Intellectual+Property

= = Intellectual Property: by Rachel Milne

(Definition from the ITGS Guide) Intellectual property includes ideas, discoveries, writings, works of art, software, collections and presentations of data. Copyrights, trademarks, and patents legally protect intellectual property, but easy and accurate duplication methods made available by IT can undermine such protections. On the other and, the same methods create opportunity for inexpensive dissemination of information.

__Intellectual Property__= Any creation that someone has made or thought of is their own property, therefore they patent the "thing" so that no one else can steal or re create the idea/ ideas

In a BBC News Magazine, the article “The life on an inventor” talks about how the life of an inventor isn’t as fun as it looks; the world of patents and copyrights is full of competition and disappointment. For any creation wanting a patent, it costs and abundance of money to copyright, and there are so many things you need to patent for just one thing. For each patent, it lasts a certain amount of time. Although it would be a frustrating process, at the end of the day when the patents are made, and the material is your invention, any opportunity is open for a deal. Source: [] Date Accessed: 17/09/09 In BBC Clicks article “Digital lock's rights and wrongs” it says that one of the biggest issues in today's market is on the music industry. With the technology we have today, music is now purchased by downloading online. Mostly everything is done electronically. I tunes is the biggest store to bye music from, it is fast, easy, and takes no effort whatsoever. However, the debate revolves around the sharing of music across the Internet freely; it is illegal to share music or copy it after you bye it. It is even considered illegal to put a song onto an ipod once you have bought a CD. There have been debates between Mac and other computer companies over the type of security, which they should place on the music, but Mac uses "Fairplay" while the others use "DRM (Digital Rights Management)". Although the company's have set up restriction contracts with the music downloaded, it hasn't stopped the sharing of music illegally. Companies are looking into the situation to help to solve the issue because the artists that created the music have been cheated out of their money, and the copyright laws they placed on their music looks almost non-existent. Source: [] Date Accessed: 17/09/09