However, a complex project might need a higher level of expertise that not only requires project management skills but also experience with technology. What are the pros and cons of the following statement?

If the Internet is to flourish, the creators of the information on our information superhighway must be protected. Intellectual property rights must be respected. If First Amendment rights are used as a justification for violating property rights, the next step will be the loss of some or all of these rights, as government bodies move in."

The above statement pertains on the ongoing debate regarding intellectual property and privacy rights. Intellectual property refers to the legal rights that are granted to inventions and works of art that has commercial value. In the it sector, this mostly pertains to digital content such as movies and music. Privacy pertains to the right to withhold information to unauthorized parties or withhold information regarding identity. This gives an individual legal protection from parties that attempt to get data from their own computers. Favoring one right over the other causes

Pros: Promoting intellectual property rights allow more companies to produce movies, music, and works of art that cannot be easily stolen. It is easy for digital content to be distributed and downloaded by individuals who have not paid for them. For example, it takes millions of dollars to create a good quality movie. The people who have paid those millions expect to earn from their investments and thus we have to pay for our movie tickets. However, when someone inside the theatre digitally records the film and shares it to other people over the Internet, it becomes a financial loss for the movie company....

The people who would have paid for movie tickets now get the movie for free.
Enforcing intellectual property rights give more incentive for movie producers and music composers to create more high quality content.

Cons: In order to enforce intellectual property rights, we sometimes have to go after individuals who attempt to steal it. This involves, for example, asking the help of the government to shut down websites that give paid movies for free. However, going after thieves is a very difficult task that involves tracking down and gaining access to private data. it's possible that we might have to get an ISP's cooperation to disclose its Internet access logs, and potentially disclosing more information than they have to. Enforcing intellectual property can also make a company spy on its own customers. Sony, for example, has been discovered to install rootkits (a computer program that hides and disguises itself to prevent detection) to prevent its music cds from being copied. Copy protection is a legitimate procedure of protecting digital content. However, Sony's act took this to an extreme measure by potentially gaining the capability to control the user's machine.

Bibliography

IBM (2007). "History of IBM." IBM Archives. Retrieved April 30, 2007 at http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/history_intro.html

This History of Computing Project (2007). "Microsoft's Timeline from 1975-1990." Retrieved April 30, 2007 at http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.htm

Wikipedia Contributors (2007). "2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 30, 2007 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal