This discussion paper will explore the impact of piracy of intellectual property to U.S. and global economies as it relates to the economic principles of opportunity cost and voluntary exchange.
As we learned from our reading in chapters 13 and 18 of the textbook, Survey of Economics, the authors, O'Sullivan, Sheffrin, and Perez, review concepts of monopolies and comparative advantage in terms of international trade and finance. And our text suggests that the world is growing more and more global which creates new sets of challenges for citizens and governments. Furthermore, our text suggests that one of the costs of being active in the international marketplace is compromised intellectual property (IP).
So what exactly is IP? According to authors of the textbook, Fundamentals of Information Systems, intellectual property is defined as works of the mind, and provides examples such as art, books, films, music, inventions, formulas, and processes that are distinct and “owned” or created by a single person or group. Furthermore, the authors state, intellectual property can include software and may be protected by copyright and patent laws (Stair & Reynolds, 2012, pg. 419). Furthermore, the authors define software piracy as the act of unauthorized procurement through means of copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing of software (Stair & Reynolds, 2012, pg. 419).
Also, the authors of our Economics textbook state that publishers of both books and computer software face problems of unauthorized copying, particularly in some developing countries. While residents of those countries clearly benefit from inexpensively copied books or software, producers in the developed countries then face reduced incentive to enter the ma...
... middle of paper ...
.../news/articles/SB10001424052702303287804579443442002220098).
Kain, Erik. (January 15, 2012). Does Piracy Cause Economic Harm? How to Think
About Economic Frontiers. Forbes Online. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/15/does-piracy-cause-economic-harm-how-to-think-about-economic-frontiers).
O'Sullivan, A., Sheffrin, S. M., & Perez, S. J. (2014). Survey of Economics:
Principles, Applications, and Tools (6th edition). United States of America: Pearson Education.
Phillips, Macon. (January 14, 2012). Obama Administration Responds to
We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy. The White House Blog. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy).
Stair, R., & Reynolds, G. (2012). Fundamentals of Information Systems. (6th edition).
Boston, MA: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.
There is a long history of intellectual property rights, as it was “Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, developed around 1450, that made books quickly available at a reasonable cost”, that made writers begin to worry about their books being distributed without their permission., and therefore they would not make the profits from usual sales (Cushman). Fast forward some years, to the late twentieth century, when a “two-part invention, the computer and the Internet, had a similar impact as the printing press”, enabling people to simply copy and share files, as on the Internet all forms of media are composed of binary code, ensuring that all electronic devices can read them (Cushman). To help protect these copyrights, the World Intellectual Property Organization was created in 1967 by NATO to replace the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property which was an agency that was created to observe the Berne Convention which is an international agreement to recognize patents.
Modern piracy has touched nearly every corner of the globe and has increased with globalization. The tentacles of piracy now extend from South America to the South China Sea. The greatest numbers of piracy incidents occur along maritime commercial trade routes. Since China dominates the world’s container shipping industry, the South China Sea has become a hotspot for piracy (Kraska 2011). The prominence of cargo activity increases opportunity for pirates and indisputably triggered the sixty- nine incidents of piracy that were reported in 2009 in the South China Sea (Kraska 2011).
It is important that I make this very clear and that I do so at the earliest possible moment. I must do this because the essay that you are reading is about intellectual property, and that means that this essay must be self-referential. When one writes or speaks or communicates in any way about intellectual property, one is dealing with some of the most basic rules of the very medium in which one is operating. There is no neutral ground here, no possibility of genuine detachment or objectivity. Either I am going to claim the protection of the current laws that apply in the United States and under the World Intellectual Property Organization, or I am not.
