Intellectual Property Theft: Killing Creators' Morale? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Intellectual property theft majorly referred to as piracy of copyrights, has become a major debate in the United States. Technology has created many insecurities of intellectual property by the original honors. The internet allows third party users to access information from original authors, copy and paste for circulation over media. The major concern of authors is that what began as a marketing strategy for their work is rapidly killing their morale in writing. Importantly, the Fordham law and online music copyrights are reviewed in this paper in three parts. The first part makes the reader aware of the current digital music technologies and the legal history of new and old copyright laws. The second part address the response of the music industry on the digitized music world and the several cases filed as well as settlements. The last part directs on the loopholes that the current copyrights laws create for piracy and the efforts of upcoming technology in creating copyrights safety. Therefore, this paper evaluates the existence and success of intellectual laws in the technology era based on a Wendy M. Pollack's thoughts: Turning in: The Future of Copyright Protection for Online Music in the Digital Millennium.

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Part I: Legal and Technical Background

The section elucidates the audio technologies that have been on existence over the past years to the present day. It also covers the participants in the music industry who have been largely affected by piracy. Importantly, it exposes the moles in the music industry, which facilitate the dissemination of music over the internet. Common participants include professionals whose intention is to make the music widely available on the internet and individual consumers who create several copies for personal use. Also, the first section explores the existence of technologies that help in the protection of copyrights. The technologies include Real Networks that have been downloaded by over 92 million users, thus allowing them to stream and download music available on the internet (Pollack, 18). MP3 is a common music technology for audio downloads, even though it has no legal management to protect the owner's rights. The old law is the Copyrights Act of 1976, while the current law is the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording Act of 1995.

Part II: Responses to Online Music Infringements and Current Developments

The section covers early lawful responses to piracy. Such include the Recording Industry

Association of America, which was against MP3 Technology. The section also covered the cases that were filed against potential pirates in online music (Pollack, 23). For instance, after the passing off of DPRSA, RIAA sued a variety of websites' direct and in direct contravention of audio recordings on media. Other cases include RIAA vs. Napster, Inc., Real Networks, Inc. vs. Stream box, Inc., among others.

Part III: Justice for All: Achieving the Copyright Balance

In this section, arguments arise on the continuity of concerns and threats on music copyrights even in the presence of legislation. Even so, the old and new legislation, as well as the emergent digital rights management, will be used to protect the copyright owners from such malice. Fair use implies that consumers without stealing the artists' rights. (Pollack, 37) The central copyright law hopes to achieve a balance between artists and consumers in this section. However, there is no comprehensive solution to digital piracy, this section hopes to discuss three approaches to the problem. They include Congress, the courts, and technology.

Works Cited

Pollack, Wendy M. "Tuning in The Future of Copyright Protection for Online Music in the Digital Millennium." Fordham Law Review, vol. 68, no. 6 May, 2000, p. 2445-2488. HeinOnline.