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Hi,Â
I need a 2-page summary and PowerPoint slides for this paper, the summary and slides should cover these questions:
"Why did you pick the topic?
What is your paper about?
What were some of the ethical issues/ethical theory involved?
Any other thoughts on your paper topic?"
Thanks.
* The paper:
Chapter One: Intellectual Property Ethical Areas
Chapter Two: Cyber Law Ethical Areas
Chapter Three: The Stakeholders
Private Individuals and Artists
Chapter Four: Major Ethical Dilemmas in IP and Cyber Law
Chapter Five: Analyzing Ethicality
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Chapter six: Making Decisions, Planning and Implementation
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Tracing its roots in the United States, intellectual property is an evolving legal practice field, anchored in the constitution. In contrast, Cyber law is much newer to the scene; its innovative theories come handy in strengthening loopholes within the intellectual property especially within the Internet. With the advancement in technology development and widespread growth of the Internet, there has been need to revamp the intellectual property and cyber laws to ensure no laws are broken. It has become exceedingly easy for Internet users to copy and reproduce other people’s intellectual content as their own without any negative consequences despite the blatant violation of copyright rules. In the Internet as well, more offenses to individuals are also occurring day today, embarrassments, hate speech, defamations and even cyber bullying are some of the unethical crimes identified. Individuals and organizations operating online should be aware of the risks alive in the Internet and remain guarded. Governments equally should be in the centerfield by developing Intellectual properties and Cyber laws to protect its people as they inevitably use the Internet.
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Intellectual Property and Cyber law
Intellectual Property is a wide classification of the law, highlighting rights available to owners and creators of intangible products. Intangible products are basically works of art like music, poetry, photography, paintings, technological innovations designs and symbols and many others that cannot be touched, however their invention is as a result of hard work and creativity. Intellectual Property laws grants owners of this creation exclusive rights, meaning it is illegal and unethical to use this works without the owner’s permission. Sub classifications of the Intellectual property include; patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. Intellectual property law has created brisk business to lawyers and litigators whose areas of expertise include; taking legal action in case Intellectual Property law is broken, pursuant of intellectual property licensing, venture capital, technology transfer, intellectual assets management, pursuant of trademarks and patents for creative artists (Dratler, 2000).
Patents are issued by the Patent and Trademark office and grant in the United States. The patent grants exclusive rights to the creators or investors with the aim of incentivizing them to increase creation and distribution of useful technology. The rights given are aimed at excluding other people and organization without granted permission from the owner from using, making, or selling patented inventions. Creators can engage patent lawyers to prepare and submit patent applications to the grants office, once it is approved its illegal and unethical to use the patent product without express permission of the owner, sell, import, or claim to be an owner of a patented item.
Copyright Laws refers to all the rights granted to creators of original artistic work like literatures (written), dramatic, artistic like paintings, musical and most recently informational technological like software’s and their codes. Apart from protecting the artists the copyright law is an incentive to would be artists to ensure they gain from their developments. Copyright protects only tangible works of art both published and unpublished. The Copyright Act was passed in 1976, it gives authors and owners of copyright materials exclusive privilege to reproduce, prepare derivatives, distribute, sell, display or perform in public their copyrighted works. Copyright law applies immediately a work of original authorship is created. To become copyrighted one does not require applying, registering or publishing, instead it is gained naturally and instantly an author puts pen to paper. However, there is a copyright office in the Congress Library, where authors gain additional benefits of registering their publications. The benefits include establishing a copyright for a publication by an author to cover his entire life plus seventy years. Additional it is illegal to import items deemed copyrighted (Palfrey, 2011).
A trademark is “a word, symbol, phrase, design or a combination of both, that distinguishes and identifies owners or source of the specific items holding the mark. This helps to distinguish the products from those of other people or parties. Trademark law gives exclusive rights to use the specific designs while trading. Additional it allows consumers to easily identify product sources as well as differentiate between several available brands. By trademarking an item however does not stop duplication of the product; it only stops it from being branded similarly. This is unethical as some people confuse unsuspecting consumers deliberately but doing product duplication, and marketing it with a slightly different packaging.
               Developing more importance as the increase in the Internet usage for both individuals and organizations is the Cyber Law. Cyber law covering different crimes performed on the internet highway some of which are civil issues and other criminal in nature. Examples of Civil issues include cyberbullying, defamations and infringement of privacy. While criminal activities include financial crimes as well as sabotage using malware soft wares. Other facets of Cyber law include; criminal law, health privacy, online privacy, civil and human rights, national security and net regulation and neutrality (Cyber Tech , 2013).
