University of Phoenix
Legal Concepts Worksheet
Concept Application of Concept to the Issue of Downloading Reference to Concept in Reading
Intellectual Property
The downloading of intellectual property that is considered a trade secret and sharing it with others is illegal. Intellectual property is basically
divided into two categories: “Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of
source; and copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs.” (World Intellectual Property Organization, 2007) “Intellectual property can be described as the original expression of ideas, as well as symbols and words that represent the products or services of a person and or company.” (Meeting Professionals Internationals, 2007) “Intellectual property illustrates that property is a legal right rather than a physical thing. Intellectual property applies to allow owners to exclude others from (1) intangible resources like certain secrets that business have, (2) the copying of various creative expressions, and (3) the reproducing of inventions and marks that identify the producers of goods and services.”
(Reed et al, p 194, 2005)
Copyright Act of 1976 went in to effect in 1978
“Copyright is a form of intellectual property. Copyright gives a property a certain creative work that keeps others from reproducing it without the owner’s permission.” (Reed et al, p. 206, 2005) As defined by the copyright law, these creative works include literary works, musical works, motion pictures, and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, and much more. To ensure copyright protection it must meet three criteria set by the Copyright Act of 1976. Consequently for the purpose of downloading music off the internet a person could download...