20CS2024 Ethics in Information Technology
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The document addresses key issues in ethics related to information technology, specifically focusing on intellectual property rights, privacy laws, and freedom of expression. It covers topics including copyright and patent laws, the significance of trade secrets, and current issues such as plagiarism and open source code. Furthermore, it discusses the implications of technology on these domains, including software patents, competitive intelligence, and the legal frameworks governing these aspects.
20CS2024 Ethics in Information Technology
- 1. 20CS2024 Ethics in Information Technology Module 3 Rights Key Issues-Intellectual Property Software Copy Intellectual Property - Software related Products- Rights- Patents- Patentable IPR Procedures- Patent Application, Publication, examination, awarding Dr.A.Kathirvel, Professor, DCSE, KITS [email protected]
- 2. Privacy • PRIVACY PROTECTION AND THE LAW —Information Privacy —Privacy Laws, Applications, and Court Rulings —Financial Data —Health Information —Children’s Personal Data —Electronic Surveillance —General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) —Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) • KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES —Consumer Profiling -> data breach, Identity theft —Electronic Discovery —Workplace Monitoring ->Cyberloafing(shopping,FB..) —Advanced Surveillance Technology ->Camera Surveillance, vehicle event data recorder (EDR), Stalking Apps
- 3. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION • FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS —Obscene Speech —Defamation • KEY ISSUES —Controlling Access to Information on the Internet • Communications Decency Act • Child Online Protection Act • Internet Filtering • Children’s Internet Protection Act • Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) • Internet Censorship • Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) • Anonymity on the Internet • Hate Speech & Fake News • Pornography on the Internet
- 4. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY • WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? —Intellectual property is a term used to describe works of the mind —such as art, books, films, formulas, inventions, music, and processes —that are distinct and owned or created by a single person or group. It is protected through copyright, patent, and trade secret laws. —Copyright law protects authored works, such as art, books, film, and music; patent law protects inventions; and trade secret law helps safeguard information that is critical to an organization’s success.
- 5. Copyrights • Copyright and patent protection was established through the U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 8, which specifies that Congress shall have the power “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Rights to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” • A copyright is the exclusive right to distribute, display, perform, or reproduce an original work in copies or to prepare derivative works based on the work. .
- 6. Copyrights • Copyright protection is granted to the creators of “original works of authorship in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.” • The author may grant this exclusive right to others. • As new forms of expression develop, they can be awarded copyright protection. • Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights secured by the owner of a copyright. Infringement occurs when someone copies a substantial and material part of another’s copyrighted work without permission. The courts have a wide range of discretion in awarding damages—from $200 for innocent infringement to $100,000 for willful infringement.
- 7. Copyright Term (28 years) • The Copyright Term Extension Act, also known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act signed into law in 1998, and established the following time limits: • For works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection endures for the life of the author plus 70 years. • For works created but not published or registered before January 1, 1978, the term endures for the life of the author plus 70 years, but in no case expires earlier than December 31, 2004. • For works created before 1978 that are still in their original or renewable term of copyright, the total term was extended to 95 years from the date the copyright was originally secured.
- 8. Eligible Works • The types of work that can be copyrighted include architecture, art, audiovisual works, choreography, drama, graphics, literature, motion pictures, music, pantomimes, pictures, sculptures, sound recordings, and other intellectual works, as described in Title 17 of the U.S. Code. • To be eligible for a copyright, a work must fall within one of the preceding categories, and it must be original. • Copyright law has proven to be extremely flexible in covering new technologies; thus, software, video games, multimedia works, and web pages can all be protected.