International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition. (2005). The negative consequences of international intellectual property theft. Retrieved from http://www.iacc.org
Hamister, J., & Braunscheidel, M. (2013). Software piracy and intellectual property rights protection. Academy of Information & Management Sciences Journal, 16(1), 15-35. Retrieved from EBSCOhost
Piracy is the internationally recognized word to describe this type of theft. Dealing with piracy and there about such downloaders putting their hands in the pockets of Europe’s creative writers, musicians and performers and stealing their copyright income, for example, not to speak of the quantity of fake and often dangerous medicines and drugs on the market. Today the production of counterfeit and pirated products is carried out on an industrial scale.
In this paper, I will attempt to describe the piracy problem in China, discuss how the Chinese government is dealing with it, present the global effect, and finally arrive at what would be an ethical solution to piracy fitting for China's situation.
Intellectual Property (IP) is a legal concept that refers to the creations of the human minds for which exclusive rights are recognized. A variety of tangible assets are granted rights to the owners, artistes or innovators for a specified duration. IP is an intangible asset to a company as it gives commercial business partner and financial institutions the confidence to invest or in any way collaborate with the business. Business owners will also be able to maximize the value of their Intellectual Property by ways such as franchising, transaction or licensing.
Avast! Ye scurvy dog! This is the image usually conjured up when one is discussing piracy. At one point in time, this was correct - sailors roamed the seas freely pillaging merchant vessels. Now a days, Piracy has mainly slipped underground. Chances are, you may know a pirate personally without knowing the crimes they commit. For these crimes are not public, instead they are committed online. Filesharing is on the rise, much to the parent media corporation's chagrin.
"4 Ways In Which Internet Piracy Can Be a Good Thing." MakeUseOf. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
In the past decade, downloading copyrighted content from the internet without permission from the copyright owner has become increasingly common and convenient. In the following paper, I’ll discuss the morality of doing this, from a utilitarian perspective. I argue that despite my personal beliefs, when viewed from a utilitarian point of view, no consistent conclusions can be made about the morality of illegally downloading copyrighted material.
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 protection, for example, civil damages and criminal penalties to be assessed against infringers. Due to the importance of intellectual property to a business, I don’t think that its protection and enforcement is going to be a thing of the past.
Shultz II, C.J and Saporito, B. (1996), ‘Protecting Intellectual Property: Strategies and Recommendations to Deter Counterfeiting and Brand Piracy in Global Markets’, The Columbia Journal of World Business, 31(1): pp. 18-28.
On the demand side, the digital consumption of media products is accompanied by the emergence of digital piracy. Whilst copying had already been technically feasible during the era of video cassettes, it required certain equipment and piracy behaviour was limited (Waterman et al., 2007). The rise of the computer and World Wide Web, however, simplified the unauthorised duplication and storage of copyrighted content and caused movie piracy to soar substantially (Fetscherin, 2005). Digital piracy can generally occur offline (through the copying of discs and files) and online (through the downloading and sharing of files). A recent study revealed that approximately 24% of global internet traffic is copyright infringing, with peer-to-peer networks accounting for half of that amount (Envisional, 2011). Furthermore, internet piracy facilitates the sharing of movies during and even before their official theatrical release through either leaked insider copies or recordings in the cinema, which means that contemporary digital piracy affects all windows of the industry (Byers, 2003; Kwok, 2004).
The first reason why downloading and uploading copyrighted materials from the Internet should be legal is that downloading copyrighted materials positively affects the economy. The European Commission Joint Research Center reported that the profits of music companies would be 2% lower if uploading and downloading copyrighted materials were banned. However, music companies are able to acquire more profits despite illegal downloading because many people tend to purchase CDs or DVDs after watching or listening to copyrighted materials for free. Moreover, the research showed that people who download music illegally spent more money to buy music than people who did not download illegally. In addition, research conducted by the Swiss government informed that one-third of Swiss people downloaded copyrighted materials from the Internet because personal use of copyrighted materials is legal in Switzerland. Even though there is a fact that many people can download copyrighted materials from the Internet legally in Switzerland, the amount of money that people spend to buy copyrighted materials is not f...