Verified Document

Ethics And Morality Of Intellectual Property Rights Essay

Related Topics:

Digital Rightsa) Sonderholm (2010) describes intellectual property rights as "a socio-economic tool that creates a temporary monopoly", specifically as a means to allow creators to earn profit, which in theory will incentivize more creation.

On the issue of digital rights management versus the public's right to fair use, there are several issues to unpack. First is that a person who creates intellectual property has no obligation to do anything with it. In fact, there are vast reservoirs of unpublished novels, unfilmed screenplays, photographs, drawings…a vast amount of the intellectual property that is created is never brought to the public at all, and still more would be if there were means to do so provided to the creator.

But should a creator decide to bring their work to the public sphere, they and only they should have the right to determine how that work is delivered to the public. It is unethical for a lawmaker, for example, to dictate that a content creator should release that content via any one mechanism – the right should rest solely with the content creator. There have long been legal systems that protect intellectual property, and for the most part those systems function within the context of a legal environment that places the onus on the content creator to defend his/her own work. For example, if somebody plagiarizes this paper, it would be my job as author to defend utilize the court system to defend my property rights. If I choose not to, then that is my choice, and the state should never intervene in my right to choose if and when I want to defend my intellectual property rights.

There are several arguments to be made against the use of digital rights management technology. First, most obviously, is that a third party that/who did not participate in the creation of the work shouldn't have property rights to it – if you didn't create it, it's not yours. Why this is even a question before law is the result of amazing intellectual gymnastics.

Beyond that, however, there is the simple matter that intellectual property is different from other property in several key ways. It is non-rivalrous, meaning that it is not diminished by its consumption (Moore & Himma, 2014). This is a key distinction from physical property, because it means that most intellectual property can theoretically be consumed by all human beings simultaneously. While Moore offers...

That said, the fact that there are no barriers to consumption, and that consumption of the good does no objective harm to anybody, means that charging a cost for access to intellectual property is immoral, if a superior outcome would be achieved by not charging. As Masnick (2010) rightly points out, a moral dilemma is where there is a choice in the allocation of harm; freeing up intellectual property often results in no added harm, only added benefit, negating the moral dilemma altogether.
This leads to another important dimension of this argument, the utilitarian. In many instances, intellectual property would produce greater results for the greatest number. This is likely true for entertainment forms (more people being entertained is a good thing) as well as for more patently obvious examples like academic journal articles. The latter is an extreme example, but hammers home the point – when you hide knowledge behind a paywall, denying most of humanity access to that knowledge, and you aren't even the researcher who produced the work, you are committing an egregious crime against humanity. Taylor (2013) takes an equally strong, if less hyperbolic, stance, but the point is the same. Scholarship benefits from more scholars having access to more information, and that is to say nothing of the damage done to non-scholars by shutting them off from entire fields of discourse. We decry ignorance while defending the right of people to erect barriers to the elimination of ignorance.

Telling people "you're not allowed to learn that because you're not rich enough" is the same classist, racist, sexist nonsense that humanity has suffered from for its history, and they good people are trying to work to eliminate. Hiding knowledge that would benefit many, in the name of profit, is morally indefensible. It is not as though the lack of financial incentive would eliminate intellectual curiosity, or the creation of creative works.

There is a final dynamic to the issue, however. Intellectual property covers both ideas, and the products that arise from those ideas. This adds a new wrinkle- for example it is said there are no new ideas in fiction. But there are new works of fiction, and those are protected. It is…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Intellectual Property in Cyberspace the
Words: 1039 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Paper

In the contemporary cyber environment, innovation does not enhance success. For example, most patents such as songs and books receive low rewards. The author suggests that there is a need to make rules to enhance the bargain of intellectual property owners. Part 2 In the contemporary cyberspace and it world, the traditional copyright law has not been sufficient to protect intellectual property right in the face current development of computer and

Intellectual Property Ethics
Words: 941 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Intellectual property can be described as any exceptional product of human intellect or the mind. Some common examples of intellectual properties include software, music, symbols, movies, designs, symbols, words and phrases. Similar to other properties, intellectual property is safeguarded by relevant laws that seek to protect the interests of creators. These laws seek to achieve this by giving the creators rights over their respective creations. However, the protection of intellectual

Intellectual Property Statement of Ethics
Words: 842 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Intellectual property is defined as the unique intellectual output of a person or persons. Some examples of intellectual property are works of art, written or design works that are for commerce, patents, and copyrights. The World Intellectual Property Organization (2018) uses the terminology "creations of the mind". The legal definition for each of these things being intellectual property varies by type and by jurisdiction. For example, some IP is protected

Ethics Policies on 3 Companies.
Words: 2159 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

Aside from the previously mentioned policies, the Intel ethic code also contains reference to intellectual property, gratuities, reciprocity, publicity, small and minority suppliers, controlled substances, environment, health and safety. The intellectual property right protection policy states the fact that Intel completely respects the rights of all business partners, suppliers and competitor companies. However, the publicity policy mentions that business partners are denied the right to sell their own products by

Ethics & Information Technology Ethics & Technology
Words: 758 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

ETHICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Ethics & Technology The first aspect of this article that struck the author is how human beings began as hunter-gatherers of food, materials for shelter, and defense -- and now human beings are hunter gatherers of information. Just as hunting and gathering affected the kind of society humans were millions of years ago, hunting and gathering information in the 21st century affects the kinds of societies present in

Ethics and Innovation
Words: 2512 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

Rule breaking, innovation or ethical dilemma? Annotated Bibliography People often think that in order to run a business, or be a leader, one must adhere to all the rules. But the old saying "Some rules are made to be broken" rings true. Many successful entrepreneurs have had to make decisions that would ultimately be seen as rule breaking, even at times, illegal. That is just how the world works. People must make

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now