From OpenSourceSoftwarePractice

Intellectual Property

Contents 1 Reading Assignment 1.1 Associated Material 2 Fundamental Concepts 3 Statutory Licenses 4 History 5 Property 5.1 Eminent Domain 5.2 Apple Record vs Apple Computers 6 US Antitrust Laws 7 Capitalism

Intellectual property involves a body of laws that determine the rights that inventors and creators of works of art have to control the use and distribution of their work.

Reading Assignment

• http://www.free-culture.cc/
• http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html (Flash Presentation)
• http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf

Associated Material

• http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html
• http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/215454/january-08-2009/lawrence-lessig

Fundamental Concepts

• Copyright
  • US Copyright Office
  • Wikipedia Entry
• Patents
  • US Patent and Trademark Office
  • What is a Patent ?
  • Wikipedia Entry
• Trademarks
  • US Patent and Trademark Office
  • Wikipedia Entry

Statutory Licenses

• Compulsory License for Making and Distributing Phonorecords
  • http://copyright.gov/circs/circ73.html
  • What are the rates

History

• Darcy vs Allein
• Steamboat Willie (1928)
• Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
• Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (1976)

Property

Eminent Domain

The law by which the government can appropriate private property

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain
• http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/eminent_domain

Apple Record vs Apple Computers

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Records
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v._Apple_Computer

US Antitrust Laws

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law

Capitalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

Capitalism is the economic system in which the means of production are owned by private persons, and operated for profit[1] and where investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are predominantly determined through the operation of a free market.[2] Capitalism is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and corporations to trade, incorporate, employ workers, and use money, in goods, services (including finance), labor and land. By definition, production and distribution in a capitalist system are governed by the free market rather than state regulation.

Questions

1. Are state-granted monopolies a form of state regulation ?
2. Are state-granted monopolies in favor or against the free market ?