In week 10 of this course, we discussed copyrights in quite detail. However, I realised that even though the word ‘copyright’ is always being thrown around nowadays, I never fully understood the definition. That’s why I felt it would be a good idea to write a short blog in order to explain it.
What is the difference between the traditional idea of copyright and intellectual property?
Copyright is the monopoly of an idea or product for a limit amount of time. Copyrights and patents are, in essence, the same. For example, a patent for a drug is when a company develops a new drug, which no other company is able to reproduce for a specified time period.
Originally the idea of a copyright is the physical and visible manifestation of an idea, rather than the idea itself, which is the intellectual property.
(e.g. quoting a paragraph is copyright infringement, but if you use your own words, you are using someone else’s idea)
What does the latter imply?
The wording of “intellectual property” conjures the perception of possession, and that there is a limit to who is able to possess such property.
Distinguish between a rivalrous and non-rivalrous resource.
A rivalrous resource is something that is depleted when one is using it. Thus, an idea, for example, is a non-rivalrous resource.
rinaldhooosterman 