The Problem of Copyright Issues and Public Playing - Essay Example

? Anything Intellectual Property Intellectual Rights can be treated as the juridical concept which refers to formations from the intellects and for which exclusive rights are granted. According to the intellectual property law, ownership rights are granted to a variety of intangible assets which include musical, literary works. Some common intellectual Property Rights are copyrights, patents, rights on industrial designs. The aim of the law of intellectual property is to promote business. The economic performance of a country can be enhanced greatly when the government takes the initiative to fill the gap in the basic human rights enjoyed by the citizens. The government can do so by providing effective legal mechanisms for the citizens who are willing to seek just compensation for the property rights owned by them. There are property rights in the alternatives among all the legal asset uses as well as on the freedom from the politically imposed constraints n the asset usage. Rights are available in the alternative among the legal ways of income generation and also on the capability to hold back the income generated by the users of the assets. Rights are accrued in excluding all third party usage of assets which can use it for their benefits, the freedom exist on the holder to sell the owned asset to the highest bidder or the owner can also move into some agreement and legally transfer the rights to the bidder. Types of Intellectual Property Rights In democratic societies there are few problems between the coercive and the pre-emptive powers of the state and individual rights and freedom. Democracy lacks the potential to protect the rights as democratically protected governments can make some changes that may lead to deprivation for some rights to the minority of the society. There is no simple match between the allocation of the property rights and the ownership concept. Patent refers to intellectual property which includes some important rights from state government to inventor of an intellectual property for a specific period of time. The inventor can disclose the invention in public after patenting the innovation. Basically, application of patent must includes required number of claims that can describe the invention clearly. These claims need to meet the patentability requirements like non obviousness and novelty. Copyright refers to legal protection of an original work. It is given by governments to the creator of an original work if the creator applies for copyright for publishing original work to the public. Generally, copyright is given for a limited time. The owner of the asset can apply for copyright so that the other users cannot replicate the invention. In case of the music industry the musicians can apply for copyright for the original content so that the other musicians cannot use the content in any other means. By holding the copyright the owner of the asset can use it for personal benefit. It is also a form of securing intellectual property like patent and trademark and applicable for any expressible for of real idea or information. The original work or invention might be subjective or descriptive like unique design of a show. Trademark is a distinctive sign which represents legal registration factor of a product or a service. Trademark is generally used by businesses and it also can be used by any individual. This used by businesses for ensuring customers that the product is comes from a unique source to a specific market. Trade mark is a pre registration stage of a product or service. Therefore, the owner of a trademark can sue legal proceedings for any kind of trademark infringement activity. The company can initially use trademark (TM) symbol to promote the brand before final registration of the product. Registration of a product especially for getting license to use R sign requires quite long time. Therefore, the company should trademark the brand or product to promote in the market and also to receive trust from target customers about the quality authenticity of the product. Legal rules and regulations on business in a country have substantial impact on the business. Businesses also get several benefits by abiding by necessary legal policies implied by government. Legal registration of business as well as patent, copyright and trademark related to its products and services are very necessary for getting finance from creditors. Sourcing of finance is main part of a business which needs these basic characteristics of a business. Therefore, the company needs to complete all legal requirements for future benefit of this business. The copyright holders approached the internet keeping two objectives in mind. They approached as a threat as well as challenge to their power over the sources of information and a new opportunity to generate profits. Rules that should govern sharing of intellectual property The owners of the musical works are given some rights with the aim to stimulate the originality and creativity and for the enrichment of the society. Awareness of the rights is necessary for the users to wishes to use the musical works for research and academic purposes. The musical works embodied in phonorecords have multiple layers of involved Intellectual Property Rights. The emerging digital technology coupled with increasing use of computers the communication technology has integrated into information technology which has given rise to issues based on copyrights and it is anticipated that more issues are likely to get cropped up in the future as well. The proliferation of computer networking and the ease of distribution raise concerns about copyright. There were three objectives behind designing copyright. Copyright was designed to reward the creators for the original creations, to encourage the availability of the original works to the common people and to provide access and usage to the copyrighted materials by the public under some circumstances. In the modern world music is distributed by digital modes. The method of digital distribution gained