Some of the issues of property ownership in cyberspace would have to be copyright infringement, software privacy, and jurisdictional issues. Although the Copyright Act has changed throughout history in the United States, it would take great incidents for the act to change. For instance, in the 1980s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was added to the Copyright Act. Unfortunately, it was under a lot of scrutiny based on how the copyright was extended (Tavani, 2004). Some would argue that it didn’t allow the use of fair use and it holstered innovation (Tavani, 2004). In the late 1980s, it was recognized that major software manufacturers would claim to close revenues in software that was copied and used to the software. Arguments that arose were how countries that would copy those software “could not afford to pay the prices set by American software companies for their products” (Tavani, 2004). Other companies worried more about the piracy aspect of it. For example, Microsoft was more worried about piracy as a form of organized crime. The copy of the software would then be resold domestically and internationally (Tavani, 2004). Even though the Copyright Act has developed based on these events, there does come the question of jurisdiction when it comes to cyberspace. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and Uniform Computer and Information Transactions Act (UCITA) are based on how copyright laws affect IP. The UETA focuses mostly on general contracts. The UCITA is more to monitor and control transactions, development, sales, licenses, maintenance, and support for computer software (Tavani, 2004).
Based on the reading of the chapters, we as a society don’t realize the larger power of information in a larger environment until an event or instance redirects our attention. This can be demonstrated through the digital divide. The United States and the United Kingdom are at the top when it comes to the use of information and technology. It is more accessible and more common in these two countries (Tavani, 2004). The access to technology cyber technology to some degree has reinforced racism, and limited access to minority groups, and socioeconomic classes (Tavani, 2004).
I registered for STEM 380 Coevolution of Society, Culture, and Technoloy and STEM 470 Cybersecurity, Surveillance, Privacy and Ethics for next quarter. I am working on a Bachelor’s in Information Technology: Information Assurance. I hope to achieve with this degree a career that I would much love to do more, and help my family in the process.
References
Tavani, H. T. (2004). Ethics and Technology: Controversies, Questions, and Strategies for Ethical Computing. Vitalsource Bookshelf Online.