B.

Tech Second Year (CSE)

Ethics in Information Technology

UNIT 3
Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and
artistic works, designs, symbols, names, and images used in commerce. IP laws protect these
creations, allowing creators to control the use of their work and benefit financially from it.
There are several main types of intellectual property:

1. Copyright: Protects original works of authorship, like books, music, and art.

2. Patents: Protect inventions and processes for a limited time, granting the inventor
exclusive rights to their use and distribution.

3.Trademarks: Protect symbols, names, and slogans used to identify goods or services,
ensuring brand recognition.

4. Trade secrets: Protect confidential business information that gives a competitive edge,
such as formulas or processes.

These protections encourage innovation and creativity by giving creators the right to
control their work and its commercial use.

Intellectual Property Right

The World Intellectual Property Organization (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, WIPO has
strongly advocated for the interests of intellectual property owners. Its goal is to ensure that
intellectual property laws are uniformly administered. A patent protects an invention for 20
years, after which it can be freely used. The term of protection of a design is valid for 10
years, which can be renewed for further 5 years after expiration of this term.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright is a legal right that grants creators exclusive control over the use of their original
works. This includes literary works, music, films, art, software, and more. Copyright
protection allows creators to control how their works are reproduced, distributed, performed,
and displayed, enabling them to benefit financially from their creations.

Features of Copyright:

Automatic Protection: Copyright is automatically granted upon the creation of an original

work, provided it's fixed in a tangible medium.

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

Duration: The duration of copyright protection varies by jurisdiction but typically lasts for
the life of the author plus a number of years (e.g., 70 years in the U.S. and many other
countries).

Exclusive Rights: Copyright holders have the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute,
perform, and display their work, as well as to create derivative works.

Limitations: There are exceptions, such as fair use or fair dealing, which allow limited use of
copyrighted material without permission under specific circumstances.

The Copyright Act refers to the specific legislation that establishes the laws surrounding
copyright protection in a particular country. For example:

United States: The Copyright Act of 1976 governs copyright law, outlining the rights of
authors and the duration of copyright protection.

United Kingdom: The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 provides a framework for
copyright protection in the UK.

India: The Copyright Act, 1957 and its amendments govern copyright law in India.

These acts define what constitutes copyrightable material, the rights of copyright holders,
exceptions to those rights, and the enforcement mechanisms available to protect those rights.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998):

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) 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)—This section implements the WIPO treaties by making certain technical amendments
to U.S. law in order to provide appropriate references and links to the treaties. It also creates
two new prohibitions in the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S. Code) one on circumvention
of technological measures used by copyright owners to protect their works and one on
tampering with copyright management information. Title I also adds civil remedies and
criminal penalties for violating the prohibitions.
• Title II (Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act) this section enables Web
site operators that allow users to post content on their Web site (e.g., music, video, and pictures)
to avoid copyright infringement liability if certain “safe harbour” provisions are followed.
• Title III (Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act) this section permits the owner
or lessee of a computer to make or authorize the making of a copy of a computer program in
the course of maintaining or repairing that computer. The new copy cannot be used in any other
manner and must be destroyed immediately after the maintenance or repair is completed.
• Title IV (Miscellaneous provisions) This section adds language to the Copyright Act
confirming the Copyright Office’s authority to continue to perform the policy and international
functions that it has carried out for decades under its existing general authority.
• Title V (Vessel Hull Design Protection Act) This section creates a new form of protection for
the original design of vessel hulls.

PATENTS

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

A patent is a grant of a property right issued by the United States 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.
• Unlike a copyright, a patent prevents independent creation as well as copying. Even if
someone else invents the same item independently and with no prior knowledge of the patent
holder’s invention, the second inventor is excluded from using the patented device without
permission of the original patent holder.
• The rights of the patent are valid only in the United States and its territories and possessions.