huge popularity in the last decade. There was a transition from traditional sources towards storage on home based computers. The music that is transmitted in this fashion is mostly played through portable devices. There is little difference between copyright and e-copyright. The distinction lies in the process the music has to be decoded by the user. The music that is published in electronic format is protected as their printed equivalent. The fair dealing arrangements provide the users of printed information to have allowances for copying as well as distribution. The illegal distribution of music also affects the industry. Music is often distributed to the unauthorized consumers. High speed internet coupled with compression in protocols enables the distribution more easy job. The innovation was marked by Napster which was welcomed throughout the globe which was witnessed with millions of users of the software (Bozina, Dumancic and Knezevic, n.d. p. 22-23). The record subscribers of Napster suggested the introduction of new business model in the industry and to modify the copyright laws that governs the industry. The work of music should belong to the author during the moments of creation. The authors should be entrusted with the rights of controlling the public performance of their creations. The persons who is willing to play the music publicly or gain advantage from it or wants to use it somewhere else got to have permission for the author by offering an appropriate fee for the permission. Playing of original CD can be banned in public. Being a content of music, a music CD can be regarded as the item for private ownership but the music content cannot. It can be labeled on each CD that the intellectual property rights of the producer as well as the owner are agreed upon. It can also be stated that the unauthorized copying of the content or public performing is strictly forbidden. The Laws on Intellectual Property can be made more stringent and should have the power to distinguish recording of backup copies, copies that are used for personal purposes from pirate recordings. The law should be concerned with every recordings of music and their copying shall be treated as illegal without the permission of the creator. Implications on social welfare If the above stated rules on Intellectual Property Rights are implemented the music industry will find the way again towards its success. Currently with increased piracy and copying of either patented or copyrighted music the creators are not getting the right incentives for their creations. The development in technology in the past two decades has affected the music industry in the global market as well as in the transitional countries. The turbulence in the music industry was caused by rapid growth of internet popularity and distribution of music. The society needs to maintain the tradition of good music and move on the path of creating more music. If the creators are not rewarded for their creations they will lose the interest of creations and slowly but steadily the creation of original music will become limited. Such a situation will not be good for the society but if the current trends continue then the music industry will face the problem of original music soon. Intellectual Property Rights have never been into much discussion. It is undoubted that understanding of the intellectual property rights are important is determining the policies that will pave the economy towards progress. An economy can achieve the path of growth if all sections of the economy follow the same path. Piracy of commercial music as well as private copying of music without the legal permission of the owner of the original works is responsible for the infringement of copyright. It has been anticipated that rich countries can be regarded as the main beneficiaries of the intellectual property rights. According to the recent statistics United States ranked top on the chart followed by United Kingdom. The governments of all countries need to recheck the commitment towards protection of intellectual property rights on the music industry. It has to analyze and examine the loopholes existing in the policy implementations. Music lovers have witnessed abuse of the law and are of the opinion that the long standing grievance can be further complicated by the mixing of the old composition by the new competitors and the composers will have to move through a patient phase. Violation of copyright can be treated as a worldwide phenomenon and the laws prevailing in most countries can be made more stringent and powerful as the aim should be to protect the intellectual property rights for all industries that relates to intellect and not only the music industry. Conclusion The problem of copyright issues and public playing has not been the problem pertaining to a single country. It has been the problem of the globe. The problem is not concentrated in the music industry as well. The creations of the intellects are surrounding every field where intellects are required for creation. The intellectual property rights were intended to safe guard the rights of the authors. The authors are often ignored from their desired rewards and their creations are copied. The copied material is used in public and therefore the creators face losses. Therefore the inventors try to patent their products so that no other persons can copy the content. Copyright legally provides protection to the material. If it is found that the copyrighted material is used by someone without the permission of the author of the original work, the creator can take legal actions against that person. In the discussion some rules that can make the Intellectual Property Rights more stringent have been mentioned. The implementation of the stated rules will bring welfare to the society reducing piracies. The authors will also get appropriate rewards for their creations. Works Cited Bozina, M., Dumancic, K. and Knezevic, B. The Impact of Internet on IPR – A Case Study of Music Industry in Croatia. (n.d.). Web. 6 December, 2012. 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