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.