Discussion Post: Protecting Intellectual Property
Prompt I:
I have to say on Intellectual property rights issue, I am very conflicted on. On one hand protecting Ideas and information and trade secrets and patrons protects people and companies and lets them focus on selling the product they are the best at. But on a more serious and damaging concern large corporations use IP as a bottleneck and prevent small startups from entering the market. With reduced IP rights you can have more competition more jobs and lower prices of goods. Help fight the uncompetitive economy the largest brands can hire the best lawyers to fight for there Intellectual property rights. To have a true free market we need to let everyone large and small enter the market and removing bottlenecks would help grow the economy.
And I say all this knowing full well if I made a movie that became big I would copyright protect it and sue anyone trying to copy it I am part of the issue. but I feel like copyrighted works are protected too long, the life of the author plus 70 years is just too long. I feel like 50 years after a works been published is plenty of time to capitalize on your work and profit off of your work. Walt Disney fought for years to extend copyright times for works to enter domain in 2024 right now Mickey Mouse will enter public domain. As we get closer to this date I can all but Guarantee Disney will fight this to extend it even more they have to keep the brand under the Disney name. Public domain is important it allows you to use works without license fees or fear of getting sued.
The bottom line is this anything that can help you make money is worth protecting any business will protect its interests and sue anyone treading on there ideas or patrons. removing the competition before it starts. This is why I am conflicted on the matter you have to protect what is yours that is the American way but you have to have a free expression of ideas. This is my libertarian view point coming out but large companies need to stop hording knowledge and ideas to have a true free market. Everyone needs to be able to pursue business ventures and bottlenecks do nothing but protect established brands.
Prompt II:
I am a huge fan of comic books and protecting the intellectual property of Marvel Comics or DC comics can be challenging. One can look at Wonder Man of Marvel Comics and Wonder Woman of DC comics. In 1964, Marvel introduced Wonder Man and DC managed to get Wonder Man killed off quickly. Then in 1972, Marvel introduced Power Man, and DC followed with Power Girl. So, Marvel decided to bring back Wonder Man to spite DC.
In my opinion the best Marvel versus DC was Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel came to be in 1940 by a company named Fawcett. DC sued Fawcett saying Captain Marvel seemed too much like Superman. DC prevailed and Captain Marvel ceased to exist and DC acquired the trademark. Some time later Marvel realized DCs trademark on Captain Marvel lapsed and so Marvel created Captain Marvel again this time a completely different character. So, in 1972, DC tried to license Captain Marvel only to find out Marvel Comics now owned the trademark. So, Captain Marvel stayed with Marvel and DC comics came up with a new character called Shazam. Protecting trademarks is hugely important and without DCs slip up who knows what would of come of captain Marvel.
The response must include a reference list. Using one-inch margins, double-space, Times New Roman 12 pnt font and APA style of writing and citations.