Intellectual rights on the Internet

Description:

The internet is an ideal way of sharing information of all types. This information can be distributed trough different means. Documents, pictures, and sounds or just some examples of different media that can be shared. When sharing information it is always important to take the ownership of this information into account. Sharing information without the owners permition is prohibited by law and is thus illegal.

The relative ease in which information can be shared through out the Internet has sparked a big uprise in information that is shared illegaly. The most know example is the sharing of music files (MP3's) through peer-to-peer programs without the artist's concent. By ripping music from a CD individuals can upload it to any other computer linked to the Internet that request that file.The increase of Internet bandwith, CPU speeds and hard disk space has resulted in an increase of shared movie files aswell.

Because of the difficulty to track down individuals who share this information without permition, it is very difficult to put a stop to these practices. Several publishers and artists in the music and movie industries have been trying to put an stop to these practices by various lawsuits geared towards individuals.

Enablers:

1. Technology: better computers, internet connections

2. Different copyright laws: Every country has a different approach to copyright, making Internet sharing more complex

3. Internet pirates: People who are willing to share illegal information

4. Lacking security: Information is easily 'stolen' or ripped

5. Difficulty to track pirates down

Inhibitors:

1. Reluctance to change laws

2. Lack of exchanging information: This is the case not only between different countries but also between providers, police, etc.

3. Conflicting laws: Privacy laws protect pirate's identety in some cases

4. Changes in technology make it impossible to keep up with security issues

Paradigms:

1. The Internet is an easy way of sharing intellectual property illegaly and should drastically be changed. peoples actions should be monitored in a better way to prevent these activities.

2. The notion of intellectual property should be changed. Information should become open to the public when shared on the Internet. Protected information should be kept off the medium and be shared through regular means.

Experts:

Prof. Brian Martin

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/98il/index.html

bmartin@uow.edu.au

Timing:

1969: Creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the internet 1983: Birth of first TCP/IP network. Later these networks got the name Internet and grew into the Internet we know today 1999: Release of Napster, first peer-to-peer program to share MP3 2000: First lawsuit against Napster filed by artists (Metallica)