Essay Sample on Civilizing Cyberspace Policies

Describing current policies

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

In the current world, there exist the global policies on the intellectual property crime that is of interest to various countries around the globe especially developing ones. The existing policies have got an impact in the economy of the concerned countries. The intellectual property crime is governed by the Trade related aspects of Intellectual property right, shortened as TRIPS that enable the people to privately own the inventions they have made within the industry. TRIPS openly make the owner to restrict access to their ideas or inventions so that they can be able to gain financially in case of any third party commercializing their idea. The existing global policies have some setbacks in that they do not provide for platforms in which all the countries including those developing can compete favorably on ideas and commercialize them for the benefit of their countries and citizens at large. The developing countries lack the necessary agreements as outlined by the World Trade Organization hence the need for them to make the necessary amendments. The existing current intellectual property crime policies gave the mandate to few powerful people in the developing countries to hike the prices of products such as pharmaceutical in their respective countries thus leading to limited access to those products by ordinary citizens.

Advantages of current policies

There are several benefits that the current IP policies give to a given country and its citizens at large. This is in reference to the developing countries which have in several circumstances lost their innovative ideas since they couldnt patent them and make them their own ideas. The presence of the IP policies has ensured that the ideas that are well researched and incubated by people from the developing countries are not hijacked by others. Instead, the policies have made it possible for the real owners to patent the ideas and patent. This has ensured that they make major incomes in case their ideas are commercialized.

Apart from the capability of patenting ones idea, the current policies have encouraged several researchers to commit and come up with ideas which can change and bring solutions to some of the problems experienced in the surrounding environment. The main motivation factor is usually the capability to innovate an idea, patent it, commercialize it in order to earn the owner an income.

Consequences of current policies

According to researchers, the current policies have had a lot of adverse effects on the healthcare sector. These obstacles happen in the developing nation as the few who have researched vastly and developed innovative ideas patent their ideas thus commercializing their ideas to produce drugs in the developed countries. This happens because there is no enough research equipment that can support their work. In this case, the end products are sold to the citizens of the developing nation at very high costs thus making it very difficult to access the products.

TRIPS that was set up by the WTO restricts the current policies from encouraging any local set up of pharmaceutical industries that would support the production of medicine at a cheaper price for its citizens. So, as the developing countries to supply their citizens with affordable products, they tend to struggle to establish imitation industries that would be able to produce generic drugs to their citizens at an affordable and sustainable price.

Another setback that has been brought about by the current policies is the fact that they have allowed the international companies to outsource for cheaper labor and skills in the developing countries. This routine has brought inconsequential factors in the developing countries. These acts have led to deterioration of the economy of the developing country in that the established companies would manufacture goods in unlawful manner and distribute them making the host company lose a lot of money in return. This brings about the instability in the economy of the developing nations.

Practical implications

The policies have been of great assistance to the countries and individuals at large. The fact that one can patent and own an idea has increased the level of research and innovations in the developing and developed countries. Many individuals now engage in research so that they can come up with innovative ideas that would change the way of life and bring solutions to some of the problems people face in the universe.

In conclusion, current policies have been beneficial to some extent. They have led to the protection of innovative ideas by some individuals who initially lost their ideas to middlemen. The innovators can now gain financially from them researches especially when the end products are commercialized. Besides, the possibility of patenting ideas has encouraged further research and innovation among scientists. However, there is need for the current policies to be amended so as to its negative impacts insignificant. For instance, developing companies must be legally allowed to establish pharmaceutical companies to help them strengthen their economies. This would also help them provide affordable health care services to their people. Sound policies will also help protect their citizens from exploitation by foreign companies.

References

Ahuja, S. (2010). Intellectual Property Crime: The Urgent Need for Global Attention. Global Policy, 1(3), 318-320. doi:10.1111/j.1758-5899.2010.00023.x

De Werra, J. (n.d.). Global policies for arbitrating intellectual property disputes. Research Handbook on Intellectual Property Licensing, 353-378. doi:10.4337/9781781005989.00023Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2017). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases.

Jahankhani, H. (2010). Handbook of electronic security and digital forensics. Singapore: World Scientific.

Khor, M. (2002). Rethinking Intellectual Property Rights and TRIPS. Global Intellectual Property Rights, 201-213. doi:10.1057/9780230522923_12

Miller, S. E. (1996). Civilizing cyberspace: Policy, power, and the information superhighway. New York, NY: ACM Press.

Miller, S. E. (1996). Civilizing cyberspace: Policy, power, and the information superhighway. New York, NY: ACM Press.

Parrillo, V. N., Sage Publications, & Sage eReference (Online service). (2008). Encyclopedia of social problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Quinn, M. J. (2017). Ethics for the information age. Boston: Pearson.

Sulston, J. (2002). Intellectual Property and the Human Genome. Global Intellectual Property Rights, 61-73. doi:10.1057/9780230522923_4