- 9. Fair Use Doctrine • Copyright law tries to strike a balance between protecting an author’s rights and enabling public access to copyrighted works. • Following four factors when deciding whether a particular use of copyrighted property is fair and can be allowed without penalty: • 1. The purpose and character of the use (such as commercial use or nonprofit, educational purposes) • 2. The nature of the copyrighted work • 3. The portion of the copyrighted work used in relation to the work as a whole • 4. The effect of the use on the value of the copyrighted work
- 10. Software Copyright Protection • The use of copyrights to protect computer software raises many complicated issues of interpretation. • For example, a software manufacturer can observe the operation of a competitor’s copyrighted program and then create a program that accomplishes the same result and performs in the same manner. • To prove infringement, the copyright holder must show a striking resemblance between its software and the new software that could be explained only by copying. —Java, developed at Sun Microsystems during the early 1990s. Today it is the most popular programming language for developing Android smartphone applications and is also used to code the software that runs many routers, switches, and other network devices. —Google wrote its own version of Java to implement the Android OS used in smartphones
- 11. Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act of 2008 • It also increased trademark and copyright enforcement and substantially increased penalties for infringement. • One of its programs, called Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP), is a network of over 150 experienced and specially trained federal prosecutors who focus on computer and intellectual property crimes. • The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (an international organization comprised of the United States and 33 other countries) estimates that international trade in counterfeit and pirated goods could have accounted for as much as $461 billion or 2.5 percent of world trade in 2013.
- 12. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade • GATT was a multilateral agreement governing international trade. • There were several rounds of negotiations addressing various trade issues. • The Uruguay Round, completed in December 1993, resulted in a trade agreement among 117 countries. This agreement also created the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, to enforce compliance with the agreement. • GATT includes a section covering copyrights called the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
- 13. The WTO & WTO TRIPS Agreement (1994) • The WTO is a global organization that deals with the rules of international trade based on WTO agreements that are negotiated and signed by representatives of the world’s trading nations. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 164 member nations as of July 2016. The goal of the WTO is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business globally. • TRIPS Agreement, to establish minimum levels of protection that each government must provide to the intellectual property of all WTO members.
- 14. World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (1996) • WIPO), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is an agency of the United Nations established in 1967. • WIPO is dedicated to “the use of intellectual property as a means to stimulate innovation and creativity.” • It has 185 member nations and administers 25 international treaties. • Since the 1990s, WIPOhas strongly advocated for the interests of intellectual property owners. • Its goal is to ensure that intellectual property laws are uniformly administered
- 15. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) • The DMCA (Public Law 105-304) was signed into law in 1998 and implements two 1996 WIPO treaties: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The act is divided into the following five sections: • Title I (WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act of 1998) • Title II (Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act) • Title III(Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act) • Title IV (Miscellaneous provisions) • Title V (Vessel Hull Design Protection Act)
- 16. Patents • A patent is a grant of a property right issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to an inventor. • A patent permits its owner to exclude the public from making, using, or selling a protected invention, and it allows for legal action against violators. • There are six types of patents, with the two of main concern to information technology firms being the utility patent and the design patent. —utility patent is “issued for the invention of a new and useful process, machine,.. —design patent, which is “issued for a new, original, and ornamental design embodied in or applied to an article of manufacture”.
- 17. Patents
- 18. Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (2011) • Passed in 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which amends Title 35 of the U.S. Code, represented a major change in the U.S. patent law. • Under this law, the U.S. patent system changed from a “first-to- invent” to a “first-inventor-to-file” system effective from March 16, 2013. • That means if two people file for a patent application on the same invention at approximately the same time, the first person to file with the USPTO will receive the patent, not necessarily the person who actually invented the item first. • The America Invents Act also expanded the definition of prior art used to determine the novelty of an invention and whether it can be patented.
- 19. Software Patents • A software patent claims as its invention some feature or process embodied in instructions executed by a computer. • The courts and the USPTO have changed their attitudes and opinions on the patenting of software over the years. • Prior to 1981, the courts regularly turned down requests for such patents, giving the impression that software could not be patented. • As a result, during the 1980s and 1990s, the USPTO granted thousands of software-related patents per year. Application software, business software, expert systems, and system software were patented, along with such software processes as compilation routines, editing and control functions, and operating system techniques.
