Society, Law and Ethics

Few Important terms

• Online fraud- fraud committed using the internet. e.g. identity theft, fraudulent
payment etc

• Scam-any fraudulent business practice that extracts money from an unsuspecting

,ignorant person

• Digital / Computer forensics- it refers to methods used for interpretation of

computer media for digital evidence.

• Secure data transmission- it means applying enough technical safeguards so that

data travels safely to its target, without being compromised or eavesdropped.

• Eavesdropping- is the act of secretly or stealthily listening to the private

conversation or communications of others without their consent in order to gather
information.
 Ethical Issues
• Ethical issues occur when a given decision, scenario or activity creates a
conflict with a society's moral principles.

Some common ethical issues are:

• Intellectual property rights.
• Plagiarism
• Digital property rights (DPR)
 Intellectual Property Rights(IPR)

• These are the rights of the owner of information to decide how much
information is to be exchanged , shared or distributed.

• It gives the owner a right to decide the price for exchanging

/sharing/distributing .

• Examples of IP - Property which are an invention relating to a product

or any process, a new design, a literary or artistic work and a trademark
 Copyright ©
• It is a legal term to describe the rights of the creator of an original creative work such
as literary work, artistic work, a design , song, movie or software etc.

• Original work of ownership such as books, articles, songs, photographs, sculptures ,

choreography, sound recordings, motion pictures and other works.

• A work must be original, creative and fixed in a tangible medium

• Terms of protection- author’s life +60 more years in India

Patents
• It refers to a collection of exclusive rights given to the inventor for their
invention.

• Inventions such as processes, machines, manufactures, composition of matter

as well as improvements to these.

• An invention must be new and useful.

• Terms of protection- 20 years

Trademark ™
• These are some registered words, slogans, logos, shapes,colours and sound etc used
to distinguish the goods or services of one trader from another.
• Any word,phrase,symbol, design that distinguishes the source of the goods of one
party from those of others.
• A mark must be distinctive – means must be capable of identifying the source of a
particular good
• Terms of protection- For as long as the mark is used in commerce
 Violation of IPR
• Violation of IPR is called IPR infringement.

THREE FORMS OF IPR INFRINGEMENT ARE:

(i) Plagiarism
(ii) Copyright infringement
(iii) Trademark Infringement
 Plagiarism
• “the act of presenting the words, ideas, images, sounds, or the creative
expression of others as it is your creation or your own.”
OR

• Plagiarism is stealing someone else’s intellectual work and

representing it as your own work without citing the source of
information.
So Plagiarism is -
• Plagiarism is stealing of intellectual property
• Plagiarism is cheating
• Plagiarism is an Academic offence
• Plagiarism is Academic theft!

Examples of plagiarism :
• Giving incorrect source of information-wrongful citation.
• Modifying / lifting someone’s production such as music-composition etc
without attributing it to the creator of the work.
• Using some other author’s work without giving credit to the author.
• Failure in giving credit or acknowledging the contribution of others in a
collaborative effort.
 Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement refers to using copyrighted work without the
consent or permission of the copyright holder.
Examples of Copyright infringement :
• Selling pirated books
• Selling copied/duplicated art work
• Selling pirated software
• Online piracy and many other such acts
• Performing a play in public without obtaining permission from the
playright
 Trademark infringement
It is the unauthorized usage of a mark that is identical or deceptively
similar to a registered trademark

All types of IPR infringements are crimes and the owner can initiate a legal
action against the people/companies who do it.
 Digital Property Rights(Digital Assests)
It refers to any information about you or created by you that exists in
digital form or on an electronic storage device
Examples of Digital property include : Any online personal accounts such as
• Email and communication accounts
• Social media accounts
• Shopping accounts
• Photo and video sharing accounts
• Video gaming accounts
 • Online storage accounts , website, blogs etc
Threats to Digital properties :
• Digital software penetration tools
• Stealing and plagiarizing codes of your digital properties

Digital Property Rights Protection

•Restrict /prevent users from editing / saving/sharing /forwarding our content.
•Restriction from printing. E.g. some document or artwork may only be printed up to a limited
number of times.
•Restriction of screenshots capture
•Set an expiry date on your document or media, after which the user will no longer be able to
access it or opening of any document for fixed limited times.
•Lock through ip address, means media accessible in India can’t be accessed in any
other country.
•Watermark artworks and documents in order to establish ownership and identity.
BENEFITS OF DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

•It educates users about copyright and intellectual property.

•It helps make way for better licensing agreements and
technologies.
•It helps authors retain ownership of their works.
•It helps protect income streams.
•It help secure files and keep them private.
 Free Software and Open Source Software
• Free software- those software which are freely accessible and can be freely
used, changed, copied and distributed and available free of cost.

