law has been allowed to continuously expand with little or no opposition due to a lack of public awareness surrounding the issue. That was until the mufti-corporation sponsored bills SOPA and PIPA made headline news in 2011. These failed bills were an explicit attempt to increase the enforcement of copyright law over the internet.
In its beginning, the United States based its code of laws on the British Law (Moser & Slay, 2011, 16). Connecticut passed the first state copyright bill: an Act for the Encouragement of Literature and Genius in 1783 (Moser & Slay, 2011, 16). By 1786, twelve out of the thirteen states had passed copyright statutes. However, the fact that each state had its own copyright laws created inconsistency and inconvenience for enforcement from one state to another. A federal copyright law was necessary. On March 1783, the Continental Congress drafted the Constitutional Copyright Clause, which gave to the federal government the power to pass copyright laws (Moser & Slay, 2011, 17). The clause stipulated that the goal of the United States was to promote
The law must come to terms with the difference between artistic intent and economic intent. Artistic freedom is more important for the health of society than the supplemental and extraneous incomes derived from private copyright fees. They create art of police and control, since no matter how the original intent of the copyright laws are, today, they are subverted to censor resented works that suppress the public’s need to reuse and reshape
Copyright laws have been in place for over two hundred years. They are meant to protect from the unauthorized and unlawful use of ideas and media under law, and protect the artist’s integrity. The types of media protected ranges from books to movies, from TV to picture art. In it’s own way, copyright laws have affected society and how media is distributed across the world.
The duration of copyright determines the length of protection. Limitations on this length exist to ensure works enter the public domain. Therefore, the length of protection is one of the most relevant and debated issues regarding copyright law. The proponents and opponents of copyright term extension make compelling arguments, but both sides agree that copyright law should encourage creativity and innovation. If Disney is successful in once again lobbying for an extension of duration, a substantial number of works will fail to enter the public domain in a timely manner. This will, consequently, lead to a stifling of creativity and a suppression of innovation that could be detrimental to progress in the realms of science and the useful arts.
2.5 Examine intellectual property law and its ramifications: refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Artistic works including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and designs
Identify and discuss these copyright challenges in the modern digital economy using examples from case law.
The Statute of Anne, was the first form of law that protected intellectual property, invented in the UK in 1709. The ultimate goal of intellectual property law is that human knowledge is increased and made accessible to everyone. Under the umbrella of intellectual property, there are four rights that protect creative works: performers rights, moral rights, trademarks and copyright. This rights need to exist in order to protect artistic integrity and give entitlement to the authors. Intellectual property covers different rights in the creative industries, especially, copyright is the frame that governs all the activities in the music industry.
The increasing acceptance of the intellectual property laws by the public culture is somehow related to the ideals of property, control and fear that the benefits from resources out of control may not be significant.
Firstly, with laws to protect intellectual properties, it prevent and stop other companies from commercially using the protected intellectual properties in the marketplace, allowing the owner company to control the usage of their original
There is such a legal concept as "intellectual property". Intellectual property is defined as the creation of any intellectual innovation by an individual such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. The law provides him exclusive rights to this innovation and is strictly against theft or plagiarism in any way. Innovators can safeguard their property by one or more of the following: copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and in some jurisdictions trade secrets.. Copyrights, patents, and trade secrets are each authored by different Offices. Each is based on the Laws of Commerce. (LII. Intellectual property). Cultural attitudes, in fact, esteem words and knowledge above that of certain other property, since knowledge is something that cannot be as easily duplicated as, for instance, an article of common furniture can. To illustrate the veneration that contemporary society accords intellectual invention, software is more expensive and valuable than hardware sink the