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Digital Intellectual Property Rights Napster

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights

The advent of digital and Internet technologies has created a maelstrom of controversy over intellectual property rights protection, from movies and music to advertising and writing. Such technologies have revolutionized methods of copying, sharing, and pirating intellectual property that is copyright protected. Napster is one infamous example of a company that threatened an entire industry by allowing users to download music as MPs files for free by using technology that would allow users to connect to others user’s computers without a central server. The music industry cried foul because they received no royalties from these copyright protected materials. As one Recording Industry of America Association represented cried, “Napster has created and is operating a haven for music piracy on and unprecedented scale” (Kover 129). Others argue Napster has done nothing to infringe on copyright laws because of the following:

Napster didn’t have the music on its computers or distribute it and therefore was not guilty of copyright infringement.

Napster was a file-sharing system, not specifically a piracy system.

If a system has legitimate uses, it cannot be shut down on the grounds that sometimes it is used illegitimately.

We will now look at the legal and moral responsibilities of IT Managers to ensure protection of copyrighted intellectual property as well as tools that are designed to help them do so. A following section will be devoted to the drawbacks of over-protection of intellectual property.

IT MANAGER LEGAL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The IT manager has very important responsibilities in ensuring the protection of copyrighted intellectual property in digital format. Legally, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed by congress to “prohibit communication of technologies that might defeat copyright protection” (Raeburn 8). However, many argue...

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Digital Intellectual Property Rights Napster. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:46, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1685323.html