Discussion Board Ten Please reference the syllabus for the expectation required of a Discussion Board response. The response is not opinion but a substantiated analytical answer. Please respond specifically to the guery and then to one peer for credit. Discussion Board closes at 11 p.m. on the DUE DATE. When you work through a discussion board activity. for full credit you must have a posting of your answer with a reference to where you obtained the information | yvouwr text is often the easiest, on-line research on the topic will enfance your answer and your grade) and you must post a second answer responding to a classmate with either a guestion or comment. ~1 agree\" is not enough analysis for a second answer. You must back up your work with explanation or an outside source. Intellectual Property One of the defining issues of the Internet era is intellectual property right=. Wha should have ocwnership rights and control over digitized information? Who should be able to determine the availability and access of that information? Thaose are some of the questions concerning intellectuzsl property often debated. The ease of accessing information through the Internet has caused serious concern about protecting intellectual property. including music, movies, digital books, software, and video games. Theft of intellectual property has been an ongoing problem. Software piracy is the illegal copying of copyrighted software. It has become a global problem. Firacy of music, movies. and books is also a growing problem. Millions of people copy songs. digital books, or movies onto their computer or their iPod illegally. They download the media they want for free from 2 peer-to-peer file sharing website like BitTorrent. This process denies the ariginal artists. authors, or entrepreneurs the legitimate compensation they deserve for their work. Let's consider the following scenario. Arthur is a very talented software designer. He has created a variety of programs used in homes and businesses around the globe. As a successtul software developer, he is concerned with protecting his intellectus] property rights. So. what is intellectual property? Intellectusl property refers to the intangible or non-physical right that is the result of original thought, such as musical, literary, or artistic works. Owners of intellectus] property are granted exclusive rights through copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Anexclusive right is a right reserved solely by 3 partioular PErson or roup. Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks Machines and product formulas can be eligible for patents. Arthur copyrights and patents every program he develops to protect his rights. Copyright laws give authors the exclusive rights to their wiork, including the right to make copies. The copyright will last for Arthur's lifetime plus 70 years. A copyright protects literary. musical, dramatic, arfistic. architectural, audio, and audiovisual works from unauthaorized reproduction. Patents are government grants that entitle the inventor to eaclusive rights and prevent others from making. using, offering for sale, or selling the invention. Patents protect physical ohjects, such as product inventions or machines as well as inventive processes for producing a phiysical product. Arthur's patent is good for 3 period of 20 years from the filing date of the patent application. A patent will give Arthur the right to prevent amyone from using. creating. or selling his software or proprictary processes that fall under the terms of the patent. Atrademark consists of a distinctive word, phrase, or symbal that identifies a product or service. Mames, like Pepsi, or symbols, like the Mike swoosh, are considered trademarks. Arthur has a unique symbal to represent his company that he uses for marketing and on all products associated with his business. He can acquire 2 trademark on this symbol because it is unique and he is the first to use it publicly. He willl register this symbol with the LS. Patent Office. He must be careful, though; trademarks can be lost if one squanders them through excessive or improper licensing or if they become generic and thersby enter the public domain. Q pepsi & The Pepsi name and the Mike swoosh are trademarked. Patents vs. Copyrights A software patent is a very powerful protection to have. Patents are harder to obtain and do not last as long as copyrights, but they are important for software developers. Patents can protect features of a program that are not protected under copyright laws. If one of Arthur's programs uses an algorithm. or a step-by-step procedure for solving a specific problem. that is mew, useful, and non-obwvious, he needs a patent to protect it. Therefore, no one else would be able to use Arthur's algorithm in their computer program without being guilty of infringement. Copyrights offer the most basic protection for software. A copyright gives Arthur the right to make and distribute copies of his programs. This is one of the strongest weapons against software piracy. Copyright laws give owners, like Arthur, the ability to prevent others from making copies as well as from creating or selling works that are wery similar to the copyrighted work. The weakness of copyright laws is that they do not offer protection to the ideas underlying the program. leas and concepts could be used by competitors when they are not protected by patents. Arthur's software is considered a form of intellectual property that can be protected by a patent or copyright. It is somewhat different from ather forms of intellectual property because it doesn't fit nicely into either legal framework. The source code of the software is a literary creation which would best fit under copyright protection. Source code is the written instruction of a computer program that is processed by the computer. Howeever, software is also functional, which makes it incompatible with copyright lzws. Software is a physical object that would make it fitting for protection under patent laws. However, as an expressive literary work, it doesn't neatly fit under the patent category either. S5ome argue that given its unusual nature, software should not be eligible for strong copyright or patent protection. Some believe software should be free and that cwmership is obstructive and counterproductive. This thinking has paved the way for the open source movement, which is E3ining momentum. Orpen Source: Definition, Pros and Cons, Examples Open source means the software is distributed for free with accessible spurce code that can be maodified and improved by anyone. The open source movement is comprised of both formal and informal groups of individuals who suppart the use of apen source licenses for software. One formal organization is called the Open Source Initiative (O51). founded in 1998, The OS5 is a non-profit, global corporation that educates and adwocates for the benefits of open source. They are actively involved in the open source community and promaote awareness of the importance of non-proprietary software. Proponents of open source code believe it will lead to the development of better software code, fewer bugs, and more features. Hawe you ever used open source saftware? You may have and not even realized it. A few of the more well-known open source programs are: = GIMPis used for photo editing. It rivals Photoshaop. = Mozilla Firefow is used for web browsing. It rivals web browsers like Imternet Explorer. OpenCffice is a productivity suite containing programs for word processing, spreadsheets. presentations, graphics. databases. and more. |t rivals Microsaft Office programs. = Moodle is a course management system used in online edwcation to hald virtual classes. it rivals eCollege. Blackboard, and AMGEL, among others. SRR N GIMP, CpenOifice, and Moxzilla Firefox are open SOUNCE Programs. Leam more about Open Source Coding https:#youtube/SpeDH 1TPbaw Discussion Questions 1. In general, what did you learn about copyrights as they are applied to computer coding? 2. 5hould MicroSoft protect its code as it maintained for so long legally? 3. What is the impact of security to organizations it their computer code is Open Source