Grace, RE: "It doesn't matter whether or not they... steal"
Agree with all of your post, but have issue with this statement.
I believe laws should be enforced and do not think criminals should be encouraged.
If a bank criminal is put in jail, so should an IP criminal.
In fact, since IP is generally much more valuable than the amount of money a bank robber could possibly carry out of the bank in his or her arms, then IP thieves are much worse than bank robbers by the amount they steal.
Our country goes to great length when $2,000 is stolen from a bank. We put up mugshots of the bank robbers in the US Postoffice, FBI website, newspapers. Yet, an IP thief can steal $200,000,000.00 in intellectual property, yet, there's no mugshot, no posting, no listing, and sometimes no enforcement, especially if it's done overseas we look the other way in our trade policies.
Trade policies need to change to enforce protection of intangible assets, not just tangible assets. The primary is much more expensive than the later, for the most part.
IP theft should be criminalized.
Regards,
Amy J |