T R A D E S E C R E T S:

A trade secret was defined as business information that represents something of

economic value, has required effort or cost to develop, and has some degree of uniqueness or
novelty, is generally unknown to the public, and is kept confidential.
Trade secret protection begins by identifying all the information that must be protected
from undisclosed patent applications to market research and business plans and developing a
comprehensive strategy for keeping the information secure. Trade secret law protects only
against the misappropriation of trade secrets. If competitors come up with the same idea on
their own, it is not misappropriation; in other words, the law doesn’t prevent someone from
using the same idea if it was developed independently. Trade secret laws protect more
technology worldwide than patent laws do, in large part because of the following key
advantages:
• There are no time limitations on the protection of trade secrets, as there are with patents and
copyrights.
• There is no need to file an application, make disclosures to any person or agency, or disclose
a trade secret to outsiders to gain protection. (After the USPTO issues a patent, competitors
can obtain a detailed description of it.) Hence, no filing or application fees are required to
protect a trade secret.
• Although patents can be ruled invalid by the courts, meaning that the affected inventions no
longer have patent protection, this risk does not exist for trade secrets.

Trade Secret Laws:

Trade secret protection laws vary greatly from country to country. For example, the
Philippines provide 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. (Coca-Cola reopened its operations
in India in 1993 after halting sales for 16 years to protect the “secret formula” for its
soft drink, even though India’s vast population represented a huge potential market.)
• American businesses that seek to operate in foreign jurisdictions or enter international
markets must take these differences into account.

Key intellectual property issues:

This section discusses several issues that apply to intellectual property and information
technology, including plagiarism, reverse engineering, open source code, competitive
intelligence, trademark infringement, and cyber squatting.

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone’s ideas or words and passing them off as one’s
own. The explosion of electronic content and the growth of the Web have made it easy to cut
Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh
and paste paragraphs into term papers and other documents without proper citation or quotation
marks. To compound the problem, hundreds of online “paper mills” enable users to download
entire term papers. Although some sites post warnings that their services should be used for
research purposes only, many users pay scant heed. As a result, plagiarism has become an issue
from elementary schools to the highest levels of academia.
The following list shows some of the actions that schools can take to combat student
Plagiarism:
• Help students understand what constitutes plagiarism and why they need to cite sources
properly.
• Show students how to document Web pages and materials from online databases.
• Schedule major writing assignments so that portions are due over the course of the term, thus
reducing the likelihood that students will get into a time crunch and be tempted to plagiarize to
meet the deadline.
• Make clear to students that instructors are aware of Internet paper mills.
• Ensure that instructors both educate students about plagiarism detection services and make
students aware that they know how to use these services.
• Incorporate detection software and services into a comprehensive anti plagiarism program.

Reverse Engineering:
Reverse engineering is the process of taking something apart in order to understand it,
build a copy of it, or improve it.
• Reverse engineering 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. Often, reverse
engineering begins by extracting design stage details from program code.
• Design-stage details about an information system are more conceptual and less defined
than the program code of the same system. Microsoft has been accused repeatedly of
reverse engineering products—ranging from the Apple
• Macintosh user interface, too many Apple operating system utility features that were
incorporated into DOS (and later Windows), to early word-processing and spreadsheet
programs that set the design for Word and Excel, to Google’s methods for improving
search results for its Bing search engine.

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. Programs with open
source code can be adapted to meet new needs, and bugs can be rapidly identified and
fixed. Open source code advocates believe that this process produces better software
than the traditional closed model.
• A considerable amount of open source code is available, and an increasing number of
organizations use open source code. For example, 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 open source code.

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

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

monitor the public announcements of property transfers to detect any plant or store expansions
of competitors.
• An effective competitive intelligence program requires the continual gathering,
analysis, and evaluation of data with controlled dissemination of useful information to
decision makers. Competitive intelligence is often integrated into a company’s strategic
plan and executive decision making.
• According to a recent survey of 400 global companies with competitive intelligence
programs, the number of companies that spend more than $1 million on this activity
increased from 5 percent to 10 percent over the period 2007–2012.

