File sharing before the onset of the aspect of Intellectual property was a thing practiced by many since the inventions at the time were aimed at improving the lives of people for the betterment of the society. Ownership was not envisioned. Rather most people saw it as a stepping stone to reducing the problems that were facing the society at the time. Previous inventions would be combined to create a more advanced and sophisticated item without the errors that were present in the previous one. The combinations were programmed to create current versions but in a better format (Kiby, 2015). Creativity was the greatest drive through the application of ordinary aspects of nature by way of emulation.
From file sharing, there is transformation which creates a masterpiece in the improved material. It is, therefore, a tipping point in a line of inventions from different people. Plagiarism, on the other hand, occurs when an individual wrongfully appropriates and steals anothers publication and represents them as their original work. A lot of work is done by a person when bringing a new idea into the market. The manufacturing costs, development costs, marketing costs and many others become useless when such work is plagiarized. The original owner is usually forced to compete in the market with an individual who put in no effort in creating such a product.
When people were sharing files, freely there were no issues of plagiarism since all material was in the public domain and most instances the original owner rarely objected to the same. However with the creation of intellectual property regarding copyright and patents, the inventors are given periods of exclusivity where no one can copy the inventors work and pose it as their own.
When work protected by either a patent or copyright is copied then, the person copying is said to be plagiarizing. This is a criminal offence that leads to hefty penalties if the issue is brought before a court of law and fault is found on the plagiarizer. The inventions have led to the enactment of various legislations that are all aimed at protecting peoples inventions (Kiby, 2015). This is because the owners want to protect their territory so that they can fully benefit from their work and get all the credit to cover their investments and ultimately earn a profit. Countries have also taken a bigger step in protecting their work by the introduction of trade agreements.
Trade agreements aim at ensuring that duplication of a countrys product is prevented globally, and this secures a countrys assets. The result of these trade agreements has resulted to an endless tug of war amongst the world super powers in the end placing the developing countries at their feet to beg for the few opportunities available to develop their countrys technology. Countries with money are able to exploit the market by increasing the exclusivity period to fit them and in the end placing those without finances in a disadvantaged position.
This further explains how and why people want to gain all the credit for something belonging to them and not wanting to share it with anyone else. The rights have however gone to extreme levels making some of the requirements very vague leading to dilution of the main purpose of those laws in the first place leading to endless suits and as a result, most firms running huge losses fighting a losing battle.
References
Kiby Ferguson (Film Maker). (2015). Everything is a remix. New York.
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