Hae Jin Jang / Intellectual Property // Tues 11 a.m.

Intellectual Property: Right or Wrong

 

           As technology improves day by day almost everything seems possible today. The issue of owning something as your property has been a problem for many years and for various reasons. I think the reason this has become an issue is that there is no exact answer as to say it's right or wrong. I personally think that problems with intellectual property and its copyrights all just depend on each issue. The right or wrong is build upon the details of the situation.

 

           If it comes to pirated movies and music, I think these things happen because of money issues. I'm sure that the majority of people watch movies, dramas, TV shows on the Internet, or have watched it before. Although TVs these days have something called Qook TV or Btv, which has a program that allows you to re-watch shows and movies you want to watch, the negative outcome is that you have to pay money. And this is something most people are not willing to do.

 

           By watching recent media, people are able to get to know what the trend is, who the hot issue is, and basically everything you need to know to get along with the world today. This is why I think illegal downloading is not a bad thing to do. The majority of people in the world probably watch these media by illegal downloading. However, by doing so, it's basically advertising the media or person itself. The more people get to know the celebrity or the "it" item, ideas and words spread across the world, which therefore increases the popularity. Then, when the popularity increases, more TV shows and other opportunities will be opened for that person, such as other movies or commercials. I think this leads to much more profit than the money lost from illegal downloading. Besides, popularity is the key in the celebrity world.

 

           However, if it comes to intellectual property to be seen in a negative way, there are some cases where ideas are stolen which I think is wrong. I personally think that ideas do count as property. If you made it up, you created it, and it makes it special because you came up with it, then that gives you full rights to call it yours. For example, my friend worked on a website for a very long time, and she had put in so much time and effort into that page. However, few months later she put the page down, but she found the same information and website like hers on the web. Each and every detailed creativity of hers was copied and put up by someone else. In cases like these, even if her ideas were being spread, if the credit goes to someone else, then that's simply wrong.

 

           In conclusion, I think that intellectual property rights depend on the situation. It could be okay if it can do a little harm yet more benefits, but if it is simply more loss, then I think that is wrong. Illegal downloading can be seen as a positive action, however simply taking somebody else's work and calling it yours should be absolutely illegal. I think the issue with these problems will continue, but I hope that it will become a bit simpler in the future. 

Hae sook Yoon / Intellectual Property/ Tue. 11am

201302209 Hae Sook Yoon    Copyright is property right. If the idea in one's head turns into a creation that we can see, hear, and touch then with the creation one will be able to earn money. Just like trademarks that change the value of any product are protected, copyrighted materials should be protected because those are trademarks of the inventor. For protection of one's property right and better chance of making great creations, copyrighted materials should not be shared or downloaded from Internet.  Downloading and sharing copyrighted materials on Internet should be banned because that is clearly violating property right. It is natural notion that one can earn money with what one has made. For example, some people make money by selling their products and some others make money by selling their services. If one's idea can turn into products such as music, trademarks and even thesis, it must be protected as a property right.  Violating the property right by violating the copyright will eventually result in bad quality of creations. Many people share and download copyrighted materials through Internet and that cause no profit to the original makers. A rational and reasonable person would not jump into the copyright world expecting to make fortune. This will lead the inventors to abjure their passion. Therefore, the more people violate the copyright, the worse the quality of creation will get and the less opportunity for us to enjoy those creations.  It is usually said "imitation is mother of creation" and people say sharing the copyright materials will be a big opportunity to learn. There sure will be more opportunity to learn and expand the aesthetic sense if one is introduced to diverse materials. However, if one is passionate enough s/he will pay to learn others perspective and have broader experiences. That is a fair trade because with that learning, s/he might earn more money one day.  To protect one's property right and copyright and to encourage other better creations, sharing and downloading copyrighted materials through Internet must be stopped. Instead of sharing and downloading, we can buy those products through authenticated sites. Fair means will bring happiness to both the inventor and the user.

Bak Taehwan/ Intellectual Property / Tuesday 11a.m.

                        The right to own ideas

 

Throughout history, the world has seen a series of events where people's rights have been unfairly snatched away from them. Under the Nazi regime the right to life was taken away from millions of Jews, and during the dark ages the right to religious freedom was taken away by the church too. However, today the right to own intellectual property is not being properly guarded. In order to keep the world a fair place for everyone, it is crucial to guard the intangible, intellectual property.

 

           For those who are standing for the anti-intellectual property has not yet experienced the physiological agony of their idea credited to someone or their virtual product stolen. For example, imagine in school, somebody you do not know comes and copies your homework without your consent and spreads it to the entire class. In cases like this or similar ones most people feel angry that their work was freely exploited by people who did not invest any energy or time into it. The 2009 film Avatar was a movie that took 15 years of director James Cameroon's life. Such films take tremendous amount of time and devotion, and to freely exploit the benefits of a film that was meant to be paid is unarguably unfair.

