Ethics in Information
Technology, Second Edition
Chapter 6
Intellectual Property
Objectives
What does the term intellectual property encompass,
and why are companies so concerned about
protecting it?
What are the strengths and limitations of using
copyrights, patents, and trade secret laws to protect
intellectual property?
What is plagiarism, and what can be done to combat
it?
What is reverse engineering, and what issues are
associated with applying it to create a look-alike of a
competitors software program?
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Objectives (continued)
What is open source code, and what is the
fundamental premise behind its use?
What is the essential difference between competitive
intelligence and industrial espionage, and how is
competitive intelligence gathered?
What is cybersquatting, and what strategy should be
used to protect an organization from it?
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Intellectual Property
What Is Intellectual Property?
Have you ever given a CD to a friend that contained a
copy of a computer game or a program?
Have you ever recorded a televised movie to watch later
in the week?
Have you downloaded music or a movie from the Web
without paying for it?
Have you e-mailed a copy of an online newspaper or
magazine article to a dozen friends?
Have you set up a Web site about your favorite band or
actor, with short videos from performances?
Q:Doyouknowwhichoftheseactionsarelegalandwhichareillegal,andwhy?
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Intellectual Property
What Is Intellectual Property?
The value of a painting is higher than the cost of the
canvas and paint used to create it!
The value of intellectual and artistic works comes from
the creativity, ideas, skills, labor, and other nonmaterial
efforts and attributes provided by their creators.
Our property rights to the physical property we create or
buy include the rights to use it, to prevent others from
using it, and to set the (asking) price for selling it.
Would you produce something if anyone else can just
take it away?
Q:Howisitimportantfortheindividual/societytoprotectintellectualproperty?
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Is:
Term used to describe works of the mind
Distinct and owned or created by a person or
group
Intangible creative worknot the particular physical
form on which it is stored or delivered.
Given legal protection in the form of copyright,
patent, trademark, and trade secret laws.
The owner of a physical book may give away, lend, or
resell the one physical book he or she bought, but not
make copies.
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Laws:
Copyright law
Protects authored works
Patent laws
Protect inventions
Trade secret laws
Help safeguard information critical to an
organizations success
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Copyrights
Copyrights are granted for a limited, but long, time
[Life + 50 yrs in 1976; 1998: Life + 70 years, 95
years for corporate work].
With some exceptions, copyright owners have the
exclusive right to:
Make copies of the work,
Produce derivative works,
Distribute copies,
Perform the work in public, and
Display the work in public.
Author may grant exclusive right to others
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Copyrights (continued)
Types of work that can be
Architecture
Art
Audiovisual works
Choreography
Drama
Graphics
Literature
Motion pictures
Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition
Copyrighted:
Music
Pantomimes
Pictures
Sculptures
Sound recordings
Other intellectual works
As described in Title
17 of U.S. Code
Copyrights (continued)
To get Copyright:
Work must fall within one of the preceding categories
Must be original
Evaluating originality can cause problems
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Copyright Law
Fair-Use Doctrine
Permission to use the work is not required.
Allows uses of copyrighted material that contribute to
the creation of new work and do not significantly
affect sales of the material, thus depriving copyright
holders of their income.
Allows some research and educational uses as well
as news reporting and critiquing.
Guidelines for determining Fair Use are found in law.
Q:HowdoestheFairUseDoctrinedistinguishbetweenphotocopies
madebystudentsandthosemadebyworkersinacorporation?
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Four Factors in Fair Use(1976)
Purpose and nature of use, including whether it is for
commercial $$ purposes or nonprofit educational
purposes.
The nature of the copyrighted work. Creative work such
as a novel, music, art, have more protection than
factual work after all the facts are the facts.
The amount and the significance of the portion used.
The effect of the use on the potential market or value of
the copyrighted work. Uses that reduce sales of the
original work are less likely to be considered fair use.
