Intellectual Propert

Andrew

March 6, 2007

Intellectual Property

What is intellectual property? Intellectual property is the right to protect inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, and images that come from the mind. Intellectual property laws give individuals the exclusive rights to patent his/her own ideas. In the article “Copyright Crusaders” by: David Gibson, David Gibson talks about three claimants who all copyrighted their versions of the same idea. The idea was the “footprints in the sand.” The poem is a soft-focus retrospective that imagines life as a walk on the beach with Jesus, a pilgrimage traced by two sets of footprints, the Savior's and the narrator's. Further more the article talks about these three claimants battle over royalties to these exclusive rights. In another article called “Hello Cleveland” by: James Surowiecki, James Surowiecki introduces a small town band trying to make it big in the music business. He discusses how it has become so difficult in today’s world to make profit on selling records because of piracy. Intellectual property protects our creative productions and promotes creativity so we can harvest our rewards.

“Copyright Crusaders” by: David Gibson introduces three authors that all copyright different versions of the same idea. The poem “Footprints in the sand” originally was written in 1936 by Mary Stevenson. “The three claimants are the estate of Mary Stevenson, who died in 1999 at age 76 and said she wrote a version of the poem in 1936 in Chester, Pa.; Margaret Fishback Powers, a poet and co-founder of a children's ministry in Canada, who says she composed "Footprints" in 1964; and Carolyn Carty, a New Jersey woman and self-described "child prodigy" who says she wrote her version in 1963 when she was 6” (cnnmoney.com). Since Mary Stevenson passed away in 1999, the only two remaining claimants are Margaret Fishback Powers, and Carolyn Carty. Each of them wrote a version of the poem “Footprints in the sand” with minor differences. In Margaret Fishback’s version of the poem, she cites a stroll on an Ontario beach with her prospective husband during a troubled time in their lives as her inspiration. Carty's inspiration for the poem came from the death of her grandfather; her role models, she says, were Longfellow and John F. Kennedy. Both versions of the poem differ from the original versions by Mary Stevenson which was inspired by the sight of a cat leaving paw prints in the snow. Both of the remaining claimants are still battling over royalties. Powers has signed licensing agreements with Hallmark cards and wrote a 1993 book about the poem, along with a series of devotionals. On the other hand Carolyn Carty is suing Margaret Fishback Powers, for infringement while at the same time seeking redress from companies that have used her copyrighted version. David Gibson goes on to argue that God and Christianity should not become a business. He also goes on to promote that intellectual property laws are very essential in this controversy, because they protect artists productions and gives them their just rewards.

In the article “Hello Cleveland” by James Surowiecki, James Surowiecki talks about the struggles a small time band in Cleveland had to endure trying to make it big in the music business. The article exposes new technologies that made it a lot easier on the consumer to download music, rather than purchasing the artists album in stores; thus musicians are suffering from the decline in recent record sales, because of piracy. With all of the downloading and streaming