5.5 Legal and Ethical Concerns
- How the use of computing can raise legal and ethical concerns
- Material created on a computer is the intellectual property of the creator or an organization
- Intellectual Property (IP) is a work or invention that is the result of creativity to which one has rights
- Ease of access and distribution of digitized information raises intellectual property concerns regarding ownership, value, and use
- Measures should be taken to safeguard intellectual property
- Copyright protects your IP and keeps anyone from using it, unless you give them your permission
- Plagiarism - the use of material created by someone else without permission and presented as one’s own (may have legal consequences)
- Some examples of legal ways to use materials created by someone else include:
- Creative Commons: A public copyright license that enables the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. Thai is use when the content creator wants to give other the right to share, use, and build upon the work they have created
- It clearly tells others what they can and cannot do with your IP
- Open source: Programs are made freely available and may be redistributed and modified (encourages open collaboration)
- Open access: Online research output free of any and all restriction on access and free of many restrictions on use, such as copyright or license restrictions
- The use of material created by someone other than you should always be cited
- Creative Commons, open source, and open access have enabled broad access to digital information
- As with any technology or medium, using computing to harm individuals or groups of people raises legal and ethical concerns
- Computer can play a role in social and political issues, which in turn often raises legal and ethical concerns
- The digital divide raises ethical concerns around computing
- Computing innovations can raise legal and ethical concerns. Examples:
- The development of software that allows access to digital media downloads and streaming
- The development of algorithms that include bias
- The existence of computing devices that collect and analyze data by continuously monitoring activities
GitHub pages actions:
- When you create a GitHub repository it requests a license type. Review the license types in relationship to this Tech Talk and make some notes in GitHub pages.
- Did take notes in Github pages.
- Make a license for your personal and Team project. Document license you picked and why.
- For both my personal project, I chose the Creative Commons Zero V1.0 General License because I have no problem with people distributing my work and using it. For our team project, we picked the MIT license because our team project is a re-creation of the CTE website, so technically it’s not something we “own,” so there is no limitation of the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies.