1. What is intellectual property?
Give ten examples of intellectual property.
The term intellectual property is used to describe a unique creation of the
human mind that has commercial value. Examples of intellectual property include
poems, photographs, songs, plays, books, paintings, sculptures, movies, logos,
slogans, designs, perfumes, recipes, and computer programs.
2. Summarize John Locke’s
explanation why there is a natural right to property.
John
Locke holds that when people remove something from Nature through their own labor,
they have mixed their labor with it, and therefore they have a property right
in that object.
3.
What
paradoxes arise when we attempt to extend a natural right to property into the realm
of intellectual property?
If
more than two people create the identical intellectual property, there is only
one instance of that property, not two, meaning both people cannot claim full
rights to that property. Copying an intellectual property is different from
stealing a physical property. Perfect copies can be made of objects embodying
an intellectual property. When this happens, the original owner has lost
exclusive control over use of the property, even though he or she still has the
original article.
4.
What
are the ways in which an individual or firm may protect intellectual property
in the United States?
An
individual or firm in the United
States may protect intellectual property through trade secrets, trademarks, service
marks, patents, and copyrights.
5.
What
is the difference between a trademark and a trade secret?
A
trademark is a word, symbol, picture, sound, color, or smell used to identify a
product. It is good when a company's trademark becomes well known to the
public. Examples of trademarks are Kleenex, McDonald's Golden Arches, and
Advil. Your college or university's logo is most likely trademarked.
A
trade secret is a piece of intellectual property that is kept confidential.
Examples of trade secrets are formulas, processes, proprietary designs,
strategic plans, and customer lists. The information loses much or all of its
value if it becomes public knowledge.
6.
What
are the relative advantages and disadvantages of patents versus trade secrets?
·
The advantage of
a trade secret is that it does not expire.
·
The disadvantage
of a trade secret is that a company cannot prevent another company from
attempting to reverse engineer the formula or process.
·
The advantage of
a patent is that the government gives the patent owner the exclusive right to
the intellectual property.
·
The disadvantage
of a patent is that this right expires after 20 years.
7.
When
referring to copyrighted materials, what is meant by the term “fair use”?
Fair
use refers to those circumstances under which it is legal to reproduce a
copyrighted work without permission.
8.
Explain
how advances in information technology have made it easier for consumers to violate
copyright law.
As
information technology has advanced, companies have begun using digital media (such
as CDs and DVDs) to store copyrighted songs, movies, and computer programs. The
widespread availability of personal computers and CD/DVD burners has made it much
easier for consumers to make copies of CDs and DVDs.
9.
How
has the DigitalMillennium Copyright Act affected fair use of copyrighted
material by consumers?
The
Digital Millennium Copyright Act curtails fair use of copyrighted material by consumers
by making it illegal to make copies of DVDs.
10.
What
does the term “digital rights management” mean? Describe three different
technologies that have been used or proposed for digital rights management.
Digital
rights management refers to any of a variety of actions owners of intellectual property
stored in digital form may take to protect their rights. Examples of digital rights
management include encryption, digital watermarking, and making CDs copyproof.
11.
What
is a peer-to-peer network?
A
peer-to-peer network is a transient (temporary) network allowing computers
running the same networking program to connect with each other and access files
stored on each other's hard drives. Peer-to-peer networks facilitate file
sharing.
12.
What
property makes the peer-to-peer network FastTrack more difficult to shut down than
Napster?
Napster
relied on a single central server to mediate requests. FastTrack distributes
the index of available files among many supernodes. Shutting down Napster
simply requires shutting down the single central server. Shutting down
FastTrack would require shutting down all of the supernodes. Hence FastTrack
would be more difficult for the judicial system to shut down than Napster.
13.
How
does BitTorrent provide an order-of-magnitude increase in downloading speed, compared
to Kazaa and Grokster?
BitTorrent
achieves an order-of-magnitude increase in downloading speed, compared with
KaZaA and Grokster, by allowing a user to download different pieces of a file from
many di
erent sources simultaneously.
erent sources simultaneously.
14.
The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Sony was not responsible for the copyright
infringements of Betamax customers, but Grokster and StreamCast were
responsible for the copyright infringements of those who used their
peer-to-peer networks. Explain the differences in the two situations that led
the Supreme Court to reach opposite conclusions.
Sony
did not actively encourage its customers to break copyright law. The Supreme Court
ruled that time-shifting was not an infringement of copyright. In contrast, Grokster
and StreamCast actively encouraged the availability of copyrighted files on their
networks and helped consumers download these files, because these actions increased
the popularity of their services and heightened their advertising revenues.
15.
Why
are patents considered an unreliable way of protecting intellectual property
rights in software?
Patents
are considered an unreliable way of protecting intellectual property rights in software
because the Patent Office has given out many bad software patents than cannot
hold up in court. This has happened because for decades the Patent Office did
not give out patents on software. During this time a lot of”prior art” was
being developed. Now, when a company applies for a software patent, the Patent
Office may not be aware of some of the prior art. It may issue a patent even
though the algorithm is not novel. Such a patent has little value. The
existence of bad patents in software reduces the value of software patents in
general.
16.
Suppose
company A wants to develop a program that duplicates the functionality of a program
made by company B. Describe how company A may do this without violating the
copyrights held by company B.
Company
A resorts to “clean room" software development. Two independent teams work
on the project. The first team is responsible for determining how Company B's program
works and produces a technical specification. The second team relies solely on
the technical specification to develop the software. Because the code
developers are isolated from Company B's product, Company A can ensure no code
get copied, even unconsciously.
17.
When
describing a software license, what does the phrase “open source” mean?
Open
source refers to software in which the source code is distributed along with
the executable program.
18.
How
has Linux affected the market for proprietary software?
Linux
has affected the market for proprietary software by putting price pressure on companies
selling proprietary versions of UNIX. It is providing an alternative to servers
running the Windows operating system. Linux is also putting pressure on
Microsoft and Apple, which sell proprietary operating systems for desktop
computers.
19.
Suppose
your band has recorded a song and posted it as an MP3 file on your Web site.
How can you allow people to
download your music for noncommercial purposes while retaining your copyright
on the song?
My
band can select a Creative Commons license that allows people to download music
for noncommercial purposes, but still protects the band's copyright to the
song.