- 20. Software Patents • 2000s, the courts have become more restrictive on the granting of software patents. • 2014, the percentage of business methods patents rejected by the USPTO has increased from 31 percent to nearly 82 percent. • Cross-Licensing Agreements —Many large software companies have cross-licensing agreements in which each party agrees not to sue the other over patent infringements. —For example, Apple and HTC battled for several years over various mobile phone-related patents —In 2016, IBM entered into cross-licensing arrangements with Western Digital covering some 100 patents in the area of distributed storage systems and nonvolatile memory devices. In 2014, Twitter acquired 900 IBM patents, and in 2011, Google acquired more than 2,000 IBM patents in cross-licensing deals.
- 21. TRADE SECRETS • A trade secret is defined as business information that represents something of economic value, has required effort or cost to develop, has some degree of uniqueness or novelty, is generally unknown to the public, and is kept confidential. • key advantages: —no time limitations on the protection of trade secrets —no need to file an application, make disclosures to any person or agency, or disclose a trade secret to outsiders to gain protection. —Although patents can be ruled invalid by the courts
- 22. Trade Secret Laws • Trade secret protection laws vary greatly from country to country. • For example, the Philippines provides no legal protection for trade secrets. In some European countries, pharmaceuticals, methods of medical diagnosis and treatment, and information technology cannot be patented. • Many Asian countries require foreign corporations operating there to transfer rights to their technology to locally controlled enterprises.
- 23. Trade Secret Laws • Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) was drafted in the 1970s to bring uniformity to all the United States in the area of trade secret law • Economic Espionage Act (EEA) of 1996 (18 U.S. Code § 183) imposes penalties of up to $10 million and 15 years in prison for the theft of trade secrets • Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) (Public Law No.: 114-153) amended the EEA to create a federal civil remedy for trade secret misappropriation
- 24. Employees and Trade Secrets • Employees are the greatest threat to the loss of company trade secrets—they might accidentally disclose trade secrets or steal them for monetary gain. • Organizations must educate employees about the importance of maintaining the secrecy of corporate information. • should be labeled clearly as confidential and should only be accessible by a limited number of people • nondisclosure clauses to employment contracts • noncompete agreement prohibits an employee from working for any competitors for a period of time, often one to two years
- 25. Current Intellectual Property Issues • Plagiarism • Reverse Engineering • Open Source Code • Competitive Intelligence • Trademark Infringement • Cybersquatting
- 26. Current Intellectual Property Issues • Plagiarism —Turnitin, a software product developed by California-based iParadigms, supports 15 languages and is used by over 10,000 educational institutions around the world. It uses three primary databases for content matching with over 58 billion web pages, some 570 million archived student papers, and 150 million articles from over 110,000 journals, periodicals, and books.
- 27. CURRENT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES - Plagiarism • Plagiarism can also be an issue in the field of software development. • Measure of Software Similarity (MOSS) is software used to measure the similarities among computer programs written in languages such as Ada, C, C++, Java, Lisp, and Paschal. • MOSS is used to detect plagiarism in computer programming classes and commercial software.
- 28. Reverse Engineering • Reverse engineering is the process of taking something apart in order to understand it, build a copy of it, or improve it. • It was originally applied to computer hardware but is now commonly applied to software as well. • Reverse engineering of software involves analyzing it to create a new representation of the system in a different form or at a higher level of abstraction for e.g., from Access to Oracle.
- 29. Reverse Engineering • Software license agreements increasingly forbid reverse engineering. As a result of the increased legislation affecting reverse engineering, some software developers are moving their reverse-engineering projects offshore to avoid U.S. rules. • The ethics of using reverse engineering are debated. Others argue strongly against the use of reverse engineering, saying it can uncover software designs that someone else has developed at great cost and taken care to protect. • Opponents of reverse engineering contend it unfairly robs the creator of future earnings and significantly reduces the business incentive for software development.
- 30. Open Source Code • Historically, the makers of proprietary software have not made their source code available, but not all developers share that philosophy. • Open source code is any program whose source code is made available for use or modification, as users or other developers see fit. • The basic premise behind open source code is that when many programmers can read, redistribute, and modify a program’s code, the software improves. • A considerable amount of open source code is available, and an increasing number of organizations use open source code.
