On the internet...

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Technology has shaped our culture ever since the steam engine was created in the 1780s. It has changed the way we live our lives. It has revolutionized the way we learn and how we do certain things. It has diversified our perspectives and priorities in life. Technology has since evolved and is now an integral part of our daily lives. In the past, information was only acquired through traditional means such as going to school, earning a degree or reading published media such as books and newspapers, watching TV or listening to the radio. Nowadays, there are a lot of ways to acquire information. Because of the development of technology and the creation of the internet which began in the 1990s, information has now become more accessible and available at the touch of our hands through the use of computers and mobile phones. The internet has become an online platform where people can share whatever they want to share. People share their ideas, their products, and their life through the internet. The internet has become a free market of ideas, products and services, however, it became problematic because there seems to be no universal law or policy in terms of how the internet should be censored or regulated. The regulations usually depend on a country’s own laws and policies.

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Before we continue, we have to define and describe the culture that technology has created online. The internet culture has been defined as free culture. What is free culture? It is defined as the, “space that supports and protects creators and innovators.” This means that whoever participates in the online world has the freedom to post and share whatever they have created such as ideas, thoughts, products and more. This freedom has been abused in a way that content posted online are not always original. Some of the things posted online are either fabricated or fake.  To prevent theft and to continue to uphold the credibility of information that can be accessed online, intellectual property or copyright laws were created.


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Nowadays, content posted online is subject to copyright laws. What are copyright laws? We have to first understand what intellectual property is. It is referred to as the creations of the mind that are being introduced, bought and sold or traded at a specific market which is the internet. Intellectual property is divided into two categories. First is industrial property, these are patents for inventions, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications. Second is copyright, these are literary works, films, music, artistic works and architectural design. Copyright also includes the works of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and broadcasters in their radio and television programs.

The internet is a free market of ideas and content but there are certain guidelines that need to be met to keep the integrity of the content posted online. These guidelines are used to protect innovators and creators and it gives them the right to claim where credit is rightfully due.

We need to be aware that the law adjusts to the technologies we currently have.

OTHER REFERENCES
N/A. What Is Intellectual Property? World Intellectual Property Organization. Retrieved from http://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/intproperty/450/wipo_pub_450.pdf on May 7, 2017.

N/A. (2012) Copyright Basics. United States Copyright Office Circular 1. 

Lessig, Lawrence. (2004) Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to  Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. Penguin Press, NYC. 


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