Question 6 Copyright Act The concept of Copyright and its protection in the United States is probably what separated communist China and the democratic United States. In order for the Chinese to become a member of the World Trade Organization theyhad to institute copyright protection laws. Prior to September 15 2004 they didn't understand the concept of people being able to make money from anoriginal idea or creation.http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/39681.htm They believed it belongs to the "state" while in the United States Constitution authors and inventors are granted exclusive right to their "writings and discoveries."1 It is our capitalistic belief that a person onlyhas himself and his skills to sell in the market place to make a living, therefore a persons ideas and discoveries are the labors that are worth moneyand should be protected from intellectual thieves. "The Fair Use Harbor"website http//www.stfrancis.edu/cid/copyrightbay was developed for theuse of educators to know if they are fairly using others works in a fair manner, i.e., as educational material and not as "Kinkos" discovered in the early 1980s as a means to make money off the labors of another [course packets were being put together by professors for their students to use, Kinkos made the copies of these materials and sold them to the students thus making a profit...it cost them $80 million]. Recently we've had big copyrightlegal cases regarding the music industry and Napster (a company thatcreated a means for people to download music without paying for it). It's imperative that copyright laws be diligently protected. 1. Fred T. Hofstetter. Internet Literacy, Third Edition, "Societal Issues". The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. New York, NY, 2003. p. 334. -- LaNita Campbell NEW EMAIL ADDRESS nitacprn@xxxxxxxxxxx[1] "It's just a boxof rain. I don't know who put it there. Take it if you need it. Leave it if you dare." (Phil Lesh) --- Links --- 1 mailto:nitacprn@xxxxxxxxxxx