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== '''[[Digital rights management]]''' ==
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==Footnotes==
'''Digital rights management (DRM)''' refers to the laws and technologies which provide intellectual property owners control over the distribution and use of their material by controlling consumers' use of it. The claimed goals are to prevent copying of digital media and to restrict access and content use to what is allowed by [[copyright]] law.<ref name=Bates>Bates, BJ. (2008) 'Commentary: Value and Digital Rights Management-A Social Economics Approach', Journal of Media Economics, 21:1, 53-77</ref>
 
Critics refer to it as "Digital ''Restrictions'' Management", and argue that many of the restrictions it enforces go well beyond the rights granted by law.
 
==History==
Copyright law is the earliest form of [[intellectual property]] protection.  This area of law developed for print media, long before copying machines and digital media, and has not necessarily kept pace with technology.
=== Legal Background ===
The [[Copyright|copyright]] since its formal creation in 1710 by the British [[Statute of Anne]] and its inclusion in the [[U.S. Constitution]]<ref name=Bennett>Bennett, S. (1999) 'Authors' Rights', Journal of Electronic Publishing, vol. 5, no. 2, Dec., 1999</ref> has been the main protection scheme for intellectual property rights for creative information goods and services.
 
Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the [[U.S. Constitution]]:
''"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."''
 
[[Copyright]] law grants exclusive legal ownership of information under specific conditions and terms. Through two major revisions of U.S. copyright law in 1909 and 1976,<ref name=CopyAct1976>{{citation
| title = Copyright Act (17 U.S.C.) Index
| url =  http://www.bitlaw.com/source/17usc/
| first = Daniel A. | last = Tysver }}</ref>
the range of content and media forms covered by legislation were expanded.
 
During the pre-digital era, large-scale copying was expensive and usually resulted in degraded content. The development of electronic and digital media transformed the production and distribution of information goods and services. In digital form, the content could be copied perfectly or easily converted to another form or format, and thus lifted the physical constraints of copying.  The rise of digital media and networks made sharing and copying not only easier for traditional information "pirates", but also made it easier for individuals.  Unlike the "pirates" whose unauthorized copies were for commercial gain, individual copying stems from behavioral norms from traditions of [[fair use]] and first-sale rights.
 
''[[Digital rights management|.... (read more)]]''
 
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Latest revision as of 09:19, 11 September 2020

The Mathare Valley slum near Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009.

Poverty is deprivation based on lack of material resources. The concept is value-based and political. Hence its definition, causes and remedies (and the possibility of remedies) are highly contentious.[1] The word poverty may also be used figuratively to indicate a lack, instead of material goods or money, of any kind of quality, as in a poverty of imagination.

Definitions

Primary and secondary poverty

The use of the terms primary and secondary poverty dates back to Seebohm Rowntree, who conducted the second British survey to calculate the extent of poverty. This was carried out in York and was published in 1899. He defined primary poverty as having insufficient income to “obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency”. In secondary poverty, the income “would be sufficient for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency were it not that some portion of it is absorbed by some other expenditure.” Even with these rigorous criteria he found that 9.9% of the population was in primary poverty and a further 17.9% in secondary.[2]

Absolute and comparative poverty

More recent definitions tend to use the terms absolute and comparative poverty. Absolute is in line with Rowntree's primary poverty, but comparative poverty is usually expressed in terms of ability to play a part in the society in which a person lives. Comparative poverty will thus vary from one country to another.[3] The difficulty of definition is illustrated by the fact that a recession can actually reduce "poverty".

Causes of poverty

The causes of poverty most often considered are:

  • Character defects
  • An established “culture of poverty”, with low expectations handed down from one generation to another
  • Unemployment
  • Irregular employment, and/or low pay
  • Position in the life cycle (see below) and household size
  • Disability
  • Structural inequality, both within countries and between countries. (R H Tawney: “What thoughtful rich people call the problem of poverty, thoughtful poor people call with equal justice a problem of riches”)[4]

As noted above, most of these, or the extent to which they can be, or should be changed, are matters of heated controversy.

Footnotes

  1. Alcock, P. Understanding poverty. Macmillan. 1997. ch 1.
  2. Harris, B. The origins of the British welfare state. Palgrave Macmillan. 2004. Also, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  3. Alcock, Pt II
  4. Alcock, Preface to 1st edition and pt III.