Introduction
This proposal is about the study of copyright issues in a global IT market. It proposes to study how these issues limit and affect both hard and software use hence monopoly by developers and exorbitance in pricing and maintenance. Many software companies like Microsoft use the copyright on their software to exploit their clientele. They know that no other company will or can provide competition to their software hence they overprice it. These copyright issues also hinder compatibility of different software and hardware from different companies. This, therefore, forces a user to stick to one software or hardware brand even if it does not serve ones purposes adequately.
Problem Statement
Copyright is a special right granted by statute to the inventor of an original work to control the use of the product (The Columbia Encyclopedia 2009).
These rights give more leverage to the developers of IT software and hardware to exploit their clients through exorbitant pricing and monopoly. The current paper proposes how to tackle copyrights issue on the global ICT market without infringing on the rights of both the client and the software developing companies.
Objectives
The research project proposes to address the following questions.
- Do copyright issues protect consumer rights?
- Should copyright issues be implemented and who should they protect?
- How and when should copyrights issues be applied without undermining the rights of both the client and the software and hardware developer?
- How can we avoid exploitation of the consumer through copyrights issue in ICT?
Methodology
In order to achieve the research objectives we are going to use both interview and questionnaire methods to get a response from various companies on how copyright issues affect them and their businesses. We will also interview the government officials charged with copyright issues.
Resources
Funds will be involved to travel to these companies and to print out the questionnaires. We will also need internet and library facilities to conduct an in-depth research.
Schedule
Qualifications
I am a master’s student, therefore, I am qualified to do this research and come up with empirical findings that will help solve this problem.
Cost/benefit analysis
It is not correct to give one person or company the exclusive rights to software and hardware development because the rights are often abused. Therefore, the benefit of this research outweighs its cost.
Works Cited
‘Copyright.’ 2009, The Columbia Encyclopedia, p. 11869.