Intellectual property in cyberspace

Intellectual Property in Cyberspace

The focus of this paper is to provide the annotated biography of the three articles. Chowbe, (2010) argues in his article titled "Intellectual Property and Its Protection in Cyberspace" that advent of computer and it (information technology) has created a new world within the cyberspace leading to a changing dimension of IP (intellectual property). The protection of the IP such as trademark, designs, copyrights, and circuit design have become challenging in the face of the current digital environment. While IP is a valuable asset to the real owner, however, rapid development of it environment has created a room for the theft of IP assets, which is on the rise globally. The factor responsible for the theft of IP assets is that it is easily adapted to the electronic format making its digital contents very easy to store and disseminate. Based on the threats facing the IP within the it environment, the governments have made the laws and IP protective policies such as ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) guidelines and the Madrid Protocol to guide against the IP thefts. However, IP thefts are still on the rise, the author demands for more affirmative protective laws to guard against the abusive use of new invention to protect the real IP owners from economic loss.

Bowie, (2005) is his articles titled "Digital Rights and Wrongs: Intellectual Property in the Information Age" reveals what there are difference between rights and wrong of digital products. The author illustrates the actions of Joe who attempts to record the popular movie from MTV and Tom who attempts to copy other person's music from the internet. Although, Joe's action may sound legal while Tom's action sounds illegal, however the author argues that both Joe's and Tom's actions are illegal. Typically, 56% of college students, and 25% of non-students download music from the internet. Moreover, 80% of people who download music from the internet do not care whether the copyright laws have protected the music. According to the author, the traditional copyright law is to protect inventors and induce entrepreneurs' creativity. While the copyright protection justification is widely accepted, however, tradition copyright laws do not stopped people from downloading movies or music from the internet. Copyright laws have not stopped millions of people to download copyrighted music from the internet. In the face inability of copyright law to protect the music owners, the author suggests that organizations need to implement totally encrypted music making only the intended users to have access to the music.

Easterbrook, (2000) in his article titled "Cyberspace vs. Property Law" argues that the prospect of intellectual property in the face of cyber technology in the 21st century bothers many people. Many drug developers are forced to offer their products at low prices because their discoveries are in public domain. The challenges facing intellectual property is that a poem, book and music could be used without necessarily being used up. The copyright law, law of contract and trademark law are created so that producers of intellectual property can charge marginal costs to cover the total costs; however, most authors and inventors receive no royalties, which are approximately 10% returns. In the contemporary cyber environment, innovation does not enhance success. For example, most patents such as songs and books receive low rewards. The author suggests that there is a need to make rules to enhance the bargain of intellectual property owners.

Part 2

In the contemporary cyberspace and it world, the traditional copyright law has not been sufficient to protect intellectual property right in the face current development of computer and cyber technology. In the cyber world, the traditional copyright law is unable to protect the source code owners, which are the computer instructions written in human readable computer programming language. The importance of source code is that it assists computer to run several programs used for individual and business advantages. Despite the importance of source code, many penetrators have used different technological techniques to steal the source code of other people thereby infringing on the IP law.

Moreover, many legitimate websites have also being source of abuse by many penetrators. There has been an increase in the hacking of corporate websites by defacing the websites of many corporate organizations. Investigations have revealed that authors of these penetrators are from Asian countries where the U.S. IP laws do not cover. In the face of the recent cyber threats and inability of the traditional IP law to address the problem, the paper suggests that there is a need to limit the links of the cooperate website to some IP addresses. Organizations could limit the IP addresses, susceptible to infringe on the IP rights, to have access to legitimate corporate websites.

Historically, the copyright, patent and trademark law have been effective in protecting the right of inventors and entrepreneurs in the United States. However, the development it and cyber technology have continued to erode the traditional copyright and trademark laws. Typically, millions of copyrighted songs and movies have been downloaded illegally in the United States. With regard to the free speech rights and trademark ownership, there may be no conflict of free speech rights to trademark ownership if the free speech owner does not infringe on the trademark ownership rights.