Essay on Intellectual Property

Purpose: In this world of rapid and easy exchange of information online, the gray areas of copyright have become an even darker shade. Is it wrong to copy music or movie files without paying, for example? Information is out there on the web, and many feel that there is a need for intellectual property laws to evolve. A controversy exists in our time over what constitutes intellectual property and how it should be protected. Bills presented in the House and Senate (SOPA and PIPA) aimed to protect businesses against foreign internet theft raised many questions about public internet freedom. Other internet-related intellectual property entities such as open source, creative commons, and fair use doctrine also require scrutiny. As students, you should be aware of current conversations about student intellectual property and ethics involving essays stored online via content management system plagiarism detectors (e.g., Turnitin.com on D2L). File sharing creates new parameters for discovering and determining instances of plagiarism. Intellectual property virtually touches almost any entity that you can think of, from designer knockoffs to medicine, from songwriting to classroom lesson plans. The purpose of the assignment is to develop a research essay with at least two outside sources supporting a thesis that demonstrates a solid understand of what constitutes intellectual property and how the laws govern its protection. You decide which facet of intellectual property to research.

Assignment: Choose an issue involving intellectual property and write an MLA style academic essay. The following "argumentative" strategies are possible for development:

*Comparing and Contrasting
*Defining
*Describing
*Classifying and Dividing
*Explaining Processes