Intellectual Property

We have two categories of IP:

Industrial property (trademarks, patents);
Copyright (literary, musical and artistic works: films, paintings, sculptures, drawings and architectural designs, art performances, even radio and television programs).

The right to intellectual property protects the owner from others making copies of his work without authorization.

                                                                       Intellectual theft

Within the legislature we can name:
           the right to control the act of reproduction, e.g. the reproduction of books by
           a publisher, the manufacture of records by a record producer;
           the right to authorize distribution of copies of works;
           the right to authorize rental of copies.

In the era of technology it is very easy to download and copy films, music and other types of works via free programs available on the Internet.

Mind you!

 
There are few exceptions where we can freely use parts of others' works without any authorization, such as:

using illustrations for teaching purposes,
using works for news reporting,
using quotations from protected works but with the author’s name given.

Strict regulations and their execution could protect many from intellectual theft, unfair competition, plagiarism or brand piracy whether just online or in real life.

Intellectual Property Rights on the Internet

We need to be very careful of what kind of stuff AVAILABLE on the Net we use and to which purposes. We often forget about intellectual rights of the authors that (pieces of) works we “borrow” just because everything seems to be so easily AVAILABLE on the Internet. It’s usually not the authors themselves who have given away their works to the wide cyber audience.