CISB 412 Social and Professional Issues Understanding Intellectual Property

Reference Materials used in this presentation are extracted mainly from the following texts, unless stated otherwise. Michael J. Quinn “Ethics for the Information Age”, 3 rd edition. Pearson 2009

Announcement Mid Term Date : Monday, 21 st November 2011 Time : 6-7PM (please come 15 minutes before) Venue : DK1 Please ensure you come for this one, no make-up exam will be granted.

Assignment Due Dates 1.Assignment Part 1 - Monday week 7, by 5 PM 2.Assignment Part 2 + Additional task for the session with IT Professionals - Monday week 9, by 5 PM 3.Week 8 Group Exercise – Last Friday, 11 th Nov, by 5 PM

Learning Outcomes At the end of this lesson you should be able to – Identify intellectual properties issues that come with the use of Information Technology – Apply the ethical principles on the issues to establish morality of the action

What Is Intellectual Property? Intellectual property: any unique product of the human intellect that has commercial value. Refers to the creation of the mind. Consists of human knowledge and ideas. – Books, songs, movies – Paintings, drawings – Inventions, chemical formulas, computer programs

Electronic Copyright What is a copyright? – It is a means of legally protecting a person’s intellectual property – Ensuring that other people do not copy or adapt the material. Copyright protection comes into being when the material is created. – A copyright statement is not required in order for a work to be covered by copyright. All kinds of items and mediums are protected by copyright, even electronic resources.

Electronic Copyright Types of items and mediums that are copyrighted include: – Literary works – any original written work e.g. novels, letters, directories, music lyrics, web pages, s, bulletins, etc. – Dramatic works – different from literary works because it includes spoken words or describe actions. – Artistic works – e.g. photos, maps, plans, all pictures, images, logos and other graphics on the Web, etc. – Sound Recordings – Films – include all moving images and video clips. It should be clear that in any one Web page there may be many different copyrights for the text, pictures, icons and sounds.

Electronic Copyright Who owns the copyright? – Copyright is theoretically owned by the creator of the work; – But if the creator is an employee, and the works were created in the course of employment, the copyright will belong with the employer.

Electronic Copyright Different types of works have different lengths of copyright protection. – E.g. Literary, Dramatic and Musical works have protection for 70 years after the death of an author. What can you copy? – It is accepted that information on the Internet is protected by copyright – A work in electronic form on your screen should not be copied any more than a printed work. – As a student or researcher, how do you make your action of taking the ideas from the Internet legal?

Licensing What are licenses? – Licenses authorize individuals or groups to use pieces of software legitimately. – Without licenses, ownership or usage is illegal and those individuals in violation have liability for piracy Types of licenses – Cyberlicenses – Freeware, Shareware – Shrinkwrap licenses - legal agreement, such as a software license, to which one indicates acceptance by opening the shrink-wrap that encloses a product subject to the agreement.

Licensing Freeware Free Software Shareware Nagware Crippleware Abandoneware

Software Piracy Piracy (Merriam-Webster dictionary) 1.robbery on the high seas 2.the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception esp. in infringement of a copyright What is software piracy? – It is the unauthorized duplication of computer software.

Software Piracy Types of software piracy 1.Softlifting: purchasing a single licensed copy of software and loading it onto several computers contrary to the license terms. For example, sharing software with friends, co-workers and others. (Meant for one user only) 2.Software counterfeiting: illegally duplicating and selling copyrighted software in a form designed to make it appear legitimate.

Software Piracy 3.OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture) unbundling: selling standalone software that was intended to be bundled with specific accompanying hardware. 4.Hard disk loading: installing unauthorized copies of software onto the hard disks of personal computers, often as an incentive for the end user to buy the hardware from that particular hardware dealer. 5.Renting: unauthorized selling/renting of software for temporary use, like you would a video.

Software Piracy Common arguments justifying software piracy – All knowledge should be free unless you realize that the tooth fairy doesn't know C++ – No one is getting hurt, except of course every programmer at that time who receives nothing from writing that piece of code. – I could code it if I had the time. Some people have and you're stealing from them if you don't thank them for doing so. – I didn't know it was illegal. Well, now you do. – I’m not using it for business purposes. And you are having fun out of other people’s sweat

Debate Jean, a statistical database programmer, is trying to write a large statistical program needed by her company. Programmers in this company are encouraged to write about their work and to publish their algorithms in professional journals. After months of tedious programming, Jean has found herself stuck on several parts of the program. Her manager, not recognizing the complexity of the problem, wants the job completed within the next few days. Not knowing how to solve the problems, Jean remembers that a coworker had given her source codes from his current work and from an early version of a commercial software package developed at another company. On studying these programs, she sees two areas of code which could be directly incorporated into her own program. She uses segments of code from both her coworker and the commercial software, but does not tell anyone or mention it in the documentation. She completes the project and turns it in a day ahead of time.

Questions?