Intellectual property illustrates some very important paints about property in general.
First， copyrights and patents should make clear that property is a product of the law rather than naturally occurring. Without law， there would still be inventions and novels， but there would be no property rights in them.
Second， intellectual property makes clear that there is no single conception of the ownership of property. The duration of the property interest， for example， is twenty years， for a patent， the life of the author plus seventy years for a copyright， and as long as it is commercially valuable for a trademark. In copyright but not patents there is a concept of fair use， so that the copyright owner s interest is not exclusive. In each case， the law constructs what it means to own property， and the definition differs with respect to different kinds of property.
Copyright， a branch of law granting authors the exclusive privilege to reproduce， distribute， perform， or display their creative works. The goal of copyright law is to encourage authors to invest effort in creating new works of art and literature. Copyright is one branch of the larger legal field known as intellectual property， which also includes trademark and patent law. Copyright law is the legal foundation protecting the work of many major industries， including book publishing， motion-picture production， music recording，and computer software development.These industries accountfor considerable economic activity in the United States， making copyright law a field of enormous economic importance. Not every productof the human imagination is eligible for copyright.
To qualify for copyright protection， a work must be both fixed and original. The law considers a work to be fixed if it is recorded in some permanent format. Acceptable ways of fixing a work include writing it down， storing it on a computer floppy disk， recording it on video tape， or sculpting it in marble. If a poet thinks of a new poem and recites it to an audience before writing it down， copyright does not protect the poem because it is not fixed. To be original， the work must not be copied from previously existing material and must display at least a reasonable amount of creativity. For example， if an author writes the words“the sky is blue”on a piece of paper， copyright does not protectthe words because they lack sufficient creativity. Short phrases and titles are usually notprotected by copyright， butin some circumstances they may be protected by trademark law.
Copyright only protects the words， notes， or images that the creator has used. It does not protect any ideas or concepts revealed by the work. If， for example， a scientist publishes an article explaining a new process for refining oil， the copyright prevents others from copying the words of that article. It does not， however， prevent anyone else from using the process described to refine oil. To protect the process， the scientist must obtain a patent. Similarly， if a novelist writes a book about a man obsessed about killing a whale， other people may write their own books on the same subject， as long as they do not use the exact words or a closely similar plot.
privilege / privilid /n. 特权；优待；基本权利
eligible / elidbl/adj.合格的，合适的；符合条件的；有资格当选的
sculpt /sk lpt/vt.雕刻；造型vi.造型；雕刻n.雕刻品
obsessed / b sesd/adj.着迷的；无法摆脱的
ownershi p of property 财产所有权
property i nterest财产收益
ori gi nalcreati on原创
copyri ght protecti on版权保护
1. air use （合理使用） ： Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows imited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders， uch as for commentary， criticism， news reporting， research， teaching or scholarship. It rovides for the legal， non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in nother author s work under a four-factor balancing test. Theterm“fair use”originated in the United States， but has been added to Israeli law as well； a similar principle， fair dealing， exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions haveother limitations and exceptions to copyright.
2.wnership （所有权） ： Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over roperty， which may be an object， land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership nvolves multiple rights， collectively referred to as title， which may beseparated and held by different parties. Theconceptof ownership has existed for thousands of years and in all cultures. Over the millennia， however， and across cultures what is considered eligible to be property and how that property is regarded culturally is very different. Ownership is the basis for many other concepts that form the foundations of ancient and modern societies such as money， trade， debt， bankruptcy， the criminality of theft and private vs. public property. Ownership is the key building block in the development of the capitalist socioeconomic system.