- 31. Open Source Code • For e.x, much of the Internet runs on open source code; when you access a web page, send a text, or post a status update, you are likely using an open source program such as Linux, Apache HTTP, PHP, Perl, Python, or Ruby.
- 32. Open Source Code • There are various definitions of what constitutes open source code, each with its own idiosyncrasies. • The GNU General Public License (GPL) was a precursor to the open source code defined by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). • GNU is a computer operating system comprised entirely of free software; its name is a recursive acronym for GNUs Not Unix. • OSI is a nonprofit organization that advocates for open source and certifies open source licenses. • Its certification mark, “OSI Certified,” may be applied only to software distributed under an open source license that meets OSI criteria, as described at its website, www .opensource.org.
- 33. Competitive Intelligence • Competitive intelligence is legally obtained information that is gathered to help a company gain an advantage over its rivals. • For example, some companies have employees who monitor the public announcements of property transfers to detect any plant or store expansions of competitors. • Competitive intelligence is not the same as industrial espionage, which is the use of illegal means to obtain business information not available to the general public. • In the United States, industrial espionage is a serious crime that carries heavy penalties.
- 34. Competitive Intelligence • Published information or interviews, as outlined in the following list: —10-K or annual reports —An SC 13D acquisition—a filing by shareholders who report owning more than five percent of common stock in a public company —10-Q or quarterly reports —Press releases —Promotional materials —Websites —Analyses by the investment community, such as a Standard & Poor’s stock report
- 35. Competitive Intelligence • Published information or interviews, as outlined in the following list: —Dun & Bradstreet credit reports —Interviews with suppliers, customers, and former employees —Calls to competitors’ customer service groups —Articles in the trade press —Environmental impact statements and other filings associated with a plant expansion or construction —Patents • Competitive intelligence analysts must avoid unethical or illegal actions, such as lying, misrepresentation, theft, bribery, or eavesdropping with illegal devices.
- 36. Trademark Infringement • A trademark is a logo, package design, phrase, sound, or word that enables a consumer to differentiate one company’s products from another’s. • Consumers often cannot examine goods or services to determine their quality or source, so instead they rely on the labels attached to the products. Lanham Act of 1946. • The law gives the trademark’s owner the right to prevent others from using the same mark or a confusingly similar mark on a product’s label. • IGB Eletronica is a Brazilian telecommunications firm that designs and markets various consumer electronics products, including smartphones, for the Brazilian market.
- 37. Trademark Infringement • In 2000, the firm petitioned the Brazilian Industrial Property Institute (INPI) for the exclusive rights to the product name “iPhone.” • In 2012, just a month before the trademark was to expire. Apple initiated a lawsuit over IGB’s use of the iPhone. • Initially, Brazil’s INPI ruled in favor of IGB’s finding that Apple had no right to use the iPhone name in the country. • Apple then appealed that decision. The judge ruled that giving the Gradiente phone exclusive rights to the name would be unfair to Apple. Thus, the two firms have the right to use the iPhone name in Brazil.
- 38. Cybersquatting • When websites were first established, there was no procedure for validating the legitimacy of requests for website names, which were given out on a first-come, first-served basis. • And in the early days of the web, many cybersquatters registered domain names for famous trademarks or company names to which they had no connection, with the hope that the trademark’s owner would eventually buy the domain name for a large sum of money.
- 39. Cybersquatting • Other tactics can also help curb cybersquatting. For example, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a nonprofit corporation responsible for managing the Internet’s domain name system. • Prior to 2000, eight generic top-level domain names were in existence: .com, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net, .org, and .arpa. • In 2000, ICANN introduced seven more: .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro.
- 40. Cybersquatting • In 2004, ICANN introduced .asia, .cat, .mobi, .tel, and .travel. • The generic top-level domain .xxx was approved in 2011. • Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), enacted in 1999
- 41. Questions?