Intellectual property generally refers to the creations of the mind, which may take the form of images, art, software and general discovery of ideas. What these things have in common, are that the source of inspiration of design for these products come from thought and that they were designed based on original ideas that individuals or groups come up with.There are 2 main types of intellectual property, 'Industrial property' and 'Copyright and related rights' but many things could be defined as intellectual property but several symbols have been established to properly label these ideas. For example:
(Image courtesy of scol22, stock.xchng, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/912539)
Copyright
The copyright symbol © or the word "Copyright," or the abbreviation "Copr.",
- Used to show ownership of copyright of a particular object.
- The year of first publication would be listed
- The name of the copyright holder
When an object claims to have copyright, this means third parties will not have rights to distribute, publish or sell this item as an exclusive right is granted to the copyright holder. However, the rights granted from copyright only last for a finite duration.
Quoting the US Copyright office:
"As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first"
Trademark/Service mark and Patents
The main distinction between Trademark (™) and a Patent is the validity of their claim to rights and the range of ideas which they cover.
A patent would be validated and registered with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) or any other patent and trademark office and hence can be governed under federal law. This gives them sufficient rights to use the symbol ® (for registered Trademark).
Although generally, trademarks are legally registered as well, some claim rights to publications and ideas but do not formally register with the USPTO. This is when the validity of these claims are questionnable and suggests that it is more ensuring to see a ® than a ™ due to the fact that a registered trademark would be more formally recognized.
Dangers of using dissemination systems
When you distribute media and publication of ideas over a dissemination system, it is open for viewing to a large audience. Although it is possible to register your ideas and publications and show that with copyright symbols, there are many ways to bypass them.
Images
Due to the nature of image previewing, it is important to allow customers to choose what image they are paying for. When an image is distributed in this fashion, it is likely that watermarks are placed over these pictures to ensure that licensing issues are sorted out before the image is used.
But with image processing and doctoring software such as PhotoShop now being available, there is the potential for the watermark to be removed and thus allowing it to be used for other purposes.
Youtube (and other ‘Streamable’ Flash Embedded-content )
Youtube allows users to upload videos to their servers and the website acts as a centre of dissemination for users. When information is disseminated in this way, it is possible for the video to be downloaded through external programs and stored in a .flv format. However, the dangers involved are less as the quality which is acquired through this method are usually too low for commercial purposes.
Disc-based Storage
When original content, such as software is produced and burned onto a disc for distribution and dissemination, the software available on the market for ripping content out of these discs make all sorts of unlicensed usage much easier. The (.iso) image of these CDs and DVDs can also be duplicated with general-use programs, which allow the content of the discs to be further distributed illegally over the internet.Blogging
When people are blogging, such as what I am doing now, personal feelings, ideas and opinions are shared over these blog dissemination sites. It is easy for lines of text to be used without quotation and acknowledgement.
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