Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and citizens may both participate in online gambling and host their own
gambling sites. In other countries, not only is it illegal to host an online
gambling site, but it is also illegal for citizens of that country to use an
online gambling site hosted in a country where it is legal.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property (IP)
, also called intellectual property rights (IPR),
is a legal term that grants people the exclusive rights to the ownership of
content that they have created. “Created” is the important word here.
This can apply to tangible items, such a book, as well as to ideas that
have been documented, such as patents, artistic works, photographs,
and music.
intellectual property (IP)
The exclusive rights
to the ownership of something that has been cre-
ated or produced.
IP has evolved over many years and can now be applied to certain aspects
of computing and the Internet. For example, suppose you design a web
page or produce some written material for a website. Depending on the
nature of the material (and on any agreements you have in place with
others), you may have the exclusive rights to use it because you created
it. In effect, it belongs to you. Intellectual property provides protection
for the owner of the material.
Copyright Laws
Copyright
is a subset of intellectual property but differs in interpretation
and use. Copyright is a legal protection that usually gives the creator of a
work—be it written or artistic—exclusive rights to its use and distribution
for a limited time period. For example, when an author writes a book, he
might choose to obtain the copyright for that book. Then, the author (and
his descendants) will be entitled to royalties from the sale of the topic until
the copyright expires. In many countries, a work's copyright lasts for the
duration of the creator's lifetime plus an additional 50 years after his death.
(Note that in some cases, a book's publisher might hold the copyright on
the work, depending on the agreement struck by the author. Note, too,
that copyright can be limited to geographical boundaries unless there is
some form of international agreement between the parties.)
copyright
The granting of exclusive rights to the
creator of a work for a limited period of time.
There is no symbol to identify IP, but when something is copyrighted,
you will usually see the © symbol along with the copyright owner's name
and sometimes a year. For example, if you look inside the front cover of
this topic, you will see the following copyright: ©2014 John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd. Copyright has become difficult to enforce with the advent of
digital media and the Internet, which make it easy to download and redis-
tribute material. Unless some form of digital rights management (DRM)
is in use, it is impossible to enforce copyright law over so many jurisdic-
tions. (You'll learn more about DRM in the next section.)
Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management (DRM)
involves the use of technology to
control access to copyrighted material. It is a practical attempt to address
the growing problem of the unauthorized copying and distribution of
material. The practice of distributing digital content over the Internet via
file-sharing networks has made the enforcement of traditional copyright
laws difficult.
digital rights management (DRM)
The use
of technology to control access to copyrighted
material.