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.
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. The United States has a federal system
that stores trademark information; merchants can consult this information to avoid adopting
marks that have already been taken. Merchants seeking trademark protection apply to the
USPTO if they are using the mark in interstate commerce or if they can demonstrate a true
intent to do so.
Trademarks can be renewed forever—as long as a mark is in use. It is not uncommon
for an organization that owns a trademark to sue another organization over the use of that
trademark in a Web site or a domain name. The court rulings in such cases are not always
consistent and are quite difficult to judge in advance. Nominative fair use is a defence often
employed by the defendant in trademark infringement cases where a defendant uses a plaintiff’s
mark to identify the plaintiff’s products or services in conjunction with its own product or
services. To successfully employ this defence, the defendant must show three things:
• The plaintiff’s product or service cannot be readily identifiable without using the plaintiff’s
mark.
• It uses only as much of the plaintiff’s mark as necessary to identify the defendant’s product
or service.
• The defendant does nothing with the plaintiff’s mark that suggests endorsement or
sponsorship by the plaintiff.

Cyber squatting:
Companies that want to establish an online presence know that the best way to
capitalize on the strengths of their brand names and trademarks is to make the names part of
the domain names for their Web sites. When Web sites were first established, there was no
procedure for validating the legitimacy of requests for Web site names, which were given out
on a first-come, first-served basis. And in the early days of the Web, many cyber squatters
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.

Software and its Types

Software is a collection of instructions, data, or computer programs that are used to run
machines and carry out particular activities. It is the antithesis of hardware, which refers to a
computer’s external components. A device’s running programs, scripts, and applications are
collectively referred to as “software” in this context.

What is a Software?

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

 In a computer system, the software is basically a set of instructions or commands that
tell a computer what to do. In other words, the software is a computer program that provides a
set of instructions to execute a user’s commands and tell the computer what to do. For example
like MS-Word, MS-Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

Types of Software
It is a collection of data that is given to the computer to complete a particular task. The
chart below describes the types of software:

Above is the diagram of types of software. Now we will briefly describe each type and
its subtypes:
1. System Software
• Operating System
• Language Processor
• Device Driver
2. Application Software
• General Purpose Software
• Customize Software
• Utility Software

What is the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?

SDLC is a process followed for software building within a software

organization. SDLC consists of a precise plan that describes how to develop, maintain,
replace, and enhance specific software. The life cycle defines a method for improving the
quality of software and the all-around development process.

Stages of the Software Development Life Cycle

SDLC specifies the task(s) to be performed at various stages by a software engineer or

developer. It ensures that the end product is able to meet the customer’s expectations and fits
within the overall budget. Hence, it’s vital for a software developer to have prior knowledge of
this software development process. SDLC is a collection of these six stages, and the stages of
SDLC are as follows:

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

The SDLC Model involves six phases or stages while developing any software.

Stage-1: Planning and Requirement Analysis

Planning is a crucial step in everything, just as in software development. In this same

stage, requirement analysis is also performed by the developers of the organization. This is
attained from customer inputs, and sales department/market surveys.
The information from this analysis forms the building blocks of a basic project. The quality of
the project is a result of planning. Thus, in this stage, the basic project is designed with all the
available information.

Stage-1 : Planning and Requirement Analysis

Stage-2: Defining Requirements

In this stage, all the requirements for the target software are specified. These requirements get
approval from customers, market analysts, and stakeholders.
This is fulfilled by utilizing SRS (Software Requirement Specification). This is a sort of
document that specifies all those things that need to be defined and created during the entire
project cycle.

Stage-2 : Defining Requirements

Stage-3: Designing Architecture

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

SRS is a reference for software designers to come up with the best architecture for the software.
Hence, with the requirements defined in SRS, multiple designs for the product architecture are
present in the Design Document Specification (DDS).
This DDS is assessed by market analysts and stakeholders. After evaluating all the possible
factors, the most practical and logical design is chosen for development.

Stage 3: Design

Stage-4: Developing Product

At this stage, the fundamental development of the product starts. For this, developers use
a specific programming code as per the design in the DDS. Hence, it is important for the coders
to follow the protocols set by the association. Conventional programming tools like compilers,
interpreters, debuggers, etc. are also put into use at this stage. Some popular languages like
C/C++, Python, Java, etc. are put into use as per the software regulations.

