Nt1310 Unit 2 Case Study

PH-Learning Journal Unit 2

In the case study “Pirates”, there is a debate of should copyrights been protected or not, or should illegal pirating been allowed? (Brusseau, 2012). One argument states that the copyright should be protected since it is an intellectual property. On the opposite, the argument argues that people who cloning the CDs may purchase the CDs themselves or given the original CDs by someone else, they own this property now, and they can do what they want with it.

These two arguments are based on different values, the advocates for copyright protection are saying that the CDs are private properties which belong to the companies that made them, “pirating” against the rights of the owners who had invested the work into the making

of CDs. Opponents argue that the people who had bought the CDs have the right to use them as they like since they are the property owners now, and they can do whatever they want with them.
The argument raises a question of who owns the property. It apparent that these two arguments are disagree with each other about the property ownership. The advocates view the copyrights belongs to whoever made the CD, and opponents thinks that once the buyer bought the CD, the buyer gain the ownership of the CD.
Let us take a look at the concept of “property” first, in John Locke’s The Second Treatise of Government, he states that everybody entitles with the work of his own labor or out of his own hands, and owns that property since “he had mixed his labor with and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property” (Locke, 2003). From this statement, we can say that copyright protectors have a solid foundation that based on this principle. The CD makers did put their labors and invested their money to it, thus, the property ownership had established. However, the opponents may argue from an egoism point of view that their personal rights have been violated since they cannot decide on what to do with the properties they own after they bought it.
The debate on this topic is still going on, most people may support the copyrights protection that based on the intellectual property laws, and some people may still question it with the possible volitions to their personal rights. However, the debate between the copyrights protection and the illegal “pirating” has increased the awareness of the intellectual property ownership issues and raised many questions as well.