Intellectual Property vs the Internet

Intellectual Property vs the Internet

The 21^st century has been marked with the growing technology. In this era, there is a new technology which has made work more accessible. Technology has allowed people to mingle and get to view information from the comfort of their homes. Technology has, therefore, made the world a small village where one can quickly get information from different sources. It has also led to an increase of globalization across the world due to the internet. In this case, intellectual property is playing an essential role in ensuring that international trade becomes a success. Through intellectual property laws, different countries can exchange information without any hurdlers. In this paper, I will support intellectual property rights. I will also advocate for the fact that intellectual property rights need to be strengthened at all times to protect the information of the content creators. They come up with different details, but some of the people take advantage to benefit themselves (Maskus, 2000).

Intellectual property

Intellectual property rights are the legal rights that have been acquired from the scientific, artistic, industrial and literary fields. Intellectual property has, therefore, helped promote the creation of different content as well as coming up with a way of protecting the work created. It helps give legal expressions to the economic and moral rights of the creators in the work that they come up with. It also plays a significant role by trying to balance how this right will help the public access some of the information posted online. According to some of the past research, it shows that many people are suffering because of lack of proper rights that will help protect their information online. Many have argued that the government has failed to come up with better online rights that will help protect them at all times (Lemley, 2002). It is, therefore, the reason as to why I want to discuss how intellectual property law will help protect online creators.

Government policy

The reason as to why the intellectual property should continue is the fact that it has led to the cultural, economic and social progress, which has resulted in social and economic development. The sector of industrial development has also benefited as it allows the content creators to be available at all times. The information of the creator is protected using the patent law, which creates room for investment in research. There are three types of intellectual property rights, namely:

Industrial property-industrial and inventions design, services marks, trademarks and commercial names

Copy right- artistic, literary and scientific work

Related rights- an example is the performing rights, broadcast and programs.

Intellectual property, in this case, seeks to protect the content creators of the intelligent services and goods by giving those rights for some period that will provide them with the right to control how they use the protected goods. In this essay, I will focus on copyright law on how it protects different content creators.

Economic property rights in this new era

Intellectual property is becoming more important today as well as coming up with various copyright laws. Intellectual property, in this case, is limited only to the national boundaries. The good thing is that they can only be practised within the country they are developed. In this new era, creative work posted on the internet can cross boundaries. The introduction of the new technology has made it easier to transform how intellectual property is used in most parts.

Intellectual property has also contributed to the economic growth of a country. It has helped address the new challenges within countries as well as emphasizing how the intellectual property has boosted the global.

Copyright

Intellectual property is essential as it gives the creators of art, sound recordings, literature and film the economic rights to control how their work is copied and distributed on the internet. The function of copyright is to prohibit anyone that may think of exploiting any work without the permission of the creator. Copyright, therefore, helps protect the creators. The work is initially in a tangible form, but once it is recorded, it automatically receives the protection rights. The creator will also need to acquire moral rights which identifies the works of the creator. The copyrights laws also come up with some advantages as it allows the creator to enjoy some of the financial rewards. The law, in this case, protects them from getting finance from the effects that they put in their work. The other thing with this law is that it addresses any form of counterfeiting or any form of privacy. The law, therefore, protects the content uploaded online from being used by other people. One will first require the permission of the content creator to access the content that they want. In case of privacy and counterfeiting of information, it will result in deprivation of tax revenues for the government. The other thing with the copyright law is that it helps the contempt creator to stimulate the investment through ensuring that the publication of the work us profitable. No one wants to create content which is not profitable. Many people out there are struggling to come up with different content, but others benefit from the same content. It is the reason as to why I strongly agree with the strengthening of the intellectual property as it will help protect many people and businesses that are coming up with different content. The other thing is that it will protect the creators from their competitors who may want to copy the content freely without getting charged. Copyright protection is therefore essential in this case as it will help enrich, promote and disseminate the national culture.

The goods that can be copyrightable in this era are necessary as they have helped boost the global trade. According to the statistics provided, copyright industries in Europe raised over E360b, and those of the US raised over $430 billion. The figures, in this case, represents 5.2% of the GDP. According to the IFPI, they have stated that the advancement of technology has made things easier for the people. Intellectual property will turn out to be the most valuable assets that will be offered (Joyce et al. 2016).

The economic development of any country depends on the innovation of the people.it also depends on how the people are encouraged to be creative and innovative. In the case where there are no proper intellectual property rights, then it will be difficult for individuals to become innovative. According to the WIPO handbook, it states, “the enrichment of the national cultural heritage depends directly on the level of protection afforded to literary and artistic works.” It is therefore evident that the more numbers of the people in a country that are creative, the higher the levels of economic development. In additions, the more the numbers of the people that are involved with the production of arts and literature, the number of performers and broadcasting of different information (Correa, 2000).  It, therefore, means that a lot of people will gain from this, including the government.  Finally, it can be concluded that the government need to come up with strong intellectual protection laws that will help protect creators.it is also one of the prerequisites of economic, cultural and social development. It is, therefore, necessary for the government to ensure that substantial copyrights are created. The strong copyrights laws in any country can be achieved through:

• Being efficiency and maintaining proactive enforcement by customs and the police
• Using collection societies to distribute and collect author’s fees.
• They were ensuring that anyone found to have copied information without the consent of the creator to be sentenced following an aggressive prosecution.
• It is coming up with different technical measures that will protect content such as encryption and use of watermarks.

Summary

There is a need to come to ensure that online information is protected at all times.it is the work of the government to ensure that its people are protected from pirates. Online creation of content has got many challenges which need to be addressed at all times (Meurer, 2001).  It is here, where intellectual property is introduced into the picture to ensure that information is at the safe hands and the creators can get their benefits form the work created.

Conclusion

Intellectual property rights have played a significant role in society today. It has helped protect information as well as come up with guidelines on how information is accessed on the internet. Through the use of copyright law, creators can control who accesses their information. They ensure that the information reaches its target without being manipulated by anyone (Meurer, 2001).

References

Maskus, K. E. (2000). Intellectual property rights in the global economy. Peterson Institute.

Lemley, M. A. (2002). Intellectual property rights and standard-setting organizations. Calif. L. Rev., 90, 1889.

Correa, C. M. (2000). Intellectual property rights, the WTO and developing countries: the TRIPS agreement and policy options. Zed books.

Joyce, C., Ochoa, T. T., Carroll, M. W., Leaffer, M. A., & Jaszi, P. (2016). Copyright law (pp. 168-n). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

Meurer, M. J. (2001). Copyright law and price discrimination. Cardozo L. Rev., 23, 55.