• Open source software(OSS)-source code is available for modification and

distribution without any limitation. OSS may come with free of cose ot with a
payment of nominal charges that its developers may charge.

• Freeware-these software are available free of cost and allows copying and
further [Link] modification allowed. No source code available.
 Example: Microsoft internet explorer.
Example of Open source software

• As Operating system – linux,Ubuntu

• As dbms – mysql,mongodb
• As Programming language – java,php,python
• As internet browser/webserver –chromium, firefox/ apache http server,
apache tomcat
 Softwares
• Proprietary software- those software which are neither open nor freely available.
Source code is not available. For distribution and modification special permission
required from the supplier or vendor. E.g. tally, MS windows

• Shareware-neither source code is available not available for modification and

distribution . Objective of this is to make the software available to try for as many
users as possible.e.g. winzip

• Copylefted software-these are free software but with limited distribution terms.
Copyleft is a subset of open source. with copyleft, the modified product must be
distributed with the same copyleft license attached to the original software.

• Both open source and copyleft allow for source code to be modified and
distributed.
 Licenses
• CC Licenses( Creative Commons Licenses)-These give permission to copy, modify,distribute
the original works by attributing the creator of the work (download,upload,photocopy and
scan the work)
Disadvantage

• We cannot revoke a Creative Commons License once given. Only subsequent uses will
not be permitted.

• if someone profits from our work (provided we have not given a Noncommercial
license/ attribute license), we can’t ask for compensation or a license fee

• The Copyright of derivative works can be ambiguous. If someone uses your work to
develop a new work and their ‘updated’ work is substantially different, there is an
argument that the initial Creative Commons License no longer applies.
So think first before attaching a Creative Commons License to work.
 Licenses
• GNU General Public License (GPL)-this is most commonly used licenses for open
source projects.
It allows users to legally copy,distribute and modify software to developers
who work on open source projects. Eg. Wordpress

Disadvantage:
• If GPL licensed product is used in any commercial product then the entire
product has to be released as open source. Most of the companies set a ban to
use GPL product.
• Lots of people aren't aware of the stringent terms of GPL.
• Its extremely viral. If your project contains a component that contains a
component then whole project is subject to the GPL too.
 Licenses
• Apache License- This gives number of rights related to copyrights and patents.

Main Features of The Apache License

• copy, modify and distribute the covered software in source and/or binary
forms exercise patent rights that would normally only extend to the licensor
provided that:

• all copies, modified or unmodified, are accompanied by a copy of the license

• all modifications are clearly marked as being the work of the modifier
• All notices of copyright, trademarkandpatent rights are reproduced accurately
in distributed copies
Public Domain Software VS Proprietary Software

Public Domain Software-

• These are free and can be used without restrictions. •

This is outside the scope of copyright and licensing.
Proprietary Software-

• these are neither free nor available for public.

• User has to buy the license in order to use it
 E-waste management
Electronic Waste or E-waste or E-scrap or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment-

these are discarded computers, office electronic equipment,entertainment device

electronics, mobile phones,tv sets,refrigerators etc.
Characteristics of E-waste-

• Fastest growing segment of waste

• Most valuable due to its basic composition
• Very hazardous if not handled carefully
 E-waste management
Electronic Waste or E-waste Disposal Process –

• Dismantling
• Segregation of ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal and plastic
• Refurbishment and resue
• Recycling /recovery of valuable materials
• Treatment/disposal of dangerous material and waste

E-waste management
Benefits of E-waste Recycling–

• Allows for recovery of valuable precious metals.

• Protects public health and water quality
• Creates jobs
• Toxic waste
• Saves landfill space

Gender Issues while Teaching /using Computers

 Gender specific issues must be addressed to enforce gender equality in
computer science education.
Some issues are:

1. Under representation-
(i) preconceived notions
(ii) lack of interest
(iii) lack of motivation
(iv) lack of role models
(v) lack of encouragement in class
2. Not Girl-Friendly Work Culture
Solutions of Gender Issues:

[Link] should be more initiatives and programmes that encourage girl to take up
computer science subject-
2. The film and TV censor board should ensure fair representation of female role
models in TV,cinema etc so that more girls get encouraged to take up ‘ computer
science’.
3. In the practical rooms, girls should be encouraged more to work on computers
on their own and also to find solutions of their routine problems.
Disability Issues While Teaching And Using Computers:

[Link] of teaching Materials/Aids ( braille keyboards,

monitors, printers, screen readers )
2. Lack of special needs teachers- specialized editors, blinux,voice
assistant softwares ( cortana, Microsoft narrator, onboard etc)
3. Lack of supporting curriculum