Today in our readings and in class we discussed
Copyright Abuse, particularly with regards for fair use with regards to digital
content such as music or other media.
This is an important topic, but I honestly feel that the bigger threat
to intellectual freedom is actually patent trolling. While copyright is important, it principally
protects creative freedoms and there is significant room for give and take with
regards to that as acknowledged by fair use laws. Patent trolling targets technical innovations
directly, making it more difficult to develop new technologies or
programs. For instance in 2009 a company
called World Com sued NCSoft for
violating one of its patents. The patent
in particular was for a “System and method for enabling users to interact in a
virtual space.” (https://www.google.com/patents/US7181690?dq=7,181,690) If this patent was upheld, it would in essence
allow World Com to monopolize all digital interactions between people and
machines.
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| Penny Arcade sends up the World Com lawsuit. Copyright held by Penny Arcade. |
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