Threats to Copyright and Ownership of Intellectual Property

Threats to Ownership and Copyright of Intellectual Property

The intellectual property (IP) is defined as an original creative work, which may be tangible or intangible form legally protected by law. (Raman, 2004). The intellectual properties include the rights to scientific, artistic and literary works. Moreover, IP covers the invention of human endeavor, scientific discoveries, and industrial design. A current revolution of information technology has made IPs the greatest assets of assets. In the last few decades, there has been a rapid growth of digital discoveries where the IPs of the digital products are in electronic format. However, hackers have taken the advantages of the digital form of IP products by invading and stealing their IP in order to produce the counterfeited products and later sell them online. (Zucker, & Nathan, 2014). IP theft refers to an infringement of patents and copyright through counterfeiting of digital theft. Counterfeiting is an imitation of physical goods without obtaining an authorization. However, a digital theft is an act of stealing transmitted or electronically recorded content without authorization. (Zucker, & Nathan, 2014).

The objective of this paper is to discuss threats to ownership and copyright of the intellectual property.

Major cyber Security Issues to the threats to Ownership and Copyright of IP

The advent of the internet and network technologies provide superior benefits to firms assisting in delivering the digital products that could be accessed globally, and enhancing firms market advantages. Despite the benefits that firms derive from the new technology, firms face threats of intellectual property thefts. Hackers take the advantages of superior network connectivity to steal firms' intellectual properties. The internet technology facilitates a widespread of IP theft because the internet allows the IP thieves to sell the counterfeited product online. Moreover, online threat occurs through P2P (peer-to-peer) networks, streaming websites, and cyberlockers. Moreover, pirated movies are uploaded online for distribution.

In the United States, many firms have lost revenue worth billions of dollars because of intellectual properties, and the issue affects virtually all industries. However, companies producing the digital products are particularly affected. In 2014, the U.S. companies lost over $275 billion from the IP thefts, and more than 500 million unique IT thefts were recorded. More importantly, the software product, digital books, movies, music, video games, and periodicals particularly suffer the intellectual property thefts. A study carried out by Columbia University reveals that 70% of young people between 18 and 29 illegally downloaded software, music, or video files online. Thus, the IP theft has affected the revenue of the music industry leading to a decline in revenue since 1999. (Halpern, 2001). The greatest challenges that the U.S. industry face is from state-sponsored hackers from China and Russia who steal the intellectual properties of the U.S. firms with the intention of producing the counterfeited products and sell them at a cheaper price. The estimated revenue loss from pirating from China amount to billions of dollars, and illegal websites selling pharmaceutical products are springing up globally, and 50% of online pharmaceutical products are selling counterfeited product. (NIPRCC (2011). In addition to lost revenue, organizations face challenges in protecting their intellectual properties, which ultimately make them incur high costs to protect their IPs.

While the United States has promulgated different laws to protect the IPs of organizations, however, these laws are ineffective to combat the IT thefts in the contemporary IT environment. For example, the U.S. introduces the DMCA ("Digital Millennium Copyright Act") to protect the digital media from being pirated, however, this law is ineffective. (Barker, 2005 p 1). It is essential to realize that the U.S. laws are only applicable in the United States and not applicable in other countries. The intrigue things about the recent IP issues is that many companies that steal the IPs of the U.S. firms are located outside the United States where the U.S. copyright laws are ineffective. The sad things about the IP thefts are that many of the IP protected products are sold online where sellers do not have physical offices. Thus, it is nearly impossible to track down companies illegally selling the IP protected products.

2. Recommended Policy Controls to manage threats to Intellectual Property

The increasing threats to the ownership and copyright of the intellectual property require an intervention of the U.S. government to bring a sanity to the U.S. industry. (IP Center, 2011). It is essential to realize that protection and continuing development of IP are critical to the U.S. economic development. Typically, the U.S. greatest assets are the innovation, creativity, and ingenuity of American people, and the present estimated values of the U.S. IPs are between the hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars. Thus, protecting these valuable resources against potential thefts is very critical to sustaining the economic value of the United States since a threat to the IP rights can jeopardize the health and safety as well as the critical infrastructures and national security. Thus, the U.S. companies in collaboration with the U.S. government should implement policies to combat the IP theft. (Guess, Hadley, Lovaas, & Levine 2014). For example, the U.S. companies should make a policy to relocate their manufacturing facilities from China and establish their production plants in countries where the IP thefts are at minimum and their IP laws are effective. Analysis of the IP theft reveals that China poses the highest threats to the U.S. IP rights. In the last few years, the Chinese government is colluding with some companies in China to steal the U.S. IP rights. Thus, the U.S. government should encourage the U.S. companies to disinvest from China. By implementing this policy, the Chinese government will realize that the policy will increase the unemployment rate in their countries, which will force them to desist from stealing the U.S. IP rights. For example, the Intel has refused to establish their production plants because the company believes that it is too risky to implement the policy. Moreover, some U.S. companies have been forced to cease operations in China because of lack of intellectual property right enforcement. The paper suggests that U.S. companies should relocate their plants to Vietnam where the protection of IP tights is effective.

3. Human Factors influencing the effectiveness of Recommended Policy Controls

Human factor plays a critical role in the application of cyber security. For example, human errors can lead to security violations that include an error of omission where people forget to carry out necessary actions. One of the human factors that can influence policy control is the action of malicious insider attempting to thwart the recommended policy with the intent to cause damages and steal the IP of the organization. Naive mistakes from personnel without intention to do harm, however, could lead to a security breach. (Parsons, McCormac, Butavicius, et al. 2010). Moreover, resistance from key employees against the policy to relocate from China to Vietnam is another human factor influencing an effectiveness of the policy.