“Heavy” file sharers’ and “heavy” activists’ values and attitudes toward file sharing and intellectual property rights are analyzed in this thesis, with a focus on the conflict between property owners and non-owners. The purpose of this MA thesis is to investigate the perception of file sharing and intellectual property rights on the Internet. The main research questions is: How do “heavy” file sharers and “heavy” activists perceive file sharing and intellectual property rights on the Internet?. For answering it, critical political economy and both qualitative and quantitative methods are used. Therefore, the paper consists of two major parts. In the first part, the theoretical framework is introduced. In the second part, empirical research is presented and the theoretical framework is applied to the analysis of the gathered data. Data were collected with the help of a survey. The main results of the study suggest that “heavy” file sharers and “heavy” activists tend to have left-wing values and a left-wing political agenda behind file sharing, and perceive culture, and information and knowledge as “public goods”. Furthermore, “heavy” file sharers and “heavy” activists tend to contribute to the Net gift economy and share their created content in a way that constitutes an alternative to intellectual property rights, which they see as out-of-date.

The first generation of agricultural crops developed using biotechnology have offered the primary producers of the crops agronomic benefits. Some consumers have resisted accepting this technology because of concerns with food and environmental safety, and ethical issues that arise from the processes that are involved in developing these products. The second and third generation of agricultural biotechnology are being developed to offer products with direct benefits to consumers. The focus of this thesis is the second generation, which have added health benefits. Specifically, the obstacles to commercialization of functional foods derived through biotechnology are examined. The three factors which have the potential to set back commercial introduction of functional foods derived through biotechnology are government regulatory uncertainty, consumer aversion and brand risk, and gaining access to intellectual property. The regulations governing functional foods are examined to show the regulatory ambiguity that exists in Canada. Comparisons are drawn to other nations. Literature that focuses on consumer aversion to agricultural biotechnology is reviewed, along with consumer preference studies with regards to genetically modified (GM) foods with and without health benefits. Transaction cost economics literature is used to analyse the problems related to gaining access to intellectual property and the resulting supply chain implications. Three separate theoretical models are developed to examine each of the three factors separately. Government regulatory uncertainty is incorporated into an expected profit model to show the effects of increased uncertainty on the expected profit from a new technology. A heterogeneous consumer preference model is used to show the effects of changing consumer preferences on the market share of the firm introducing the GM functional food to the market. Simulation analysis using this model shows the effects of changing variables on the market shares of three products in the market. Finally a stylized model of the vertical market shows the effects of increased transaction costs incurred in gaining access to intellectual property on the rent that is available for distribution throughout the supply chain. The results show that these factors could be an obstacle to commercial development of functional foods derived through biotechnology. When the three factors are combined, the rent available for distribution is important for the success of the supply chain. Multiple bilateral monopoly negotiations cause this rent to be less than optimal. Increased levels of government regulatory uncertainty, consumer aversion and brand risk, and costs gaining of access to intellectual property decrease the expected rent available for distribution. This could be a problem facing developers of functional foods derived through biotechnology.

Downloading information from the Internet is an incredibly popular activity. Some of the information is used for scholarly or educational purposes, some is used for entertainment, as well as all sorts of other purposes. Books, movies, video games, and music are being downloaded by an increasing number of Internet users. Some of these digital files contain information that is perfectly legal to use and share but a great majority of these files are illegal to download. Recent technological developments in digital and Internet technologies have made the downloading of both legal and illegal digital content very easy and very fast. These technological developments have brought about a tension between two conflicting interests among Internet users. One of these interests drives people to download content illegally and the other interest drives people to act in ways intended to stop such illegal downloading. Much legal attention has been given to this issue in the past few years, but little sustained philosophical attention. In this thesis I discuss the moral issues that come along with the illegal downloading of information via the Internet with a focus on music files. I present the issue of illegal music downloading through the use of a scalar utilitarian theory with a focus on preference satisfaction. I conclude that the act of downloading is in aggregate morally permissible, and further, that the status quo bundle of intellectual property rights (copyright) that protect these files should be removed. Also, I provide a rough sketch of how all people concerned can satisfy both of the conflicting interests (mentioned above) through the use of copyleft protections.

