This discussion paper will explore the impact of piracy of intellectual property to U.S. and global economies as it relates to the economic principles of opportunity cost and voluntary exchange.
As we learned from our reading in chapters 13 and 18 of the textbook, Survey of Economics, the authors, O'Sullivan, Sheffrin, and Perez, review concepts of monopolies and comparative advantage in terms of international trade and finance. And our text suggests that the world is growing more and more global which creates new sets of challenges for citizens and governments. Furthermore, our text suggests that one of the costs of being active in the international marketplace is compromised intellectual property (IP).
So what exactly is IP? According to authors of the textbook, Fundamentals of Information Systems, intellectual property is defined as works of the mind, and provides examples such as art, books, films, music, inventions, formulas, and processes that are distinct and “owned” or created by a single person or group. Furthermore, the authors state, intellectual property can include software and may be protected by copyright and patent laws (Stair & Reynolds, 2012, pg. 419). Furthermore, the authors define software piracy as the act of unauthorized procurement through means of copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing of software (Stair & Reynolds, 2012, pg. 419).
Also, the authors of our Economics textbook state that publishers of both books and computer software face problems of unauthorized copying, particularly in some developing countries. While residents of those countries clearly benefit from inexpensively copied books or software, producers in the developed countries then face reduced incentive to enter the ma...
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Kain, Erik. (January 15, 2012). Does Piracy Cause Economic Harm? How to Think
About Economic Frontiers. Forbes Online. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/15/does-piracy-cause-economic-harm-how-to-think-about-economic-frontiers).
O'Sullivan, A., Sheffrin, S. M., & Perez, S. J. (2014). Survey of Economics:
Principles, Applications, and Tools (6th edition). United States of America: Pearson Education.
Phillips, Macon. (January 14, 2012). Obama Administration Responds to
We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy. The White House Blog. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy).
Stair, R., & Reynolds, G. (2012). Fundamentals of Information Systems. (6th edition).
Boston, MA: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.
Sea robbers: These pirates were not faithful to any government and roamed in the open seas.
During the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, piracy was rampant in the Atlantic, specifically in the West Indies. Piracy has existed since the earliest days of ocean travel, for a range of personal and economic reasons. However, one of the major reasons why piracy was wide spread and rampant in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries was Great Britain’s endorsement and usage of piracy as an asset; in wars fought in the New World. Great Britain with its expanding power and conflicts with other nations would make piracy a lifestyle and lay down the foundation for the Golden Age of Piracy and eventually bring what it created to a screeching halt.
Intellectual property is an incredibly complicated facet of the law. In the United States, we have many laws in place to control and limit profiting from others intellectual property. The issue is not only profiting from others intellectual property, but not purchasing the property from the originator as well. We will discuss why it is important to protect this property as well as why it is tremendously difficult to regulate all these safe guards. “Intellectual Property has the shelf life of a banana.” Bill Gates
It is first beneficial to know the definition of piracy. Piracy has been characterized multiple ways from multiple disciplines. For the purpose of this paper, I will apply the definition of piracy from the 1982 United ...
In this paper, I will attempt to describe the piracy problem in China, discuss how the Chinese government is dealing with it, present the global effect, and finally arrive at what would be an ethical solution to piracy fitting for China's situation.
"4 Ways In Which Internet Piracy Can Be a Good Thing." MakeUseOf. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
The Golden Age of Piracy began around 1650, and ended around 1730. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea, but can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the criminal. The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. A pirate is one who commits robberies at sea, usually without being allotted to do so by any particular nation. The usual crime for piracy can include being hung, or publically executed. Some of the most famous pirates who were killed either because of piracy, or because of natural causes, are Barbarossa, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonney, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Greaves, William Kidd, Jean Laffite, Sir Henry Morgan, Mary Read, and Giovanni da Verrazano.
The protection of trade in general has always been considered as essential to the defense of the commonwealth, and, upon that account, a necessary part of the duty of the executive power.
Nevertheless, before analyzing the impact of music piracy on a mass scale, one must start from the beginning of the 1990?s when the music industry experienced a growth in CD sales. In fact, ?according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), album sales grew from US $24.1 billion to US $38.6 billion during the decade.?(Zentner) But this era was short-lived and as the nineties drew to a close, the amount of illegal file swapping exp...
Intellectual property is property resulting from intellectual, creative processes. A product that was created because of someone’s individual thought process. Examples includes books, designs, music, art work, and computer files. (Miller R. J., 2011, p. 114) In the music industry a copyright is an important tool for artist to use to protect themselves from infringers. A copyright is the exclusive right of an author or originator of a literary or artistic production to publish, print, or sell that production for a statutory period of time. A copyright has the same monopolistic nature as a patent or trademark, but it differs in that it applies exclusively to works of art, literature, and other works of authorship (including computer programs). (Miller R. J., 2011, p. 125)
Because of its intangible nature, and particularly the increase of the digital domain and the internet as a whole, computers and cyber piracy make it easier for people to steal many forms of intellectual property. Due to this major threat, intellectual property rights owners’ should take every single measure to protect their rights. Unless these rights are either sold, exchanged, transferred, or appropriately licensed for use in exchange for a monetary fee, they should be protected at all cost. In order to protect these rights, the federal and states governments have passed numerous laws and statutes to protect intellectual property from misappropriation and infringement. “The source of federal copyright and patent law originates with the Copyright and Patent ...
Physical piracy-the copying and illegal sale of hard-copy CDs, videotapes, and DVDs-costs the music industry over $4 billion a year worldwide and the movie industry more than $3.5 billion. These numbers do not factor in the growing (and difficult to measure) problem of Internet piracy, in which music and movies are transferred to digital format and copies are made of the resulting computer file. Journalist Charles C. Mann explains why Internet piracy has the potential to be vastly more damaging to copyright industr...
Shultz II, C.J and Saporito, B. (1996), ‘Protecting Intellectual Property: Strategies and Recommendations to Deter Counterfeiting and Brand Piracy in Global Markets’, The Columbia Journal of World Business, 31(1): pp. 18-28.
Music piracy is a developing problem that it affects the music industry in many different ways including being responsible for the unemployment of 750,000 workers, as well as a loss of $2,5 billion; therefore, I want to explore ‘To what extent has music piracy affected the music industry market in the United States over the last 10 years?’
Intellectual property is information, original ideas and expressions of the persons mind that have profitable value and are protected under copyright, patent, service mark, trademark/trade secret regulation from replication, violation, and dilution. Intellectual property includes brand items, formulas, inventions, data, designs and the work of artists. It is one of the most tradable properties in the technology market.