With the rise of a global economic system a desire to establish agreements, which protect works not only within national borders, but also within a "Union" of countries or on an international level, has been expressed. As a consequence a variety of multilateral treaties have been negotiated and adopted by governments. Those shall simplify practice through international standardization and mutual recognition of rights and duties among nations.
TEXTBLOCK 1/3 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659570
Within the EU's goal of establishing a European single market also
An overview of EU activities relating to intellectual property protection is available on the website of the European Commission (DG Internal Market):
TEXTBLOCK 2/3 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659574
The result of this informatisation is the creation of a virtual body which is the exterior of a man or woman's social existence. It plays the same role that the physical body, except located in virtual space (it has no real location). The virtual body holds a certain emancipatory potential. It allows us to go to places and to do things which in the physical world would be impossible. It does not have the weight of the physical body, and is less conditioned by physical laws. It therefore allows one to create an identity of one's own, with much less restrictions than would apply in the physical world.
But this new freedom has a price. In the shadow of virtualisation, the data body has emerged. The data body is a virtual body which is composed of the files connected to an individual. As the
The virtual character of the data body means that social regulation that applies to the real body is absent. While there are limits to the manipulation and exploitation of the real body (even if these limits are not respected everywhere), there is little regulation concerning the manipulation and exploitation of the data body, although the manipulation of the data body is much easier to perform than that of the real body. The seizure of the data body from outside the concerned individual is often undetected as it has become part of the basic structure of an informatised society. But data bodies serve as raw material for the "New Economy". Both business and governments claim access to data bodies. Power can be exercised, and democratic decision-taking procedures bypassed by seizing data bodies. This totalitarian potential of the data body makes the data body a deeply problematic phenomenon that calls for an understanding of data as social construction rather than as something representative of an objective reality. How data bodies are generated, what happens to them and who has control over them is therefore a highly relevant political question.
TEXTBLOCK 3/3 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611761/100438659695
Merck & Co. is a research-driven pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of human and animal health products, and provides pharmaceutical benefit services through Merck-Medco Managed Care LLC. The Company is comprised of two operating segments. Merck-Medco primarily includes sale of non-Merck products and Merck-Medco pharmaceutical benefit services, principally manages prescription drug programs and programs to help manage patient health. Merck-Medco sells its services to corporations, labor unions and insurance companies. Merck Pharmaceuticals consists of therapeutic and preventive agents, generally sold by prescription, for the treatment of human disorders. The Company's human health products are sold to drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, clinics, government agencies, and managed care providers.
The News Corporation Ltd., a global media holding company, which governed News Limited (Australia), News International (U.K.), and News America Holdings Inc. (U.S.) was founded by the Australian-born newspaper publisher and media entrepreneur, Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's corporate interests center on newspaper, magazine, book, and electronic publishing; television broadcasting; and film and video production, principally in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
U.S. company founded on March 18, 1850, as an express-transportation company, but today operating as a worldwide organization providing primarily travel-related and insurance services and international finance operations and banking. Headquarters are in New York City.