Current copyright and patent laws are not strong enough to protect programmers' rights, and they even slow down software development and reduce competition; software is not a physical thing and by nature completely defenseless, as it is more or less simply intellectual property, and thus, is very easily copied. ... As illustrate above, software can either fall into the categories of copyrights or patent laws; therefore, there is no perfect protection for software and its programmers. "Copyright law in the US is derived from English copyright law (Statute of Anne) and common law," which ...

• Word Count: 2101
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Information can qualify to be property in two ways; patent law and copyright laws which are creations of federal statutes, which are subject to Constitutional authority. ... It now states that it is illegal to make or to distribute copies of copyrighted material without authorization, except for the user's right to make a single backup copy for archival purposes. ... Therefore, it is not necessary that a copy of the software program be deposited with the National Copyright Office for the program to be protected as copyrighted. ... According to federal law duplicating software for profit, ...

• Word Count: 1391
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Copyright laws were written to protect the original authors work from being copied. These laws were created to impose criminal penalties to those persons who create an unauthorized copy of an authors" work. ... Any individual who obtains a copy of a piece of software without the authors" written consent has committed copyright infringement. ... Although these laws are very strict, the internet and the growing ability to download and copy digital media have made the ability to enforce these laws impossible for one agency alone. ... The laws set up to protect the copyrights are very effective. ...

• Word Count: 843
• Approx Pages: 3

Information can qualify to be property in two ways; patent law and copyright laws which are creations of federal statutes, pursuant to Constitutional grant of legislative authority. ... Title 17 to the United States Code states that it is illegal to make or to distribute copies of copyrighted material without authorization, except for the user's right to make a single backup copy for archival purposes. ... Therefore, it is not necessary that a copy of the software program be deposited with the Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. for the program to be protected as copyrighte...

• Word Count: 3842
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Information can qualify to be property in two ways: patent laws and copyright laws that are creations of federal statutes, which are subject to Constitutional authority. ... It now states that it is illegal to make or to distribute copies of copyrighted material without authorization, except for the user's right to make a single backup copy for archival purposes. ... Therefore, it is not necessary that a copy of the software program be deposited with the National Copyright Office for the program to be protected as copyrighted. ... According to federal law, duplicating software for prof...

• Word Count: 2833
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Helping or Hurting? ... Research has been disrupted and discouraged by this new law. ... Big businesses stretch and abuse the laws of the DMCA. They use the law to impede competition and create monopolies. ... iDVD is Apple's DVD copying software. ...

• Word Count: 1416
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

A major commercial program can take a team of one hundred or more highly skilled and highly paid programmers years to create and sell for hundreds of dollars per copy. ... The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly. ... For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description;...

• Word Count: 3212
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is also something punishable by law. ... The person reading the example is supposed to have a copy of program C and is now faced with the questions of whether or not to let Jim use your copy, or give him a copy either for free or charge him for it. ... The rule and/or law of copyright must be followed." She clearly feels that no matter what copyright says you can't copy any program therefore you must follow that rule. Kristina Black responds "I think that the copyright laws focused on the sharing of the software should be void if the company isn't in business and still distribut...

• Word Count: 1295
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Software Copyright. When a software is being 'copyrighted' it means that it is protected by one or various laws. These may state (a) Its illegal to make a copy of a certain software and then give it away to another person/friend; (b) Software may not be used in a network or on multiple computers without a license to do so; and (c) Code may not be extracted from the software in order to create one of your own, to later be sold. ...

• Word Count: 754
• Approx Pages: 3

Everyone was excited about the results of his brainchild, but this joy would soon turn into a battle for freedom because Napster was freely distributing copyrighted songs. ... It has become more of a battle for personal rights than copyrights. ... Federal law does state that whole copies of music cannot be distributed without paying royalties to the owner, but Napster comes back with their universal argument of not trading the music, but simply providing a platform for the trading to be done on. ... The laws of our constitution will most likely be altered in the near future to prevent electron...

• Word Count: 1049
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The forgers may have made several copies of the cheques and be simultaneously cashing them at different banks/branches as fast as they can before the alarm is sounded. ... "Desktop publishing technologies that enable documents to be scanned electronically and copies made and altered digitally, have provided extensive opportunities for counterfeiting and forgery of documents and the creation of false identities for use in various forms of commercial crime and fraud." ... "In addition, computers are being used to facilitate the theft of intellectual property, particularly copyright in computer s...

• Word Count: 1361
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

A law was passed, USA-PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism), which helps law enforcement fight terrorism. ... This involves how you acquire a product (did you buy it, steal it, copy it, etc.) ... Ever increasing copyright protection and the growth of second-level access controls has been given the approval of congress in several new bills. The first of these, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) granted unprecedented legal authority to corporate distributors. 1201(a)(2) reads as follows: "No person shal...

• Word Count: 2186
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography