Intellectual Property

Using the uspto.gov, I searched for the automaker, Ford. I found a case that focused on why car parts for Fords are so expensive. The comparison of a car bumper to a refrigerator. Analyzing that a plastic bumper costs as much as a two door refrigerator fully installed. The argument is that Ford can charge whatever price they want for their parts because there wasn't any competition for their parts.

In the digital age, copying anything is very easy. Taking a picture from somewhere you're not supposed to is still easy. Just pull it up on your screen and screen shot it. Violating copyright is easy to do on purpose and by accident.

Online music sharing is something nearly all teenagers do. Napster was the first music downloading software that was huge. After napster, other companies designed software: examples like kazaa, limewire, frostwire, and torrents. I see online music sharing as good because its almost like letting someone you know listen to a cd you bought, just on a much greater scale. Someone did have to buy the property and now they can do what they want with it. I can buy a bottle of water from deer park and do whatever I want with it because I bought the property. The same rules should apply to music.

The sharing of music is equal to the sharing of videos also. Someone buys it, the rest of the would should be able to use it. Sales of the cd, or dvd, or game will go down but should sharing not be aloud on those platforms? If I let my friend borrow a dvd will I get in trouble for sharing it?

The bad sides to online music sharing are that it harms the owner. Someone has worked very hard for their work and wants all the credit for it. I know if I make a website template and sell it, and the person who bought it starts giving it to everyone else I'd be mad. I want all the credit that I have worked hard for. Its my career and I'm not getting my full salary because of piraters.

The physical sharing of music, example, letting someone borrow a cd is a lot different then online sharing. Online sharing is essentially making a copy, and another, and another and eventually millions of copies exist, instead of a payment for every song or cd. New songs aren't readily available on music downloading software until someone else buys it and puts it up. It's not ethical.

Fairey's HOPE poster was a huge campaign for Obama when he was running for President. The tale is that Fairey stole an image of Obama from the Associated Press and used it and tried to pass it off as one of his own. He did this on accident though because he thought the image was his own. Now it seems a little weird for an image you're designing wouldn't make you realize that it wasn't yours, were the two pictures really identical, was there ever proof of Fairey having a remotely close photo of Obama to use and compare? Now I can believe that he did steal the image, and against such a huge company in the AP. And of course they would make a huge deal about it because they saw how successful Fairey's poster was becoming.