Yujin Lee/ Intellectual Property / Tuesday 11a.m.

 

Copyright: A Supporter of Creators

 

 

 Yujin Lee

 

 

We are living in a world full of intellectual property. Songs we listen to everyday, movies we watch on weekend, books we read all the times are all part of intellectual property. It is so common and widely spread that we cannot imagine life detached from it. And since intellectual property is a part of our lives, a problem of violation cannot be neglected. One form of system to prevent this violation is copyright. The purpose of copyright is to protect the exclusive privilege related to works for the people who created them. During my research, I have read several arguments introduced in copyleft movement which goes against to this copyright and I thought some of them are quite reasonable. However, I still insist that copyright should be protected in order to support rights of creators related to their creations.

 

 

First of all, copyright should be maintained to ensure right rewards for creators who made a lot of efforts to generate their works. For instance, to make a movie it takes enormous time and cost ; a scriptwriter, a director, actors and actress as well as many staffs should devote to play their roles to make one fine movie. However, since the movie is duplicable, anyone can get a free access throughout internet if not properly protected by copyright law. Also it can be possible that some other people make unfair profit with the movie. It is true that getting better access to creations is a very important aspect. Yet, I believe it is even more important to give right rewards to the people who deserve them.

 

 

Also, I think copyright can promote motives to make creative works. To have a copyright, the work should be creative and ingenious. I agree that imitation makes creation and every great idea has something to do with other ideas that existed beforehand. For example, even Shakespeare referred to others works to create his own work and it is true that he owes to many other creations. However, what makes him great is the originality and creativity he showed throughout his fine works. And I believe copyright is a device to value this originality that creator produced. In order to have copyright which provides exclusive privilege generated from the originality, people try hard to differentiate their works from others as a result.

 

 

Therefore, based on what I mentioned above, copyright law should be kept considering the quality aspect of creations. Some people say that allowing free access to creations and information without concerns of violating copyright will let people utilize and regenerate new works freely. And I agree that copyright may pose some limits to active interactions between people related to their works. However, if there is no copyright, creators cannot expect exclusive right which can be a form of rewards to their hard works. Also motive to produce creative works will diminish since they cannot achieve proper recognition derived from the originality. As a consequence, although a lot of works can be created under conditions of free access to the creations, it is highly possible that they have low quality since they can no longer become enough compensation for creators who should devote long time and cost to produce one ingenious work.

 

 

I understand that there are still many problems and side effects of copyright. I heard that there is some kind of structural problem which makes it hard for creators to get their just right. And many legal disputes caused by abuse of copyright can also be easily found. But still, I believe copyright should be maintained since it is a form of reward and motive that can promote further works with better quality. Without doubt, It is true that the problems lie within copyright should not be neglected and managed in a proper way. And by doing so, I think we can develop copyright system in a better way that can provide a good environment for creators in our future.

 

201103628 Hana Choi/IP/Tue 11a.m.

201103628 Hana Choi

Protect People's Ideas

As time goes by many laws for IP come out to protect people's ideas.
There should be more laws for it. Inventors' thoughts must be
protected by laws.
First, IP is unique ideas of inventors or creators. They invest so
much money, efforts and even they put their lives on it to achieve the
things. So IP is the least compensation or rewards for their
endurance. Laws are the only things which can guarantee people's
rights who invented things.
Moreover as the world is globalized, how much each country gets money
can be different depends on IP. Like the continuing conflicts between
Apple and Samsung, they have been prolonging their suit such a long
time is the nation's wealth depends on their idea. Both Apple and
Samsung are the biggest companies in the mobile technology field. So
the influence they give on the U.S and Korea respectively is really
big. The laws between countries will be the best method to avoid any
conflicts in borderless world in the future.
Some people say if IP is too strictly protected by laws, no more
things can be created. They say creation is from modifying the
original things. But if people want to do that, they should do it
under the permission. If somebody intends to earn more money while he
is realizing he is using others' idea, it is stealing. Futhermore I
think things are rather developed than came out from nothing. The
world is getting better based on what we already have. So when people
develop their ideas freely under the original developer's permission.
Futhermore their new ideas also need to be protected by laws.
Like I said people's efforts must be paid fairly in the wide world.
Even though there are already many people care about protecting IP and
the world is becoming sensitive about that, there are not many tools
for that. So it is necessary to make more ways to protect IP.

