Law // Ethics
Ethics
Doherty considered copyright as a “legal protection that gives the original author of a document, ownership rights to the material he/she created (372).” It explains that same is not accurate with regard to intellectual property theft as compared to a tangible theft; for the former requires possessing of skills to grab opportunity in readily engaging in intellectual property theft. In addition to this, a person that engages to intellectual property theft must not be limited to simply coding and the like operations.
The issue of the case at bar is that, what factors should be considered in the application of the fair use doctrine. According to Larson (203), “fair use doctrine provides a set of guidelines pursuant to which researchers, educators, scholars, and others may use copyrighted works without seeking permission or paying royalties.” In general rule, a copyright owner has the full legal right to restrict production of a copyrighted work, and to claim royalties when copyrighted work is reproduced. So much so, unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted work is penalized, and such penalty is regarded as substantial. Accordingly, fair use doctrine is used as defense when part of somebody’s work is used without permission. But before violating copyright law, the determination of whether any given use is ‘fair use’ can be complex and must be evaluated by considering the four factors (Larson 203):
1. What is the character of the use?
2. What is the nature of the work to be used?
3. How much of the work will you use?
4. What effect would this use have on the market for the original or for permissions if the use were widespread?
It is no doubt that electronic media provide great causes in contemporary. One instance is its free venue. Internet guarantees free market filled with so much information with the existing conditions of the world today. As it is ‘free’, online users find minimalism to transmit and access digital form to other user or multiple users, so much so, the replication of information. Digital works in internet decentralized electronic communication in networks to pool data. It has transaction processing system with which computer system incorporates program with variety of networking protocols to enable and generate operations and communications between computer to use or user to user. Characteristically, digital works can be manipulated and modified (Samuelson & Glushko, 19). Unlike the print works that usually fixed, digital works are breakdown with so much lenience to be adjusted to cope with the existing demand or problems. Furthermore, the readers in digital works are virtually invisible. User interfaces and navigation aids to even like electronic works and communication than print works. The reason primarily finds is the protection of their invisibility; for visibility aids as source of controversy, in terms of copyright and patent fonts.
Barton and Bobst (27) explained that the risks related with electronic media with aid of information technology are usually not technological. The challenges of emergent new electronic media through information technology resources are difficult and cause outsized risks. The latent growth of internet consumptions is considered to have disruptive effect in digital age; that is, by promoting an efficient and restrictive distribution of digital commodities as well as management and operational transformations that requires implementation of digital consumption. The risk, though, arises in deteriorating to distinguish between the risks – in light of the social and economic perspectives (Currah, 206). The protection of intellectual creation is the very tenet of this law, more particularly in electronic media where everyone now has access. Thus, what has been established as core value to avoid infringement or attack of malicious practice is to register intellectual works particularly when it has to be printed in digital media. Hence, this is also a means to advance support in legal matters.
Works Cited
Barton, R. & Bobst, R. (2007). How to Manage the Risks of Technology? Journal of Business Strategy, 9(6): 4-7.
Currah, A. (2006). Hollywood versus the Internet: the media and entertainment industries in a digital and networked economy. Journal of Economic Geography 6: 439–468.
Doherty, W. (2006). Copyright theft. Journal of Industrial and Commercial Training, 38 (7), 371-378.
Larson, A. (2003). Fair Use Doctrine and Copyright Law. Web.
Samuelson, P. & Glushko, R.J. (1991). Intellectual Property Rights For Digital Library And Hypertext Publishing Systems: An Analysis of Xanadu. Hypertext ’91 Proceedings, 39-50.
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