P. A. Chacko S. J.
Intellectual property is understood as people’s creative works, innovations, personal output etc. It may be expressed in art, literatute, music, symbols, movie script, etc.
Intellectual Property (IP) rights are rights to protect one’s creative output. In our world, where ‘man eats man’, stealing, plagiarising and reproducing works of others as one’s own are practised without qualms. Such acts are immoral and unethical and should be made a criminal offence.
Due permission must be obtained and, accordingly, acknowledgement must be accorded to the author. But, in today’s media world, be it in the Whatsapp university, movie world, or literary field, copy and paste method is used and credit taken without any shame.
Every country should have provisions for protecting IP rights.
If no such restrictions are in place, modern Shakespeares will strut on the world stage as luminaries with copy-pasted Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc. must be vigilant tools, supported by appropriate laws.
Today, AI is gatecrashing into our secure space and creative world. Essays, poems, stories, novels, homework, dissertation, etc. are available to you at the cost of a click. Questions are asked whether AI is not infringing IP rights as it mimics and collates from the global intellectual pool. More thinking and more clarity are needed in this area.