Xeniya Pak/Copyright laws should be applied in the Internet world/Tuesday 11am

Pak Xeniya

Copyright laws should be applied in the Internet world.

Today everyone can easily download book, music or movie from the internet. It is really convenient to receive some file from the internet rather than go to the shop and pay for it. Thus there are two sides in the internet world: pirates, who illegally own someone's property and people, who use those property. However, people download files not knowing that they violate copyright laws. Because people violate copyrights through downloading and sharing files off the internet, I believe that copyright laws should be strictly applied.

In my opinion, copyright law helps to prevent authors from allowing people to download files illegally. Pirates just give people things that they want to receive: the same product but much cheaper than the original. Imagine the situation that you are a programmer, who spent tremendous amount of time in order to create unique and useful program but someone received this program for free and spread it in the internet earning money. Today there are many people, who want to steal product and make it as their own property. Therefore, to guarantee the originality and prevent authors from illegally ownership a copyright law should be applied.  

 Copyright law is the only way to prevent authors from loss money. People who download files from the internet don't realize the financial loss. Some people may argue that poor people cannot afford to buy legal version of product which is expensive. I understand that those people also want to enjoy listening to music, using convenient program or watching movie, but this is not justify copying or sharing files off the internet. If they receive illegal copy of movie or music, they may become those pirates who steal original files and earn money on it. This action can cause the loss of significant amount of income. Even though copyright violation doesn't cause immediate financial loss; it can still be costly to the authors. Therefore, it is important to prevent them from losing money by applying copyright law.

Many authors face unpleasant situations which lead them to a damaged reputation. For instance, there are people who try to own someone's product and impertinently claim that they are the creators of that product; as a result it causes lawsuit, where original author has to prove his copyrights. However, some people say that those people help authors to promote their products and make it popular even though it may put authors to a damaged reputation, but trial to own property violates authors' rights and put them in a difficult situation. That is why a copyright law is the only option to prevent authors from uneasy situations.

In conclusion, I think that people should take into the importance of copyrights and the consequences that can negatively affect authors. There is no doubt that the illegal situation is not good now, since people neglect laws. Unless copyright law will be applied, the original products will be spread illegally, the authors will lose money and be in an unpleasant situation.

--
Kseniya Pak

Jae Hyun Park/intellectual property/Tues11am

Do we deserve to be criminals?

 

Everyday millions of people around the world commit a crime. They download and share music online without permission of the artist. Music is an intellectual property protected by law but almost no one is convicted for illegal music downloading and sharing as it is so rampant that the government cannot throw everyone in jail. That being said, should we be considered criminals for doing something that cannot be controlled even by law enforcement? Unless the government changes the structure of the music download market, monitors everyone's personal life and finds a way to promote musicians other than the internet, the answer is no.

 

The structure of the music download market is organized in a way that generates profit for businesses rather than musicians. Music distribution companies take a significant portion of revenue from an artist's music on the ground that they own the right to distribute the recordings. The concept of intellectual property is for the benefit of the creator. In the case of music, the creator is the artist. However, the artist gets the smallest piece of the pie when his or her music makes sales. In other words, when you pay $9.99 to listen to Maroon 5's newest album on iTunes, it is Apple who becomes rich at the end of the day not your favorite musician. Hence, there is no point in downloading tracks off the internet legally when our money does not even support artists.