 

           In a bigger perspective the lack of intellectual property protection can ruin the country's economy. Certain countries rely heavily on corporate trademarks to fuel their economy, for example luxury watches alone counts for seven percent of the entire Swiss economy. It is not that other countries cannot make quality luxury watches like Switzerland, but it's the fact that trademarked brands like Rolex and Omega has physiologically impacted consumers to buy their products. If these brands could not have been trademarked, any foreign company could have used the same name, logo, and product to make money. Consequently this will cause Swiss companies to lose revenue and thousands of workers may unfairly lose their jobs.

 

           Those on the other side of the issue may argue that, an existing idea could theoretically be thought of by multiple people, and thus guarding intellectual property is insignificant. However, it is certainly absurd to say very complex ideas such as Albert Einstein's the mass-energy equivalence equation or the black-scholes equation could have been thought of by multiple people. Therefore artistic works too should be protected since it is too absurd to conclude that multiple people could initially come up with the same melodies, lyrics, and beats to a song.

 

           After millenniums of unprotected rights, it is time to make the world a just place for everyone to live happily. Nevertheless in a world with a great deal of connectivity it is easy for intellectual rights to be ignored. Thus, to achieve a fair worldwide society it is crucial to protect intellectual property. In the present, it is important to think about moral and ethics to make a world a better place.

Seon Hyuk Im / Intellectual property / Tuesday 11am

The Inevitable and Unstoppable

           We currently live in an era where many things are depended on electronics and internet. To be specific, many data are, and still being uploaded onto the internet. The data that are mainly being uploaded are documents, videos, music, and pictures. They may be in the form of torrents or just files. I'm sure four in five people, have downloaded these files or torrents. I'm not an exception. It's illegal, since it's a form of copying and downloading others' property that are copyrighted or patented. Though it is illegal, I think anyone shouldn't get in trouble for downloading and uploading onto the internet.

           In this modern era, internet is a necessity. We need our smart phones and computers to do our work, and to communicate. However, we can also enjoy by watching videos, listening to music, and sharing photos. We have to download them onto our devices. We all download from a different source, a different provider. Almost everyone does this. The government can't go around arresting every single person who downloads, because it'd be a such tedious task, and it'd put more than half its nation's people in jail. Who'd be running the economy? Who'd be living in an empty country? Many problems like this will arise when so many people are in jail.

           These days, it's hard to find yourself with some free time. It's hard to catch your favorite shows during the weekday, and it's hard to find time to catch a movie that you want to watch. That's where DVD and video stores come in, but in the modern era, it's faster to find yourself a torrent or file on the internet that you can download as soon as the movie releases its DVD, or after your favorite show has aired. It's free. All you need is internet. Download it, and after a few minutes or hours, the movie or show is yours. Many people do this. The people may be charged for downloading copyrighted files, but the cyber police cannot catch every single person who commits this crime. Again, it'd be tedious and many people would lose too much money, raising complaints around the country.

           It may sound serious to some people, it may not. I believe there is no stopping to this however. The communities of sharing files online has become too large to control; cleaning this mess up will take a long time. There's too much people that upload mass files for people to download. More and more people are coming to use the internet as third world countries are also coming to the technological era rapidly. There is no solution, but to accept the fact that it cannot be stopped and less people will buy real products. Free and fast has become the trend to modern people.

           In conclusion, uploading and downloading files online illegal cannot be stopped, so the government should stop pursuing for people that should be punished. As modern technology advances, so do the people's skills. More and more files will be uploaded, and less ways to prevent and slow down the process will be available. I support illegal downloading because it's free, fast, and convenient. It's common sense to rather download freely, than to find a store and buy the product. Who has the time to? Why settle for inconvenience when you can do everything in one sitting?