Turbo Code, due to its excellent error correction capability, has been widely used in many modern wireless digital communication systems as well as data storage systems in recent years. However, because the decoding of the Turbo Code involves finding all the state probability and transition sequence, its hardware implementation is not straightforward as it requires a lot of memory and memory operation. In this thesis, a design of Turbo Code decoder IP (Intellectual Property) is proposed which can be parameterized with different word-lengths and code rates. The design of the core SISO (Soft-In Soft-Out) unit used in Turbo Code decoder is based on the algorithm of SOVA (Soft-Output Viterbi Algorithm). Based on the hybrid trace-back scheme, the SISO proposed in this thesis can achieve fast path searching and path memory reduction which can be up to 70% compared with the traditional trace-back approach. In addition, every iterative of Turbo Code decoding performs two SISO operations on the block of data with normal and interleaving order. In our proposed architecture, these two SISO operations can be implemented on a single SISO unit with only slightly control overhead. In order to improve the bit error rate performance, the threshold and normalization techniques are applied to our design. In addition, the termination criteria circuit is also included in our design such that the iteration cycle of the decoding can be reduced. The proposed Turbo Code decoder has been thoroughly tested and verified, and can be qualified as a robust IP.

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A Study on the Relationship of Production Value, R & D Investment, and Intellectual Property in High Technology Industries Chih Chin Yang* and Ping-Yi Chao** Department of Business Administration, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China Abstract Intellectual capital is often defined as a belief that is true and justified. This defined has led to its market and product values. This study of the valuation proposed a new model of intellectual capital including content classification with experiment, experience, and knowledge elements and infrastructure classification with finance, human, and facility elements. This thesis proposed a new theory of intellectual capital and a valuation approach with production and market. After an in-depth review and case analysis of leading firms in this field, a holistic intellectual capital model is discussed, which involves transport, delivery supporting, and interface and systems of on intellectual capital. Through a quantity study and empirical study, it is found that there is a significant relationship between the six intellectual capital elements, including three elements of content and three elements of infrastructure in a company, and its market and product values. The purpose of this study is to investigate the six elements of intellectual capital, ie experiment, experience, knowledge, finance, human, and facility elements, and their interrelationships within all high-technologies in Taiwan. The main conclusions from this particular study are that: positive relationship between infrastructure of enterprise and content of enterprise is important regardless of all high-technology industries type; the relationship between infrastructure and product value is positive and significant; the relationship between content of enterprise and product value is important for high-technology industries. The final specified models in this study show a robust explanation of business performance in product value within the high technology industries in Taiwan. *Graduated student **Advisor

Advanced Encryption Standard is new standard for data encryption and decryption.There is a lot of relevant research so far, but how to find out the suitable design according to the demand has become an important question. So we consult different improvement methods from relevant research, do the design space exploration of AES hardware circuit design with the modeling of parameterized IP Generator.We choose non-feedback mode AES design, which can offer higher security. Using the submodule as different design parameter such as SubBytes/InvSubBytes¡BMixColumns/InvMixColumns¡BKeyExpansion to form many kinds of AES hardware circuit. SubBytes/InvSubBytes¡BMixColumns/InvMixColumns module include two different structure, Integrated and Separate Encryption/Decryption module. KeyExpansion module include two different structure, on the fly and Store in Rom.There are three different keylength 128¡B192¡B256, which can form forteen different structure. We provide circuit gate count¡Bthroughput¡Bpower consumption information of different AES hardware citcuit design by the synthesis and gate-level simulation result. According to our implementation, the user can choose the suitable AES hardware circuit design method and which can solve the problem above. We also provide an automatic test pattern generator for our design verification, it makes our design can be integrated efficiently. Our experiment result show that, the design which Encryption/Decryption module use integrated structure have less circuit gate count than which Encryption/Decryption module use separate structure while throughput constraint is between 700MHz to 1300MHz (It¡¦s depend on different keylength combination). But while the throughput constraint become higher, the circuit gate count of integrated structure rise faster than separate structure. And the situation is the same with power consumption.The maximum throughput of KeyExpansion module use store in Rom structure is higher than whcich use on the fly structure.

The knowledge-based economy has been the main source of strength for the growth of enterprise. Due to the constant innovation in technology and shortened product lifespan, current developments cannot deal with the rapid change in industries or compete with other products. As a result, innovative research and patent implementation has become necessary for the existence of an industry. Product research and development consists of high technology, professionalism, and knowledge. Explicit and tacit knowledge is stored either in individual or department data. Patent application can therefore affirm product rights. The study aims to understand the possibility of processing the patent implementation and provide a functional method for research and development. The product is protected by the patent. It also avoids the violation of intellectual property rights when collecting industrial information while advancing product development and innovation.

