Copyfight - Who's Copyright Is It?

In "Technology and Below-the-Line Labor in the Copyfight over Intellectual Property", by Andrew Ross, there is a debate on who should own a copyright. Ross discusses whether or not the companies or the workers should own the rights to intellectual properties.

Although I can see how the argument for either side can be made, I make an argument for the companies. In reality, copyrights are a very complicated thing. I think that a regular person is more concerned with the profit made from a copyright instead of the actual copyright. It seems to me that dealing with all the responsibility that comes with a copyright might be too much for a person.

When companies get copyrights in their name, they become responsible for that intellectual property. It makes sense that a large group of people will know what to do with whatever intellectual property is being copyrighted over one person. More ideas can go into refining the intellectual property and more experience will be valuable to protecting the copyright and knowing how to handle it properly. Although workers should have some say in what they create, their work is probably safer in the company’s hands. The worker’s ideas have a chance to be advertised properly. Without the company, it is possible that the worker’s ideas would never even reach the public. Even though it seems unfair, this is simply how things work. A lot of times, workers should be grateful that companies even have enough faith in their work to expose it to the public and put their name behind it. A good name and support system behind an idea is sometimes all it takes to make an idea successful.

One day I might be in a position where a company is trying to own the rights to an idea that I came up with. As a future computer engineer, I am looking forward to working for a highly successful and established company. In doing so, I realize that if I happen to produce some helpful and important intellectual property and present it to the company, I will not be the one that gets the fame for it. The company’s name will go behind the idea. I am perfectly fine with this because this is my job and this is what I am being paid to do. As long as I get my money at the end of the day and get the satisfaction of doing my job extremely well, then I will be fine. I’m not becoming a computer engineer to get famous for my ideas. I’m becoming a computer engineer because this is something I want to genuinely do with my life. I can only assume that many other workers feel the same way.