Intellectual Property/New York Times – Jayson Blair

Intellectual property is a law that refers to the rights of  artistic and commercial expressions and ideas.

Plagarism is one of the issues that surrounds intellectual property and Jayson Blair, a former New York Times journalist, is one of the most notorious for plagarism and fabrication of his stories and articles. Over his five year work-span at the Times, he has written a substantial amount of articles, many of which were high-profile news events, that were not checked for errors, accuracy, or credibility. He has also been promoted time after time despite his work habits. It was not until years later that his work was reviewed that eventually led to his resignation of the job in 2003.

I absolutely couldn’t believe my eyes when I read about this. How is it possible for Blair to remain so low under the radar throughout the years. “The investigation suggests several reasons Mr. Blair’s deceits went undetected for so long: a failure of communication among senior editors; few complaints from the subjects of his articles; his savviness and his ingenious ways of covering his tracks. Most of all, no one saw his carelessness as a sign that he was capable of systematic fraud.” (NYTimes) - Isn’t it the job of a reporter to be credible; to gain the trust of readers and viewers? It is a huge factor and the heart of journalism.

What Blair did is a great example of what not to do; stealing others work and calling it his, lying about being somewhere when he wasn’t, and creating factitious information about others is a “no no”, especially in the journalism world. This is just one of many scandals of plagarism happening today. It definitely makes you think twice; to not believe everything you hear, see, or read.

As a designer, intellectual property plays a part in surrounding issues such as domain name, copyright, patented, trademarks/secrets, etc. If I had my own company, I would want full rights and protection of my trademarks. For instance, making sure my logo is registered and patent would be of importance.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/11PAPE.html?ex=1367985600&en=d6f511319c259463&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND

http://www.computerlaw.com.au/graphicdesign.html