<p>Inom EU så finns det två alternativa patent som innovatörer kan välja emellan, det europeiska och nationella patentet. Europeiska patent har visat sig inte vara tillräckligt rättssäkra och ekonomiskt överkomliga. Det beror på den risk som finns med flera patenttvister och motsägelsefulla domar.</p><p>Det är därför som EU vill skapa en inre marknad för patent på EU-nivå. Det vill skapa ett gemenskapspatent och en europeisk patentdomstol. Gemenskapspatentet kommer vara ekonomiskt överkomligt, och genom en europeisk patentdomstol kan den göras rättssäker. Nationella patent kommer inte att ta del av en sådan konstellation. En europeisk patentdomstol kommer sakna behörighet vad gäller nationella patent.</p><p>Alla aspekter i en inre marknad för patent på EU-nivå kan tänkas ha en negativ inverkan på nationella patent. Författaren syfte är att utreda hur nationella patent påverkas.</p>

<p>De rättsliga regler som skyddar företagsspecifik information finns i lagen (1990:409) om skydd för företagshemligheter. Lagen innehåller en definition av begreppet företagshemlighet. Definitionen uppställer ett antal rekvisit som samtliga måste vara uppfyllda för att en information ska utgöra en företagshemlighet och därmed skyddas av lagen. En företagshemlighet omfattas av tystnadsplikt. Ett olovligt anskaffande, utnyttjande eller röjande av en företagshemlighet är i lagens mening ett angrepp på företagshemlighet som i vissa fall kan utlösa både straff- och skadeståndsansvar. I de allra flesta fall leder dock angrepp på företagshemligheter endast till skadeståndsansvar. Ansvarssubjekt kan enligt lagen vara affärspartners, arbetstagare, i vissa fall även f.d. arbetstagare samt andra som kommer i kontakt med en näringsidkares företagshemligheter. Den tystnadsplikt som åligger dessa kan vara avtalad eller underförstådd. Arbetstagares tystnadsplikt bygger ofta på den arbetsrättsliga lojalitetsplikten. I ett fåtal fall är tystnadsplikten reglerad i FHL. De gärningar som är kriminaliserade i lagen är företagsspioneri och olovlig befattning med företagshemlighet. I ett fåtal fall kan andra straffrättsliga regler bli aktuella. Straffansvar inträder oavsett om skada har uppkommit. Övrigt missbruk av företagshemligheter är skadeståndsgrundande i den mån skada har uppkommit.</p><p>Lagens skadeståndsregler utgör specialbestämmelser som ska tillämpas före bestämmelser i SkL och allmänna kontraktsrättsliga regler som endast har getts en kompletterande funktion. Ett undantag från denna principiella utgångspunkt är MBLs företräde framför FHL. Skadeståndsbestämmelserna i FHL har utformats efter förebild från dels immaterialrätten, dels arbetsrätten, särskilt MBL. Skadestånd enligt FHL kan således utgå både i form av ekonomiskt och allmänt skadestånd. Införandet av allmänt skadestånd har i förarbetena motiverats med de bevissvårigheter som kan uppstå när en näringsidkare ska styrka den ekonomiska skada som denne lidit. Tanken är att skadeståndet ska vara en verkligt effektiv sanktion. Genom att domstolarna utnyttjar möjligheten att utdöma allmänt skadestånd ska enligt förarbetena skadeståndet kunna sättas på en högre nivå än vad som skulle ha blivit fallet om endast ett ekonomiskt skadestånd kunnat dömas ut.</p><p>En studie av rättspraxis på området visar att domstolarna inte lever upp till de intentioner som lagstiftaren gett uttryck för i förarbetena. Genom att analysera ett flertal av de rättsfall som finns på området har jag kommit fram till att detta beror på avsaknaden av en uttrycklig minimiregel för bestämmandet av det ekonomiska skadeståndet. Förarbetena kan, enligt min mening, tolkas som att en sådan minimiregel varit lagstiftarens avsikt men att detta inte kommit att uttryckas tydligt. Min uppfattning är att denna brist på tydlig vägledning påverkar domstolarnas praxis på så sätt att utdömda skadestånd i vissa fall blir omotiverat låga. Problematiken är enligt min mening generell men den är särskilt påtaglig i de fall där en angripen näringsidkare misslyckas med att styrka att angrepp lett till ekonomisk skada. I de fallen har domstolarna endast dömt ut allmänt skadestånd. Bristen på klara hållpunkter för vad ett allmänt skadestånd är ersättning för och framför allt vilka belopp som kan utdömas skapar en rättsosäkerhet som borde vara lätt att åtgärda. Att införa en minimiregel efter mönster från immaterialrätten är mitt förslag på lämplig åtgärd inte minst med tanke på att detta rättsområde ligger närmast skyddet för företagshemligheter.</p>