Management Intellectual Property

There’s been buzz over the past few weeks concerning how Condé Nast, the New York Times, and other publishing companies are busily preparing digital versions of their various publications. The gist is that they want to be ready for the only-rumored, yet heavily hyped, Apple Tablet. Apparently, the Kids From Cupertino have achieved such a level of credibility that corporations will pour money into preparing for a tablet-style computer that Apple might be thinking about launching maybe next year.

Here we have one more piece of evidence to indicate that the written word has begun its unavoidable migration from paper to the digital media. Good news for tree huggers; bad news for Hammermill, Champion, and anyone who owns a printing press. Not that the tactile enjoyment of a glossy magazine or well-produced book is likely to be replaced by a sterile LCD screen any time soon. And we won’t be closing libraries and replacing them with giant servers in the foreseeable future. Of more immediate concern, however, is the effect the presumed Apple Tablet and the all-too-real Amazon Kindle may have on the source of all that content – the writers.

Over the past 20 years, digitization has changed the music industry. Album sales have declined over the past decade to the point where combined CD and download sales now represent only a fraction of what CD sales alone accounted for in 2000. Thousands of recording industry jobs have disappeared; so have thousands of retail record stores across the country. Today, the primary revenue source for the artists is live performances. Being a rock star ain’t what it used to be. Read the rest of this entry »

Over a hundred years ago Susan B. Anthony and Mary Wollstonecraft were part of a woman’s movement centered on getting women equal rights under the law; the rights to vote and not be considered property. They would not have imagined that one day, on a form of media called television women would play the role of president. The idea of women campaigning on television for the president of the United States would amaze them beyond belief. This article will compare and contrast television “girl power” with all three “waves” of feminist theory. This article will primarily focus on the phenomenal success of the Spice Girls and the Power Puff Girls.

The feminist movement has been divided into three waves. The next generations of women usually draw the line of demarcation. They often distinguish themselves from the last movement with new innovative theories on what it means to be a woman; this is how the waves have been established. The First-Wave as such was developed in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. At the time, their movement was more commonly referred to as the Suffrage movement. They were mainly concerned with human rights issues.

Girl Power and the First-Wave

Two leaders that emerged out of this movement were Mary Wollstonecraft, from the United Kingdom, and Susan B. Anthony from the United States. At this time, women were like property or animals – not human beings. They were considered to be closer to the intellect of a child than a man. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote a book on the issue called Vindication of the Rights of Women. In this book she explores her disdain for her situation. She voices her contempt with the spurious “idea that women are created simply to be ministers to the amusement, enjoyment, and gratification of men” (Wollstonecraft 3). These ideas were woven into fabric of her society. The same was true for Susan B. Anthony in the United States. The laws needed changing. The foundation needed changing. They both were calling for re-education within their society. Read the rest of this entry »