Intellectual Property

In this chapter in Gift of Fire by Sara Baase, the problem of copyrighting and what can be done about it is addressed. Intellectual property is an original work that is protected by copyright, but , with advances in technology, copyright infringement is becoming easier than ever to get away with. The fair-use doctrine states that, as long as the use of the copyrighted material has a good purpose, then distribution and use of the material is protected under this doctrine. The problem with this is, who has the power to decide what is "fair"? This could be a matter of opinion, and anyone could say their purpose for using copyrighted material is fair. What really causes controversy is whether the use and distribution of copyrighted material has an effect on the market. Free downloading of songs on the Internet could be said to cause a decrease in the sale of Cd's, which would be harmful to the economy, along with being unfair to the copyrighter. A good solution brought up in the chapter is using encryption on hardware and software that prevents copying or viewing without proper authorization (digital rights management technologies). This seems like the best way to prevent copyright infringement. The only problem is, could this go against the fair-use doctrine? There needs to be a balance between all-out copying and use of any and every copyrighted product, and completely stopping the fair use of copyrighted materials.