I learned from my Intellectual Property Law class that the reason for adopting an intellectual property legal system in the country is to incentivize inventors and creators to create technology and improve processes, the end goal of which is national development and progress. It is undeniable that access to these technology and processes would promote such national objective. However, there is also the conflict between private rights and public good which arises from the fact that the bundle of rights over the invention/creation is vested in the inventor/creator as its owner. I wonder if it is right to give credit to the intellectual pirates for easing access to technology and processes, which we could not have used for educational purposes due to their high prices. In a way, these pirates act like Robin Hood, “stealing” the money from the rich and sharing it with the poor, all for equity and overall progress. I cannot deny that such access may be the only key for some people to learn their way to upward social mobility. But then again, stealing is still a crime and that brings us back to the old debate between justifying means thru ends, or vice versa. Or maybe, the law would just have to catch up with these loopholes.
-Michelle P. M. Sabitsana
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