Legal Concepts Worksheet

Legal Concepts Worksheet

MBA560

University of Phoenix

March 3, 2008

Legal Concepts Worksheet

Concept Application of Concept to the Issue of Downloading Reference to Concept in Reading

Formalism and consequentialism two systems of ethics вЂ" applying to downloading music or video from the Internet

Downloading music and or video from the Internet is illegal and unethical if downloading is for profit and or personal gain even though the gain would allow the person to have the needed funds to pay for a college course by selling the downloaded material. The formalist would not support this decision even though the person had a good intent however, the consequentialist would believe that the actions justified the end of having funds to pay for a college course. Formalist requires that the person act with a good intent. “For the consequentialist, lying itself is not unethical. It is the consequences, or end results of lying, that must be evaluated for their ethical implications.” Reed et al, p. 32, 2004)

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, 2004)

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, 2004) 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 music for his or her own personal use but if the person would profit by selling the music this is considered illegal and an infringement on copyrights. “Copyright laws protect authors rather than inventors. The copyright allows the holder to control the reproduction, display, distribution, and performance of a protected work.

The Copyright Act specifies that a fair use of copyrighted materials is not an infringement of the owner’s property.” (Reed et al, p. 206, 2004)

Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998

“U. S. Digital Millennium Copyright law is strict and deems copying of copyrighted music (with the exception of making a copy for your own use) as illegal.” (Nelson, 2008) The law protects copyright owners from the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation or distribution of sound recordings, and digital public performances. Downloading is considered legal for you to purchase a music CD and record it to a MP3 files for your own use. However, uploading the files via peer-to-peer is a breach of the law. “Digital

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