Who Will Own Your Next Big Idea

 http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98sep/copy.htm

The article opens with a story of the writer's friend who has had their story stolen and printed in a French magazine. This story is used to show a real world situation in which the common sense of a person may not be matched by what the laws state. The writer tells that intellectual property is any expression or idea that is owned by someone. This type of property is divided into three categories; copyright, patent, and trademark. Occasionally trade secrets is included in with the other three. Today the best definition of intellectual information is anything that can be made solid in the form of ones and zeros. In the past few years copyrighted material contributed over $400 billion dollars to the U.S. economy alone. This industry has been growing faster than the U.S. economy as a whole. This is the countries most important exports. It is widely believed that television, internet, and telephones will merge into a big hose that will dump massive amounts of intellectual property into our homes. If this occurs those that are making the profits will not be the ones that own the computers or televisions that transmit the data, but the people that own the information that is displayed. As the shift occurs from tangible forms of media to a world filled with electronic forms of media many new problems will arise. One of the biggest problems is that it is becoming increasingly harder for those who own the electronic property to actually charge money for their ideas and property. This is partly because substitutes can be provided for cheeper, this can drive the price of the actual product down to zero. Another problem that people these providers is facing is the increasing amount of piracy. This is much easier to accomplish in the digital age. As we enter the digital age a bootleg movie can be emailed to millions of people with the click of of a mouse. This is becoming much easier because because there is almost no cost for those that are distributing the pirated material. There are two answers to this problem. One is to eliminate copyright altogether. The group of people that feel that copyright laws should be done away with use the argument that " information wants to be free". The other side of the argument feel that copyright laws should be strengthened. An argument this group uses is that copyright laws are in the Constitution. These copyright laws make it so that Michael Jackson can make fortunes off the Beatle's music catalogue. George Washington's argument to Congress in order to enact copyright laws he told them that it would increase knowledge and he said " knowledge is the surest basis of public happiness."   

James