Introduction
Creativity is a rare trait, and it should be protected in every way possible. Intellectual property is an intangible material that is the outcome of creativity. Patents, copyrights, trademarks, and designs come under the category that are used to protect the work from copying. It helps the rightful owner to protect his rights under the umbrella of the law. However, there is a law for intellectual property on an international level, but these legislations may differ according to countries. Dyson presented the idea of intellectual value in 1995. In this article, he presented the ideal of future digital age and the way intellectual property will be used and protected. Now, in the book “A Gift of Fire,” the idea of digital age intellectual property is given. In below discussion, the view of Dyson will be discussed in comparison to modern era intellectual property.
Discussion
Dyson’s View about future of Intellectual property in “Digital Age.”
Dyson presented his article about Intellectual value in 1995, and at that time, the era of the internet just started. According to Dyson, the economics of content will entirely change because the net is the place of copy and paste so it will be difficult to protect intellectual property (Dyson et al.). For him, many challenges were coming from the writers, publishers, sellers, and creators. It is difficult in this new world to fund information but copying any material is an easy task. The future of intellectual property was perceived to be less secure because of less commercial life but more intrinsic value. The quality of material would decrease whereas creativity will be a lot more. All these things were identified by Dyson, and they were completely true. He referred it as different as it is for a person to be on mood.
In the real digital world, the fair use doctrine is followed where most of the content is protected so that the publishers and authors can get true value for their work (Base and Henry). There are different packages and policies related to copyright that come at a different price. Dyson analyzed this correctly by identifying that not all the content would be free and it will serve as an advertisement. However, to improve the attractiveness of the digital market, most of the material will be offered free for copying. At that time, the advertisement was a poor tool because it was made for a mass market while it was identified that in the digital market where there will be one to one relation, the advertisement would be of high quality (Dyson et al.). His main concern was that the lifetime of value would be reduced to half. The disruptive innovation would become so common that technologies will come and go in days. This same thing is happening in this modern world. In the past, it was difficult to replace items with one another however now the content of same quality is available everywhere that it seems like seeing one thing is seeing all. Most of the things were described in the perspective of software, and it is true that software industry is the one that is affected by internet the most. Now there are much software that are available free of cost just because of the internet.
Accurate or Close Accurate Views since the Article was published
Many views were described in the article “Intellectual Value” that proved to be true in this digital age. The things identified about free of cost and low-cost content is evident with most of the websites operating just based on the advertisement. He mentioned that advertisement would be the main source of the websites. It was said that the payments would not come from the readers or viewers, but advertisers would pay for the content (Dyson et al.). This same thing is happening now, as there are many famous people or influential celebrities that are contacted for marketing the products and companies. All these things have made entertainment cheaper for the audience. Even there are tools available that can be used for sharing content legally without paying any money (Baase and Henry).
Another fact that was identified states that though the cyberspace has no boundaries, it can be limited by the quantity of attention given to it. The more value a person or community place on it, its area becomes wider. There is also a problem with the creators because it makes them worried about whether they will be paid for their creativity or not (Dyson et al.). This thing was frightening for most of the people however it is shaped by the supply and demand law. However, intellectual property rules have made it easy because people can now secure their rights.
Conclusion
The comparison in the current digital world and how Dyson perceived it 23 years back is made in above discussion. It seems like most of the predictions made by him were correct. Even the concept of data metering was identified where instead of paying a long-term fee at a time or charging an hourly fee, companies charge users according to the amount of data they use. It also protects the rights of customers because they do not have to pay for the data they do not have access. These things show that Dyson had a clear idea about what will happen in future with the intellectual property. The details of all the property rights including software, content, and multimedia were given by him because he had a clear idea about what will the digital era do with intellectual property.
Works Cited
Baase, Sara and Timothy Henry. A gift of fire: social, legal, and ethical issues in computing technology. 2018.
Dyson, Esther et al. “Intellectual Value.” WIRED. N. p., 1995. Web. 4 Apr. 2018.