 

There are so many means to attain a music file that the government will have to install a surveillance camera on every house to stop music piracy. Let's assume your friend purchased Ne-Yo's album that you wanted and decided to share it with you. Your friend could use the internet to upload the tracks on the blog or send them directly to your email. Another alternative might be burning a copy of the CD or simply using your phone to record the songs. With countless ways of copying music available, could the government monitor every act of crime we commit? Even if they regulate the internet to end illegal music piracy, other technological devices will always enable us to continue.

 

The world famous singer Psy would not be where he is today if it were not for the internet. It helped Psy's Gangnam Style attract worldwide attention and made Psy a super star in no time. Although downloading and sharing music online cannot be the source of revenue for musicians, it can certainly be the source of popularity. In fact, popularity can be the source of revenue as musicians can hold concerts, attend various events and even expand their career into acting. Simply put, artists can secure a solid foothold in the music industry at the cost of providing music for free.

 

There is no doubt that music piracy is getting out of hand. However, it is not the main cause of musicians suffering from financial difficulties. Besides, the copyright law failed to impose strict regulations from the start and set things right. With the law on intellectual property stuck in a catch-22 situation, we need to question whether people deserve to be called criminals for online music downloading and sharing. Making this act a crime will not make a difference due to the unfair structure of the music download market, plenty of ways to make copies and the benefit of the internet.

Jinling Tian / Intellectual Property / Tuesday 11a.m

JInling Tian / Intellectual Property / Tuesday 11 a.m

 

       Recently, downloading the movie, 'The Frozen', has been issued since the Disney claimed that they would file a suit against the people who illegally downloaded the movie The Frozen on the Internet. Though we overlooked the invasion of intellectual property until now, as the Disney said they would respond to it strongly, it can be the turning point of the way dealing with intellectual property problem.

 

       The violation of intellectual property is serious now. From tiny things like music and movie to serious things like thesis, it's pervasive in our society. What's worse, the more we try to eradicate it, the more the way of it becomes foxy and complicated. It means that it's very hard to completely root out the bad convention. People don't want to invest their time and money too much when they find something, especially in this information-oriented period. People tend to like the word 'fast' and 'free'. As they pursue these two too much, they often cross the line saying intellectual property. Then, in this case, is it a better way to punish it or not?

 

       The positive aspect of regulating the violation of intellectual property is that we can protect the right of people who invented the original sources. The inventors are not quite different from us. They also like 'fast' and 'free'. They create things because they get some privilege, for example money, as a reward. If thier privilege are not protected well, they would lose motivation and inspiration to create things, and as a result, we may lose lots of awesome inventions in a long run. However, are the inventors sure they would never invade other inventors' intellectual property? Maybe it's impossible. So, considering it, it's not always a good way to push the standard harshly

 

       There's also negative aspect of protecting intellectual property. As mentioned above, it's impossible for every one of us to live without violating intellectual property once. It means that every inventor, the owner of intellectual property, can be a potential invader, the illegal user of other's intellectual property. Regulating intellectual property can be the behavior which shackle ourselves. So, maybe just allowing each other to use things freely is worth to try though it may have some side-effects.

 

       Intellectual property is a complicate issue to handle. We should consider both aspects. To protect it or not, what's most important is to make people never lose their creative thoughts and motivations. As there's an saying 'Killing two birds in one stone', we have to try hard to think about a solution catching two things at once.

