Case Study: Chapter 6

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

VIGNETTE “RIAA Fights Music Piracy”

Questions to consider:

1.)  Is the RIAA’s strong stand on copyright infringement helping or hurting the music recording industry?

Ans: I think it helps the music recording industry, so to prevent it’s better to buy an original copies not copyrighted. In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect the intellectual property and First Amendment rights of artists and music labels; conduct consumer, industry and technical research and monitor and review state and federal laws, regulations and policies.

2.)  Could an ISP’s implementation and enforcement of the RIAA’s multitier strategy have a negative impact on the ISP?

Ans: Though the RIAA says the music industry has fully embraced the Internet as a major channel for distribution to consumers, the group has called on the Federal Communications Commission to endorse efforts to curb illegal downloads of copyrighted works.

Lotus v. Borland

Discussion questions:

1.) Go to your school’s computer lab or a PC software store and experiment with current versions of any two of the Quattro, Excel, or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet programs.  Write a brief paragraph summarizing the similarities and differences in the “look and feel” of these two programs.

 

Ans: Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (now part of IBM). It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment. While the Microsoft Excel is a commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.

For me I like excel because I can run it using visual basic program.

2.) The courts took several years to reverse their initial decision and rule in favor of Borland.  What impact did this delay have on the software industry?  How might things have been different if Borland had received an initial favorable ruling?

Ans: Because we hold that the Lotus menu command hierarchy is copyrightable subject matter, we further hold that Borland did not infringe Lotus's copyright by copying it. Accordingly, we need not consider any of Borland's affirmative defenses.

3.) Assume that you are the manager of Borland’s software development.  With the benefit of hindsight, what different decisions would you have made about Quattro?

Ans: If ever that I ‘am the manager of the Quattro the first thing to do is to resign my employment so that we can protect our company to the illegal. Because we all know that even if you are the manager you have obliged to face any problems, to face in the court and for the investigation so be careful for your employee.