So-eun Yoon/ Information Technology/ Tuesday34

201302156 So-eun Yoon                           IT Revolution: A Double-edged Sword              Improvement in technology, beginning with the invention of the printing press in the 15th century and continuing on with the proliferation of the Internet in the 1990s, has allowed people the access to an amount of information that was once impossible. Different paradigms conflict as to whether technological development has led to the betterment of the society or caused only negative impacts to it. While it is undeniable that technology has brought about a number of great benefits to our society, it is a double-edged sword with both merits and demerits. Although information technology has been responsible for causing major democratic upsurges around the world through the power of mass media and has optimized every individual's work efficiency through the convergence of knowledge, it has also widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots.              To begin with, information technology has advanced every individuals' human rights by creating global democratic upsurges through the impact of mass media. The term 'CNN effect' refers to a theory of political science that the advent of the popular 24-hour global television news channel, specifically CNN, has a great influence on the conduct of the information society or the IT Revolution. The term simply refers to the political impacts of technological globalization which has been responsible for spreading the idea of democratic peace throughout the world. As a case in point, one of the most prominent examples of CNN effect may be found in the case of the Tiananmen Square Crisis in 1989 which was broadcast all over the world through CNN. Specifically, the graphic images of pro-democracy students without any armaments standing in front of numerous armored vehicles of People's Liberation Army shocked the whole world and led to serious political concerns over the situations of human rights in China. Such concerns of western countries became main obstacles for Chinese accession to the WTO until the year, 2001. As such, information technology has advanced human rights by spreading the idea of democracy all over the world.              In addition, with the emergence of the Information society or the IT Revolution, learning has taken an interdisciplinary approach which has optimized individuals' efficiency in the workplace. That is, companies have adopted 'Wikinomics' in their workplace, which refers to a newly coined blend of Wikipedia and economics, indicating a mass collaboration in the fields of economics and management, which has become possible through developments in information technology. By creating a 'Wiki workplace' where individuals with diverse professions come together to collaborate, workers can be provided with incentives to innovate, which in turn creates more profits for firms and organizations. The concept of Wikinomics may be simply understood as an example of collective intelligence, which strongly believes that none of us are as smart as all of us. The new mass collaboration is changing how companies and societies harness knowledge and is affecting every sector of society and every aspect of management by optimizing individuals' work efficiency.              However, information technology has also created major social issues by widening the gap between the rich and the poor, which is called the digital divide. The term refers to the widening gap between those who have effective access to information and communication technology and those who do not. The phenomenon of digital divide has been a growing problem since the advent of the IT Revolution. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the developed countries in North America, Europe and Asia were found to do well in providing people with an easy Internet access, while the developing countries and third-world countries in Africa and elsewhere did poorly. In this manner, information technology has further increased the gap between the haves and the have-nots.              While information technology has brought about numerous benefits to our society, it has also been responsible for causing major social issues. The IT Revolution has advanced human rights through the use of mass media and optimized people's work efficiency by creating a 'Wiki workplace'. However, it has also broadened the gap between the rich and the poor through a phenomenon called digital divide. By fully understanding the strengths and weaknesses of information technology, we can create a better society where every member of the society is guaranteed his or her rights and can fully display individual talents.

Do Hee Kim / Assignment #5 / Tues. 11 A.M.

Intellectual Property


The issue of intellectual property has been arisen at the same time with the advent of internet. Thanks to the internet, we can easily have access to enormous amount of information and various contents including movies, music and more. However, it also has facilitated an establishment of the new domain called "illegal downloading." People somehow penetrate through the walls that protect various contents on the internet and easily acquire them. Some people insist it violates the law of intellectual property, but I believe it depends on the originators whether the law applies to them or not.

The problem of intellectual property stems from the idea of creativity. Intellectual property rights was created because people did not like the idea of their "originality" or "creativity" being stolen by others. However, I believe no one has their own "originality" in that people are influenced and inspired by almost everything that surrounds them. It was their creativity that produced their work by fusing and adding and transforming different kinds of originalities. I'm not saying that the ideas are not creative and innovative, they are just not purely original. In that sense, people should get credit for being creative, not original.

Some musicians, movie makers, and writers "strongly" assert their intellectual property rights. This means that their productions are the means of making a living. I cannot say it is wrong for them to call out for their intellectual property rights because it is obvious to receive credit for making something creative. However, I believe they make "art" for money and their work was inspired by something else beforehand. I think true artists are those who merely enjoy having their work being watched or listened by others, and I know I can only say this because I am not an artist.

As I have mentioned above, people are inspired by their surroundings and everything they encounter. It helps people to build onto those inspirations that lead them to create such an innovative work. By letting people share everything they've created, it will allow us to meet a whole different world. Creative ideas and works will overflow with thousands of ideas shared and exchanged. However, this will only become possible only when the creators allow it to happen.

It is no longer the era of fighting over intellectual property rights on newly invented products, machines, technologies or whatsoever. If these are created in today's world, then they should be associated with the patent rights, not the intellectual rights. Also, as long as the creators do not care about their works to be used somehow by others, intellectual property rights should not be asserted. In order for the world to take a great leap towards more innovations, intellectual property rights should be weakened.


Sent from my iPad

Jung Yong Ko/ Intellectual property/ Tue 11

 Intellectual property

 

 When there were no internet, people used to buy CDs, albums and video tapes. However, as the world developed, people became able to use internet. And, CD players, LPs and etc. disappeared. Majority of people started to listen to music and watch videos on their cell phones. So most of them get their songs and videos on the internet for free. Some countries started to block all the websites that play videos and songs for free.

 

In Korea, artists complained about the music piracy that people get the music illegally. So they blocked all the sites that music can be played and downloaded for free such as, Grooveshark. They say downloading them for free are same as stealing foods and drinks from the convenient store. Some artists think downloading and sharing songs are same as the robbery. Artists say that their creations are meant to be sold not shared on the internet for free.

 

 In some countries such as Indonesia think that music piracy is not a piracy. They do think songs and videos are creations but they think creations are meant to be spread for free and let everybody know. Even if music piracy is occurring frequently, famous artists such as Lil Wayne, Drake, Kanye and Eminem do not really care about the music piracy because they sell billions of albums every year. Some countries think that music and videos are part of art and they think these should be free not sold.

 

To sum up, as the world developed, people started to illegally download songs and videos on internet. Some countries such as, Korea think this is not right and blocked all the websites that plays songs and videos for free. However, there were countries that songs and videos are part of art and should be free.