INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE (ADVANCED)

 

BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE (ADVANCED) 32. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

 

A Copyright infringement Joe Reggiano is a record company executive. ‘Internet users exchange music over the Internet by uploading and downloading files from each other’s computers. They call this file swapping or file sharing, but if the sites have not made agreements with copyright holders to do this, it’s just theft. These people are infringing our copyright, we need to be able to continue to sell our content – our music – if we are going to pay our royalties to the performers – its creators – and make a profit and stay in business. B Technical protection ‘The problem is that everything on the Internet is in digitized form – the language of computers and the Internet. In the past, copying, for example from records onto tape, meant a loss of quality. But now, people can make perfect copies of music or films and there is no loss of quality. We want to find technical means of encryption so that records and films cannot be copied. We are working with equipment manufacturers on a system of electronic or digital watermarks – technical means to identify the source of all material. But of course, there will always be people who find ways of breaking this encryption – our defences will have to become more and more technically advanced.’ C Legal protection EXERCISES 32.1 Complete the extracts from two letters with expressions from A opposite. 1. People don’t want the hassle of going to a record shop and buying records. The music industry, in Europe at least, has been very slow to set up its own download sites. If it did this, the (1)_________ _________ would be less attractive. (2)_________ are the only way of making money for musicians. The music industry should start thinking of other says of making money from its (3)_________ _________. Which letter was written by opponent and which by supporter of free downloading of music? 32.2 Match the two parts of these sentences containing expressions from B and C opposite. 1 By reducing the copyright protection for music software, a this technology to other companies. 2 Technology is catching up with the problem of identifying recordings, and we are b and we will be looking to share what we’ve learned with other file-swapping sites.

ANSWER KEY