Stage 4: Development

Stage-5: Product Testing and Integration

\After the development of the product, testing of the software is necessary to ensure its smooth
execution. Although, minimal testing is conducted at every stage of SDLC. Therefore, at this
stage, all the probable flaws are tracked, fixed, and retested. This ensures that the product
confronts the quality requirements of SRS.
Documentation, Training, and Support: Software documentation is an essential part of the
software development life cycle. A well-written document acts as a tool and means to
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information repository necessary to know about software processes, functions, and
maintenance. Documentation also provides information about how to use the product. Training
in an attempt to improve the current or future employee performance by increasing an
employee’s ability to work through learning, usually by changing his attitude and developing
his skills and understanding.

Stage 5: Testing

Stage-6: Deployment and Maintenance of Products

After detailed testing, the conclusive product is released in phases as per the
organization’s strategy. Then it is tested in a real industrial environment. It is important to
ensure its smooth performance. If it performs well, the organization sends out the product as a
whole. After retrieving beneficial feedback, the company releases it as it is or with auxiliary
improvements to make it further helpful for the customers. However, this alone is not enough.
Therefore, along with the deployment, the product’s supervision.

Strategies to Engineer Quality Software:

High-quality software systems are systems that are easy to learn and use because they
perform quickly and efficiently; they meet their users’ needs; and they operate safely and

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reliably so that system downtime is kept to a minimum. Such software has long been required
to support the fields of air traffic control, nuclear power, automobile safety, health care,
military and defence, and space exploration. Now that computers and software have become
integral parts of almost every business, the demand for high quality software is increasing. End
users cannot afford system crashes, lost work, or lower productivity. Nor can they tolerate
security holes through which intruders can spread viruses, steal data, or shut down Web sites.
Software manufacturers face economic, ethical, and organizational challenges associated with
improving the quality of their software.
Software quality is the degree to which a software product meets the needs of its users.
Quality management focuses on defining, measuring, and refining the quality of the
development process and the products developed during its various stages. These products
including statements of requirements, flowcharts, and user documentation are known as
deliverables. The objective of quality management is to help developers deliver high-quality
systems that meet the needs of their users. Unfortunately, the first release of any software rarely
meets all its users’ expectations. A software product does not usually work as well as its users
would like it to until it has been used for a while, found lacking in some ways, and then
corrected or upgraded.

The Importance of Software Quality:

A business information system is a set of interrelated components including hardware,

software, databases, networks, people, and procedures that collects and processes data and
disseminates the output.
• A common type of business system is one that captures and records business
transactions. For example, a manufacturer’s order-processing system captures order
information, processes it to update inventory and accounts receivable, and ensures that
the order is filled and shipped on time to the customer.
• Other examples include an airline’s online ticket-reservation system and an electronic
funds transfer system that moves money among banks.
• The accurate, thorough, and timely processing of business transactions is a key
requirement for such systems.
• A software defect can be devastating, resulting in lost customers and reduced revenue.
How many times would bank customers tolerate having their funds transferred to the
wrong account before they stopped doing business with that bank?
• Software is also used to control many industrial processes in an effort to reduce costs,
eliminate human error, improve quality, and shorten the time it takes to manufacture
products.
• For example, steel manufacturers use process-control software to capture data from
sensors about the equipment that rolls steel into bars and about the furnace that heats
the steel before it is rolled.
• Without process-control computers, workers could react to defects only after the fact
and would have to guess at the adjustments needed to correct the process.
• Process-control computers enable the process to be monitored for variations from
operating standards (e.g., a low furnace temperature or incorrect levels of iron ore) and
to eliminate product defects before they affect product quality.
• Any defect in this software can lead to decreased product quality, increased waste and
costs, or even unsafe operating conditions for employees.

Software Development Process:

Developing information system software is not a simple process; it requires completing

many complex activities, with many dependencies among the various activities.

