We have learned that the law should always be a balance of private rights and the public good. The same thing applies to Intellectual Property Law. Since IP rights are statutorily created, it sometimes defy logic. As in the example above, sometimes it is difficult to accept how we have to pay so much for the protection of these rights and we often wonder if it is in fact just. More importantly, because the goal of granting IP rights to the creators is to encourage creativity and knowledge, we should also ask how limiting the access to products such as books by adding so much to the price, helps achieve this goal. Although it seems fair to give credit to the authors and creators who labored and sacrificed, there are studies that show that most of the profit do not go into their pockets, but to their publishers. As they say, knowledge is the building block to more knowledge. And the more stringent our IP laws are in curtailing the use of knowledge, the more stagnant our Thank God for the invention of the photocopying machine!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
How IPL is Ruining your Life
"In 2010, the annual in-state cost for the typical state university soared to more than $15,000, and private colleges now charge an average of $35,600 a year. As if college kids (and their parents) aren't financially drained enough, there's yet another inflated price they face: college textbooks. College students pay an average of $900 a year on textbooks and other supplies.College textbook prices have skyrocketed by 186% since 1986, and these expensive volumes of knowledge now account for 26% of the overall cost of college. Unfortunately, broke college students are required to purchase these costly books for their classes. At least they can try to sell their books back to local book store at the end of the semester - for a few measly bucks." - http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110535/6-outrageously-overpriced-products
We have learned that the law should always be a balance of private rights and the public good. The same thing applies to Intellectual Property Law. Since IP rights are statutorily created, it sometimes defy logic. As in the example above, sometimes it is difficult to accept how we have to pay so much for the protection of these rights and we often wonder if it is in fact just. More importantly, because the goal of granting IP rights to the creators is to encourage creativity and knowledge, we should also ask how limiting the access to products such as books by adding so much to the price, helps achieve this goal. Although it seems fair to give credit to the authors and creators who labored and sacrificed, there are studies that show that most of the profit do not go into their pockets, but to their publishers. As they say, knowledge is the building block to more knowledge. And the more stringent our IP laws are in curtailing the use of knowledge, the more stagnant our Thank God for the invention of the photocopying machine!
We have learned that the law should always be a balance of private rights and the public good. The same thing applies to Intellectual Property Law. Since IP rights are statutorily created, it sometimes defy logic. As in the example above, sometimes it is difficult to accept how we have to pay so much for the protection of these rights and we often wonder if it is in fact just. More importantly, because the goal of granting IP rights to the creators is to encourage creativity and knowledge, we should also ask how limiting the access to products such as books by adding so much to the price, helps achieve this goal. Although it seems fair to give credit to the authors and creators who labored and sacrificed, there are studies that show that most of the profit do not go into their pockets, but to their publishers. As they say, knowledge is the building block to more knowledge. And the more stringent our IP laws are in curtailing the use of knowledge, the more stagnant our Thank God for the invention of the photocopying machine!
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