Intellectual property

Intellectual Property (IP) is a term that is used to describe a range of legal protections for creations of the human mind. These protections function as exclusive rights and are parts of an Intullectual Property Law, where owners are granted certain exclusive rights, and are a form of monopoly. Such exclusive rights may be granted in for example a Copyright law, where the author have all rights when it comes to copying, distributing and adapting the work. The Copyright law covers a wide range of works, such as dramatic works, paintings, photographs, sound recordings and so on and so forth. Today, copyright is the most frequently encountered type of IP right.



Another example of rights that are granted is related to file sharing. File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital stored information. Examples of such information are audio, images, computer programmes, video, documents or electronic books. The most common form of file sharing is peer-to-peer. Peer-to-peer file sharing refers to the downloading of a computer file to a user's computer, using software. This further allows the user to make the file availible to other users, also called "peers", hence the term peer-to-peer file sharing. When sharing files, you often use file-sharing networks or web sitesm such as The Pirate Bay - a Swedish web site that hosts torrent files.

A big part og file sharing today evolves around music, mp3 files or other digitized formats. This leads to people buying less records in stores/online, and downloading illegal files instead.

 

Because people all over the world are using their computers and are entering the Internet, the IP Law applies to the web. This way the IP rights can be practiced in somewhat equal ways all over the world.

               

Children and their computers

(http://unnisinblogg.blogspot.com/)

Today, most children have their own computers. This means that they have 24 hours of access to the Internet every single day. Are 9 year-olds mature enough to recognize unappropiate material? Or will they continue clicking on links until they have reached an Internet page which is meant for adults -NOT children? Are they smart enough to realize that they should not post unappropiate pictures of themselves or give out personal information to whatever page that requires it?

There is no doubt that a 9 year-old child is by far more naive and less concious when it comes to Internet security and handing out personal information. There are many people who's jobs are to design and create web-sites where people are told to give up certain information - which leads to them being robbed in some way. How can children become aware of this, and what can be done to prevent children from becoming victims of such web-sites?

Personal data - is it really personal?

Living in today's world, most people have, in some way, communicated where they are or what they are doing. This could be in terms of your facebook status, sms or perhaps an update on twitter, telling your friends and "followers" where you are and/or what you are doing at all times. Is this neccessary? Is this a sign of our need for privacy is increasing? And even more importantly - can this be harming in any way?

Even though the right to privacy is highly developed area in Europe, this is not always followed and respected. Alongside the pleasures and positive aspects of relatively new medias (such as facebook, twitter and so on), some negative effects also occurs. Let us consentrate on facebook. One of the most popular applications on your homepage is publishing photographs. It is also possible for others to publish photographs of you, and unless they do not "tag" you, you will not notice this unless they are your friends on facebook. In other words - if you are at a party where there are strangers carrying a camera, chances are that you will 1. be photographed by someone you o not know 2. have a perhaps unflattering photo of yourself on facebook without you being able to stop it. If this happens, it is a clear vialation of the 8th article of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence". This is of course unfortunate, consirdering most employers usually have a backgroud check on their future workers. If you are hoping to get a job as a teacher, and there are pictures of you influenced by alcohol availible on the Internet, you are unlikely to get a job.

It is one thing to have a couple of bad pictures on the Internet, another thing is to have personal data being published online. Personal data could be defined as any information relating to an identified or identifiable human being, such as criminal record, address, bank statements etc. . In other words - personal data is information which can be linked to you as a human being, and can in some cases identify who you are.

 

So what do you do? Do you keep all your personal information to yourself, including never publishing anything on facebook, or is it possible to regulate your privacy by only publishing things that are appropiate?