Copyright and intellectual property

[Guest_imported]

In your opinion, the copyright law an effective means of protecting intellectual property from infringements (piracy and plagarism for example?)

 

[butchrecon]

In the IT industry the Copyright laws and intellectual property reside on a VERY VERY thin line that often seems to fade in and out of site. Companies just want to protect their investments and make money. End users want to be able "backup" thier current software and make copies of others incase of disaster. The issue really comes into play when consumers "backup" their software then allow friends to "use" it or they put a copy on grandmas PC thinking it wont hurt any one. Well if we allow friends to use our soft ware and put a copy on grandmas PC then we just cost the company that produced it a few hundred dollars. Now it does not seem like much huh? now add that with the nearly 1 million people across the country who do that and you can see the cost is very high. Who cares you say? They make enough from it any way right? Well lets just say you allow that to happen with Office 2000. You go out and buy it for $200. You allow a 4 of friends to install it and also put a copy on that PC for grandma. You just cost M$ 1000 bucks right? Well lets say that 1 million others (that is probebly a small ammount compaired to the actuall number of people who do it) do the same thing. That adds up to what a Billion dallars in lost revenue. For M$ that may be a drop in the bucket but for other companies it may be enough to put the company out of business. That means that no more software will be produced from them. Could mean less competition which in turn causes others to drive up prices. Also could mean more unemployment.
So now we get into what happens because of the Copyright laws. Infringers who get caught get fined. Ok big deal right? Well the fines can cost tens of thousands of dollars and could be jail time involved as well. If you are certified you could loose your certification. Are the laws effective? to an extent. There will ALWAYS be those who break the law. But for the most part, most users just obey and purchase what they need instead of getting into trouble.

James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

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