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

 • Systems analysts, programmers, architects, database specialists, project managers,
documentation specialists, trainers, and testers are all involved in large software
projects.
• Each of these groups of workers has a role to play and has specific responsibilities and
tasks. In addition, each group makes decisions that can affect the software’s quality and
the ability of an organization or an individual to use it effectively.
• Most software companies have adopted a software development methodology a
standard, proven work process that enables systems analysts, programmers, project
managers, and others to make controlled and orderly progress while developing high-
quality software.
• A methodology defines activities in the software development process and the
individual and group responsibilities for accomplishing these activities.
• It also recommends specific techniques for accomplishing the various activities, such
as using a flowchart to document the logic of a computer program.
• A methodology also offers guidelines for managing the quality of software during the
various stages of development.
• If an organization has developed such a methodology, it is typically applied to any
software development that the company undertakes.

FIGURE: Software development methodology

Capability Maturity Model Integration:

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) developed by the Software

Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon is a process-improvement approach that defines the
essential elements of effective processes.
• The model is general enough to be used to evaluate and improve almost any process,
and a specific application of CMMI—CMMI-Development (CMMI-DEV) is
frequently used to assess and improve software development practices.
• CMMI defines five levels of software development maturity and identifies the issues
that are most critical to software quality and process improvement.

Development of Safety-Critical Systems:

A safety-critical system is one whose failure may cause human injury or death. The safe
operation of many safety-critical systems relies on the flawless performance of software; such
systems control automobiles’ antilock brakes, nuclear power plant reactors, airplane
navigation, elevators, and numerous medical devices, to name just a few.
The process of building software for such systems requires highly trained professionals,
formal and rigorous methods, and state-of-the-art tools. Failure to take strong measures to
identify and remove software errors from safety-critical systems “is at best unprofessional and
at worst lead[s] to disastrous consequences.” However, even with these types of precautions,
the software associated with safety-critical systems is still vulnerable to errors that can lead to
injury or death. Here are several examples of safety-critical system failures:

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh

• The Mariner I space probe, which was intended to make a close flyby of the planet Venus,
was ordered destroyed less than five minutes after launch in July 1962. Faulty software code
caused the flight control computer to perform a series of unnecessary course corrections, which
threw the spacecraft dangerously off course.
• A Royal Air Force helicopter took off from Northern Ireland in June 1994 with 25 British
intelligence officials who were heading to a security conference in Inverness. Just 18 minutes
into its flight, the helicopter crashed on the peninsula of Kintyre in Argyll, Scotland, killing
everyone on board. The engine management software, which controlled the acceleration and
deceleration of the engines, was suspected of causing the crash.
• Between November 2000 and March 2002, therapy planning software at the National
Oncology Institute in Panama City, Panama, miscalculated the proper dosage of radiation for
patients undergoing therapy; at least eight patients died while another 20 received overdoses
that caused significant health problems.
• Three accidents occurred on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster at Disneyland
between September 2003 and July 2004. One person was killed and 10 others were injured in
the September accident. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health blamed the
accidents on improper maintenance, poorly trained operators, and a glitch in the ride’s
computer system.
• In April 2007, fire broke out on a Washington, D.C., six-car Metro train as it pulled out of
the L’Enfant Plaza station. Fire and smoke were seen underneath the last car, but thankfully,
the flames did not penetrate the floor of the car. The train operator stopped and evacuated the
passengers. It was eventually determined that the train’s brake resistor grid, which checks
various subsystems and voltages, overheated and caught fire. Monitoring software failed to
perform as expected in detecting and preventing excess power usage in equipment on the
passenger rail cars, resulting in overheating and fire.

Quality Management Standards:

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), founded in 1947, is a

worldwide federation of national standards bodies from 161 countries. The organization issued
its 9000 series of business management standards in 1988. These standards require
organizations to develop formal quality management systems that focus on identifying and
meeting the needs, desires, and expectations of their customers.

Notes by Kalyani Bawangarh