Park Hyunju /intellectual property/ Tuesday 11am

201101524 Park Hyun-ju IP essay Print shops near university become much busier when the semester begins. They are crowded by students who want to copy expensive books instead of actually buying them. Many of the students are not even aware of the fact that copying books without permission violates intellectual property rights.   In recent decades, Korea has achieved the better reach knowledge and ideas. However, some of us are not using those ideas in the right way. With the mighty trend of globalization and the internet touching every point of our lives, the importance of intellectual property is growing rapidly. Not only do we have to strengthen the domestic IP laws but we should introduce the global standard of IP to facilitate the technical cooperation with other nations.   Strong IP laws will protect the rights of both consumers and producers. Enforced IP regulations will ensure the high quality of the products. Consumers can have trust and confidence in the products protected by IP laws. In addition, by protecting the IP rights of the authors and inventors, we can fully credit them with their innovative works and encourage them.   The United States have pushed forward its technical competitiveness with strong patent laws. It is based on the belief that the investment into innovative ideas can only be truly encouraged when the exclusive rights on intellectual property are recognized. China and Japan also decided to strengthen their IP regulations. They newly established a consultative body where they would discuss the management and practice of IP related laws and regulations.   As we live, intellectual inventions offer us a new relationship and society. We should be careful not to disregard the rights of non-physical inventions. Strong IP laws will make Korea the Asia's entrepreneurial leader. True creativity can only be realized in a world where various cultures and futures are shared in a right way.

Naeun Kang/intellectual property/Tuesday 11am

To be a "Good Downloader"

Naeun Kang

 

Have you seen or heard the campaign "Good Downloader"? I have seen the advertising of which purpose was to encourage people to take the legal way in downloading movie files. Before I saw the campaign, I didn't know exactly about "what copyright is" and "what an illegal download is". After that time, I realized what they were, and what the lawful download was. Also, I have believed that many people have been downloading movies or music in a lawful way as well; however, surprisingly, an illegal downloading is still a problem and I can see lots of unauthorized files on a downloading site. I think it violates the intellectual property, which causes several problems: decline of industry, reduction of artist' desire for creation and influence of consciousness.

 

First of all, the problem of downloading an unauthorized file on the internet is a decline of culture industry. It is within bounds to say that the recent crisis of the music and film industry was caused by unauthorized downloading MP3 and video files. However, these industries occupy an important part of culture industry. It means people who download files need to know the music and film industry are closely related to culture industry. Therefore, if this downloading continues for a long time, probably, culture industry which can affect not only their country, but also other countries can reach a critical crisis. For instance, dullness of these industries may cause decrease of people's interest for music, movie as well and decrease of investment for new artists. Consequently, decline of the culture industry is not simple problem to connive.

 

The second problem of downloading illegal files on the internet is reduction of artists' desire for creation. Most people have enjoyed and been relaxed by listening music whenever they want. This is one of the most important effects of music. However, what if music did not exist anymore? Although it is difficult to say that music would disappear, if free downloading becomes more popular, it is obvious that musicians cannot earn money as before. Inevitably, under this circumstance, they might find another job; otherwise they might change their music style for money. In consequence, the quality of music may fall in value. These days, many musicians complained about recent circumstances that artists could not be paid fairly because of MP3, so we can say artists' desire for creation is also significant factor of music.

 

The third problem of downloading unauthorized files on the internet is influence of consciousness to users. Mary Madden, a research specialist, wrote in her survey that 78% of internet users who downloaded music did not think it was stealing to save music files to their computer hard drives. Also, 61% of users answered they did not care if the music they were getting was copyrighted. This survey indicated users had no pang about illegal downloading. However, unfortunately, if these ideas continue, the users, possibly, do not feel pricks of conscience when they infringe intellectual property. Within a developed society, the concept of intellectual property has strengthened since lots of patents and trademarks have been created and invented. Nevertheless, intellectual property has been in trouble because of people's awareness about the reason of protecting it. Thus, downloading unauthorized files is an inadequate way by reason of protection of intellectual property.

 

People can do a lot of things through the internet, and what people can do has been increasing. On the other hand, it also has grave defects like infringement of copyright by unauthorized downloading. These defects caused three main problems: a decline of the music industry, reduction of artists' desire for creation and influence of consciousness. However, these defects can be settled up by people's efforts. In order to solve them, new technology which can prevent piracy should be devised. Besides, if copyright law is regulated even stronger in reality, the internet, probably, will not be used as a tool of infringement of intellectual property.