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Copyrights (continued)
Copyright infringement
Copy substantial and material part of anothers
copyrighted work
Without permission
Area of copyright infringement
Worldwide sale of counterfeit consumer supplies
Copyrights to protect computer software exist
To prove infringement, copyright holders must show
a striking resemblance between the original software
and the new software that could be explained only
by copying
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Copyrights (continued)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Agency of the United Nations
Advocates for the interests of intellectual property
owners
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Added new provisions to WIPO
Civil and criminal penalties included
Governs distribution of tools and software that can
be used for copyright infringement
Opponents say it restricts the free flow of information
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Patents
Grant of property rights to inventors
Patents are granted for a limited time.
Patents protect new ideas by giving the inventor a monopoly on
the invention for a specified period of time (e.g. 20 years).
Issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Permits an owner to exclude the public from making, using,
or selling the protected invention
Allows legal action against violators
Prevents independent creation
Extends only to the United States and its territories and
possessions
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Patents (continued)
Applicant must file with the USPTO
USPTO searches prior art
Takes an average of 25 months
Prior art
Existing body of knowledge
Available to a person of ordinary skill in the art
Patent infringement
Someone makes unauthorized use of a patent
No specified limit to the monetary penalty
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Patents (continued)
An invention must pass four tests
1. Must be in one of the five statutory classes of items
Processes
Machines
Manufactures (Such as objects made by human and machines)
Composition of matter (such as chemical compounds)
New uses of any of the previous classes
2. Must be useful
3. Must be novel
4. Must not be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the same field
Items cannot be patented if they are
Abstract ideas
Laws of nature
Natural phenomena
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Patents (continued)
Software patent
Feature, function, or process embodied in
instructions executed on a computer
20,000 software-related patents per year have
been issued since the early 1980s
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Issues For Software Developers
Copyright or Patent Software?
There is disagreement about whether copyright is
the appropriate protection mechanism for
software.
Some argue for patents, some for completely new
rules designed specifically for software.
There are two aspects to the debate.
First, what is the nature of a new program? Is it an
invention, a new idea? Or is it a writing, an
expression of ideas, algorithms, techniques?
Second, what are the practical consequences of
each choice in terms of encouraging innovation
and production of new products?
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Practical considerations
Should You Copyright or Patent Software?
Copyrights:
Protect the expression of an idea in a fixed and
tangible form.
Are cheap, easy to obtain, and last a long time.
Allow fair-use of the intellectual property.
Patents:
Protect new, non-obvious, and useful processes.
Are expensive, difficult to obtain, and last for short
periods of time.
Allow licensing to other developers.
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Software Patents (continued)
Before obtaining a software patent, do a patent
search
Software Patent Institute is building a database of
information
Cross-licensing agreements
Large software companies agree not to sue others
over patent infringements
Small businesses have no choice but to license
patents
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Patents (continued)
Defensive publishing
Alternative to filing for patents
Company publishes a description of the innovation
Establishes the ideas legal existence as prior art
Costs mere hundreds of dollars
No lawyers
Fast
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Patents (continued)
Standard
is a definition or format
Approved by recognized standards organization
(ISO,ANSI)
Or accepted as a de facto standard by the industry
Enables hardware and software from different
manufacturers to work together
Submarine patent
Hidden within a standard
Does not surface until the standard is broadly
adopted
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Patents (continued)
Patent farming involves
Influencing a standards organization to make use of
a patented item
Demanding royalties from all parties that use the
standard
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Trade Secret Laws
Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) established
uniformity in trade secret law
Trade secret
Business information
Represents something of economic value
Requires an effort or cost to develop
Some degree of uniqueness or novelty
Generally unknown to the public
Kept confidential
Computer hardware and software can qualify for
trade secret protection
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Trade Secret Laws (continued)
Information is only considered a trade secret if the
company takes steps to protect it
Greatest threat to loss of company trade secrets is
employees
Nondisclosure clauses in employees contract
Enforcement can be difficult
Confidentiality issues are reviewed at the exit
interview
