Legal Issues Now that we have looked at ethics, some of these issues are also dealt by the law. We will consider laws in the following catagories: Intellectual Property cover theft of ideas, creations, music, movies etc. Hacking laws: cover intrusions into networks, subsequent fraud, theft and damage. Electronic communication laws: govern interception, retrieval and disclosure of and keystrokes. –Other laws: address use of computers for unlawful purposes.

Copyright Copyrights protect expression of ideas such as: A poem; sound recording; a novel. Copyright does not protect the idea itself: The idea of a romance novel. A recipe: Sorry your grandmother’s famous cookie cannot be copyrighted… However, if your grandmother wrote the receipe in an engaging manner – then the writing would be protected (but anyone can still rewrite it and make the recipe read bland). Copyright only applies if the author is known. Cannot copyright anonymous works. Facts, well-known expressions etc., cannot be copyrighted. If you want to copyright something  you must make it available to the public. You cannot copyright secrets.

Copyright for Digital Objects The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) –Digital objects can be subject to copyright. –Cannot circumvent or disable antipiracy functionality built into an object. –Cannot sell or distribute objects/devices that disable antipiracy functionality. –These objects/devices can be used for educational/research purposes. –You can make a backup copy (e.g., backup of a CD/DVD) –Lending libraries can make up to 3 copies

Patents: When copyright doesn’t work Copyrights: Works of arts, literature, writing :: Patent: inventions, tangible objects or ways to make them. Patents protects an invention. Patents do not protect works of mind. E.g, mathematics.

Trade secrets –when copyrights and patents are not enough. Both copyrights and patents require that the work be published (made known). So some items are kept a secret – called trade secret. E.g., formula to make Coca Cola™.

Other laws –hacking laws: cover intrusions into networks, subsequent fraud, theft and damage. –electronic communication laws: govern interception, retrieval and disclosure of and keystrokes. –other laws: address use of computers for unlawful purposes.

Hacking law: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) Protects against intrusions to computers (includes any computational device such as smart phones etc). The computers protected are those that are: Being used in finance industry or Government or used to perform transactions with finance industry or Govt. Used in interstate commerce. E.g., when you use a computer to access a site across state lines.

The Electronics Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) Communication cannot be intercepted without authorization. So most monitoring is illegal unless: Authorized. Authorization can be got through various means: By publishing acceptable usage policies Through a “terms and service” conditions By banners.