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All Notes - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 discusses ownership and property rights, particularly focusing on intellectual properties such as music, literature, and inventions. It outlines the protection mechanisms like copyrights, patents, trademarks, and the public domain, while addressing ethical dilemmas and challenges in intellectual property laws. Additionally, it highlights the significance of Creative Commons licenses and the open-source software movement, advocating for collaborative and unrestricted access to software development.

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18 views5 pages

All Notes - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 discusses ownership and property rights, particularly focusing on intellectual properties such as music, literature, and inventions. It outlines the protection mechanisms like copyrights, patents, trademarks, and the public domain, while addressing ethical dilemmas and challenges in intellectual property laws. Additionally, it highlights the significance of Creative Commons licenses and the open-source software movement, advocating for collaborative and unrestricted access to software development.

Uploaded by

alyaalderazi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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All Notes - Chapter 4

#ITCY480

Ownership & Property


Ownership = property
Ownership rights:
Derive profit from property
Exclude someone from using it
part of it is Intellectual Properties

Intellectual Properties
Examples:
music compositions
literary works
inventions
audio & visual material
product formulas

Intellectual objects can be used by multiple people simultaneously, thus non-rival goods
Developing intellectual objects, like real goods, takes time and effort

Protecting Intellectual Property by:


Copyright
Patents
Trademarks
Public Domain

Copyright
Seems unethical to assign copyrights for non-rival intellectual object, because people have the
right to acquire knowledge

applying Copyright Laws to intellectual goods excluded others from building upon it
(remember: knowledge is an incremental process)
solution: distinguish between the idea & its expression
e.g. a sad song (The Blackest Day by LDR) is an expression of the idea of a sad song

Patents
Protects physical object like machines and inventions which gives the inventor the right to
exclude others from making, using, or selling the inventions
To get a patent the invention must be:
Novel (new)
Nonobvious
Useful
Can be given to:
New plant varieties developed by experimentation (McDonald's fries potatoes )
Surgical procedures under certain circumstances (using robots in surgeries

Criticism
Patents give the inventor monopoly power for long periods of time
Think of medical inventions that are patent and can't be used everywhere??

Trademarks
A Trademark is a word, a phrase, shape, colour, or a symbol that identifies a certain
product distinctively
Don't last forever. Might be changed with new visual identity (Polytechnic new logo lol)
A trademark can be lost if it becomes more generic and enters the public domain

Violations of Trademarks:
Infringement: when a trademark is used by another business that will create
confusion (i.e. is it the real brand or?)
Dilution: applicable on trademarks that are well known that do stupid stuff that
hurts their brand image. Results from:
Blurring: when the trademark is associated with similar products
Tarnishment: when the trademark is associated with questionable services
or opinions (Starbucks associated with Gaza Genocide)

Public Domain
#ITCY480
Public Domain fits any intellectual work that isn't protected by intellectual property right
and is free for public use
Example: Shakespeare's works, Dante's Divine Comedy, Vivaldi's Music
Government publications are public domain

What fall under public domain?:


Expired copyright/patent
inventions that failed to register for copyright or patent
works that are intentionally released to the public domain (e.g. The Internet Archive) or
by getting Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) license

Benefits:
free access to intellectual works
historically significant works are accessible to the public, preserving heritage and
culture
encouraging derivative works inspired by the original works

Challenges:
- lack of centralized public domain database: no single DB that catalogues public domain
works (e.g. The Internet Archive & Project Gutenberg)

disparities in public domain laws : each country has different laws and regulation
Orphan Works Dilemma: some works lack authorship due to lost records or damaged
work. these works are under copyright protection

Ethical Dilemmas
Some urge users to mention the original works of work
When a work enters the public domain, it can be misinterpreted, modified, and used in
other ways the creator didn't intend (Starry night being printed on everything)
Creative Commons can be used to regulate public domain works

Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an organization promoting ethical, inclusive sharing that
serves the public interest
Enables creators to specify how users should use their work
CC Licenses
There are 6 CCs based on 4 main concepts:
1. Attribution (By): giving credit to the author
2. ShareAlike (Sa): you let others use and modify
your work, but the license should stay Sa
3. Non-Commercial (Nc): you let others use and
modify your work for any other purpose other
than commercial, unless they get a permission
4. No-Derivative (Nd): allow others to use and
distribute, but NOT modify

Protection of SW
Software copyrights were applied in the 60 s & fully recognized in the 70 s
Copyrights protect the executable program, but not the source code
Source codes are confidential and considered a trade secret
Many companies have a clean room software development strategy → ensures that the
company doesn't develop a SW that duplicates that of another company
Two independent teams:
Team 1: determines how the competitor's SW works to produce a technical
specification of how it is supposed to function, but not how to implement the
function
Team 2: develop, code, and debug the SW

A bunch of capitalist IT corporations were suing each other in the early 2000 s & 2010 s,
ending in agreeing to cross-license for each other's patents

Open-Source Software
Companies that put patents & copyrights on SW do so not to protect products, but to
discourage competitors from using them
People argue that traditional ownership shouldn't apply to SW because it is
counterproductive. SW should be available for using, modifying, and customizing it
Open source leads to the development of better software code, with fewer bugs and more
features contributed by talented programmers.
Freeware is a SW distributed for free use, but users can't access the code

Open-source Properties:

1. Freedom of running the program for any purpose


2. Freedom of accessing the code
3. Freedom of distribution
4. Freedom of releasing modifications to the public
5. Copyleft provision

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