Introduction to Intellectual Contributions / Intellectual Property:

Why use the title Intellectual Contributions? This is all thanks to o.net member Azeem Azhar who coined the term with the idea of changing society's mindset when we think of a creator's intellectual work. If we think of the intellectual work as a contribution to society that should be rewarded, rather than a property that has to be protected, maybe we would find better ways of fairly recompensing the creative effort while maximising the social benefit of widely distributed ideas.

Objectives:

1. To discuss how social attitudes towards intellectual property, copyright, and patents, are changing with the advent of digital media and information technology. Should our social policies towards the protection of intellectual contributions change? Should intellectual property laws be evolving as information technology expands to fill our lives and, more important, should there be a broader public discussion before these laws change?
2. To discuss a specific proposal to modify the social contract between creators and consumers of intellectual contributions that reflects the easy with which digital information can be exchanged today. This proposal describes the Collective Rights and Rights Office system for regulating intellectual products. The Rights Office system exercises the minimum of content control while emphasising the importance of author recognition, free flow of information, consumer privacy and the social environmental conditions required for fair trading.

Please go to the workspace for a detailed contents list of the papers and files available that expand on these objectives. Please visit the discussions to put forward your views.