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Preface
As the world becomes more
technologically advanced, greater access is available to other people’s
ideas. It is this access that has necessitated greater protection of
intellectual property, and the laws governing this protection have become
more controversial. Intellectual property is defined by Encarta World
English Dictionary as "property from original thought protected by
law: original creative work manifested in a tangible form that can be
legally protected, for example, by a patent, trademark, or copyright."
The protection of intellectual property is at the heart of a heated debate.
Though it is important to have access to information, it is also important
to respect creators’ rights to the materials they produce. Since the
Internet has become such a huge information outlet, the regulation of
information passed along the Internet has become a central issue in
protecting intellectual property—especially as hackers find more and more
ways to download, swap, and burn multimedia works, and then pass those
techniques onto others.
Congress is caught in the
middle of this debate and is trying to come to terms with how to handle the
protection of intellectual property while not restricting the dissemination
of ideas. The controversy stems from the fact that both sides—the creators
and those who seek to use their products—make some valid points. On the
one hand, there are fair-use advocates who believe that without access to
information, or the legal means to use that information, science, medicine,
and almost every other aspect of academia would be stifled, and new ideas,
inventions, and medicines would never be possible. On the other hand, those
with a more conservative view think that people have the right to protect
their ideas and words and deserve the credit for them that a copyright
conveys. Although both of these arguments are reasonable, the question is,
where do you draw the line? How do you protect the rights of scientists,
inventors, and writers while making enough information about their work
available to the public so that others may benefit from these new ideas and
innovations?
This book considers these
issues while exploring the world of intellectual property. It also deals
with the debate surrounding the safeguarding of intellectual property, how
people are affected by IP laws, and what is being done to protect ideas
spread through various forms of media.
As its title suggests,
Chapter 1, "What Is Intellectual Property?" is an overview of the
topic at hand. It describes what intellectual property is, who owns ideas,
how to distinguish between copyrights, trademarks, and patents, and the pros
and cons of protecting intellectual property in today’s high-tech world.
Chapter 2 examines the
problem of plagiarism, a serious breach of law and ethics whether committed
with or without intention. While examining specific instances of plagiarism
that have recently rocked the publishing world—such as the Jayson Blair
scandal at the New York Times—this chapter also discusses
plagiarism in high schools and colleges, how to detect plagiarism, and how
to avoid stealing someone else’s ideas.
The focus of Chapter 3 is on
copyrights. Along with considering what a copyright is, this chapter looks
at how writers’ work is being spread over the Internet without their
knowledge or monetary compensation and examines the most recent laws passed
extending copyrights, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It also
discusses several highly publicized court cases that have been at the center
of the copyright debate—including United States v. ElcomSoft Ltd. (a
case of international copyright infringement) and Tasini et al. v. The
New York Times et al. (an example of the frustration many writers are
feeling due to copyright laws).
The final chapter,
"21st-Century Piracy," considers a problem that has plagued
digital media. It begins by looking at one of the most high-profile cases of
piracy—the dispute against Napster and its fallout. The chapter continues
by examining several important issues, including international piracy and
how other countries infringe on American copyright laws; the pirating of
DVDs; and the illegal broadcast of TV programs via the Web.
I would like to thank all the
authors and publishers who granted us permission to reprint their work. I
would also especially like to thank Lynn Messina, Sandra Watson, Gray Young,
Rich Stein, and Norris Smith for all of their help, guidance, and patience;
without them, this book would not have been possible.
Jennifer Peloso
October 2003
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