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Trade Secret Laws (continued)
Noncompete agreements
Protect intellectual property from being used by
competitors when key employees leave
Require employees not to work for competitors for a
period of time
Safeguards
Limit outside access to corporate computers
Guard use of remote computers by employees
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Trade Secret Laws (continued)
Trade secret law has a few key advantages over
patents and copyrights
No time limitations
No need to file an application
Patents can be ruled invalid by courts
No filing or application fees
Law doesnt prevent someone from using the same
idea if it is developed independently
World Trade Organization (WTO)
TRIPs Agreement provides for a minimum level of
protection for intellectual property
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Summary of the WTO TRIPs Agreement
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Legal Overview: The Battle Over
Customer Lists
Employees make unauthorized use of an
employers customer list
Customer list not automatically considered a trade
secret
Educate workers about the confidentiality of such
lists
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Key Intellectual Property Issues
Issues that apply to intellectual property and
information technology
Plagiarism
Reverse engineering
Open source code
Competitive intelligence
Cybersquatting
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1. Plagiarism
Theft and passing off of someones ideas or words
as ones own
Many students
Do not understand what constitutes plagiarism
Believe that all electronic content is in the public
domain
Plagiarism detection systems
Check submitted material against databases of
electronic content
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Plagiarism (continued)
Steps to combat student plagiarism
Help students understand what constitutes
plagiarism
Show students how to document Web pages
Schedule major writing assignments in portions
Tell students that you know about Internet paper
mills
Educate students about plagiarism detection
services
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Partial List of Plagiarism Detection
Services and Software
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2. Reverse Engineering
Process of taking something apart in order to
Understand it
Build a copy of it
Improve it
Applied to computer
Hardware
Software
Convert a program code to a higher level design
Convert an application that ran on one vendors
database to run on anothers
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Reverse Engineering (continued)
Compiler
Language translator
Converts computer program statements expressed
in a source language to machine language
Software manufacturer
Provides software in machine language form
Decompiler
Reads machine language
Produces source code
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Reverse Engineering (continued)
Courts have ruled in favor of using reverse
engineering
To enable interoperability
Software license agreements forbid reverse
engineering
Semiconductor Chip Protection Act (SCPA)
Established a new type of intellectual property
protection for mask works
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3. Open Source Code
Program source code made available for use or
modification
As users or other developers see fit
Basic premise
Software improves
Can be adapted to meet new needs
Bugs rapidly identified and fixed
High reliability
GNU General Public License (GPL) was a
precursor to the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
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4. Competitive Intelligence
Gathering of legally obtainable information
To help a company gain an advantage over rivals
Often integrated into a companys strategic plans
and decision making
Not industrial espionage
Nearly 25 colleges and universities offer courses or
programs
Without proper management safeguards it can
cross over to industrial espionage
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A Managers Checklist for Running an
Ethical Competitive Intelligence Operation
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5. Cybersquatting
Trademark is anything that enables a consumer to
differentiate one companys products from
anothers
May be
Logo
Package design
Phrase
Sound
Word
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Cybersquatting (continued)
Trademark law
Trademarks owner has the right to prevent others
from using the same mark
Or confusingly similar mark
Cybersquatters
Registered domain names for famous trademarks or
company names
Hope the trademarks owner would buy the domain
name
For a large sum of money
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Cybersquatting (continued)
To curb cybersquatting
Register all possible domain names
.org
.com
.info
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN)
Current trademark holders are given time to assert
their rights in the new top-level domains before
registrations are opened to the general public
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Summary
Intellectual property is protected by
Copyrights
Patents
Trade secrets
Plagiarism is stealing and passing off the ideas and
words of another as ones own
Reverse engineering
Process of breaking something down
In order to understand, build copy, or improve it
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Summary (continued)
Open source code
Made available for use or modification as users or
other developers see fit
Competitive intelligence
Not industrial espionage
Uses legal means and public information
Cybersquatting
Registration of a domain name by an unaffiliated
party
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