Patents and Copyright- Feudalism and Cyberspace

The concept brought up in the lecture this week was feudalism and it’s connection to the systems of the web in today’s society. Ted brought up an interesting idea that was completely new to me. I had never heard of feudalism before so learning about the ways in which the feudal lords had control of the land despite the vassals paying for and using it was extremely interesting. Economy revolved around land in those days, but what happens when economy revolves around attention, information and the Internet?

It’s link to the way Facebook and other social media platforms have control over content is uncanny and made me rethink what content I was sharing on these platforms. Social media has so much control over our lives and like the vassals, we are only renting these spaces.

The differences between patents and copyright outlined in this week’s reading allow people to distinguish between the two forms of intellectual property and recognise how they influence feudalism. Patents apply to specific implementations of ideas. The idea is that no one can legally use the same idea, even if independently rediscovered, without the permission from the patent holder (Boldrin & Levine, 2007). Copyright has a narrower focus and is longer in duration. Both affect content online and have an enormous influence on the ways in which we interact and share content with others. Despite these, however, Facebook and other social media platforms have ownership of your content as soon as you post online. It’s a scary though but definitely needs to be considered.

References:

Boldrin, M & Levine, D (2007), ‘Against Intellectual Monopoly’, Economic and Game Theory, Chapter 1, accessed 06/09/2015, <https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/439956/mod_resource/content/1/Boldrin%2C%20M.%20-%20Introduction%20to%20Against%20Intellectual%20Monopoly.pdf&gt;.