Akademik

(eye-PEE theft)

v.

To take copyrighted material without permission, infringe a trademark, violate a patent, or otherwise steal the intellectual property of a person or company. Also: intellectual property theft.

— IP thief n.

At the Aug. 31 meeting, IFPI's Taiwan branch called on the president to implement more-permanent measures to stamp out music piracy in the territory. Within a week of the meeting, National Police Chief Wang Ching-guan reinstated the highly successful "K-plan" anti-piracy program for three more months, from September to the end of November.

Under the K-plan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs directed Taiwan's Second Security Police force to crack down on intellectual property (IP) theft in all categories, including recorded music.

— Tim Culpan, "Taiwan Gov't Will Support Piracy Fight," Billboard, October 14, 2000

Now that I've explained some of the ways that an IP thief can rip you off on the Net, I hope that I've made you just a little paranoid.

— Mark Grossman, "Why it pays to copyright your Web site," Palm Beach Daily Business Review, November 30, 1999

Sources note several reasons for the rapid rise in IP theft. First, would-be pirates realize that privileged information has become far more valuable than a company's products or other physical assets. In one recent study of U.S. manufacturers, the Brookings Institution, Washington, concluded that hard assets (plant, property, and equipment) made up 62% of those companies' total market value in 1982; the rest of the value was represented by proprietary knowledge. Ten years later, hard assets accounted for only 38% of total value.

— H. Garrett DeYoung, "Thieves among us," Industry Week, June 17, 1996