Many criminal activities can be perpetuated using the internet. Examples of this crimes include financial crimes, harassment and stalking, child pornography, human trafficking Â
Fraud and other Financial Crimes: Using computers financial crimes have been performed on both large and small scale with ease. Personal information like credit cards numbers and other detail innocently given over the Internet is one source of the crimes. Additionally, hackers have gained skills to manipulate private systems in financial institutions and consequently misappropriate funds.
Harassment and Stalking: Individuals sharing their personal information on social media websites like their home addresses and schools attending can inadvertently attract stalkers and harassment over the Internet. Cyberbullying is attacking an individual over the Internet and saying things that would hurt their self-esteem and image. This happens every day and the unfortunate bit is that it happens anonymously so it is almost impossible to catch the attackers. Cyberbullying has been associated with teenage depressions and in worse cases suicide.
Freedom of privacy is a right of every human and enshrined in the constitution. However, some governments, individuals and sinister organizations use the Internet to obtain private information about specific groups and individuals for their own benefit. Ad companies use your private information to determine the type of Ad to push to you. Government officials use private social media site to source information when doing investigations. Despite the fourth amendment protecting citizens’ privacy the Internet has unethically destroyed it. Health information systems are now available where they store health records of individuals; these systems are also becoming targets of people with ill intentions.
National security involves the safety of the whole country, however even this is compromised by illegal use of the Internet. Security organs of the government remain alert of possible Internet attacks or use of the Internet to perpetuate other crimes. Possible attacks could be on the Power grid, financial institutions or even government systems. This possible attacks could disable the country is successfully conducted. The American security agencies remain highly vigil on all suspicious Internet activities. Laws have also been enacted on cyber law to ensure the security of all citizens is never compromised even on the Internet. Despite this many loopholes are available that numerous unethical people are willing to exploit. It is up to every citizen and individual to guard his or her communication and shared information is a wide space such as the internet (Dratler, 2000).
In trying to accomplish ethics using the Intellectual Property and Cyber Laws, the key stakeholders must be critically involved in the process of creating the laws, enforcing the law, following the law and monitoring factors deviating from the law.
People in leadership in the Government should embark on creating new policies or reviewing the existing ones in regards to Intellectual property and cyber law. Security agencies should update their ways of capturing people who use different ways to break these laws. Courts should use the Fifth Amendment to ensure enforcement of Copyright and Cyber law. Offices involved in registering of patents, trademarks and copyrights should ensure the creators of this works of art, get better deals which will act as incentives to become more creative.
Organization whose aim is to better the lives of people and not profit oriented, should be in the frontline when it comes to ensure that people’s intellectual property rights are upheld and there is freedom from cyber-crime. The non-profit organization can do this by hiring lawyers to litigate on behalf of artists that cannot afford such kind of services. Additionally, the can advocate and lobby with politicians to improve focused on Intellectual property and cyber laws. The organizations can also help budding artist through information and skills to get their unique products registered as patents or copyrighted, this will help the individuals not fall prey to factors that might out to extort or exploit them. Non-profits can also forge alliances with the government to ensure more security this is a good example of private - public partnerships.
Artists should be aware of their potentials and rights financially and legally. With every creation they make, they should take steps to authenticate it as an original work. They can go further and have the items registered, copyrighted or trademark. By being aware of the legally rights it will make it harder for them to be exploited by middle men and other negative elements in the society that remain unethical. Private individuals should also be aware of negative factors out there especially in the Internet and social media. They should take steps to ensure they are always shielded by providing only necessary information and limiting the accuracy, to avoid cyber stalking or harassment. Financial information should also not be disclosed easily on the web to unknown parties (Ludes, 2008).
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Should someone perform Copyright Infringement also known as copyright violation; it is the illegal, prohibited or unauthorized use of copyrighted works. Owners and creators of this works will not benefit if their works are used without their permission or knowledge, this is illegal and truly unethical. Probably the most rampant case of Copyright Infringement that has led to a multibillion-dollar illegal industry is piracy. Movies, songs, software’s and general audiovisual media have been rampantly and illegally duplicated, reproduced and illegally distributed, this is piracy.
Should someone perform Theft and Hacking this is one of the illegal and unethical activities, currently happening in the cyber world. Finances and personal identities are examples of things hackers can steal over the Internet using your private information. This is unethical as some of the hackers pose as legitimate entities and request for your private information. Once this is done, they then precede to us the information to steal your money or identity. Causes of fraud where hackers are able to infiltrate private systems of organizations and financial institutions and they steal from them, in other cases they can hold ransom their information or destroy their systems leading to high amount of losses.
Should someone be involved in Invasion of Privacy, this is a real threat in the Internet, despite it being a legal right one having access to privacy. Individuals, governments illegal intrude on one’s privacy in the Internet using sophisticated systems and software’s. This is done without you being aware or in acceptance. This is very unethical, in some cases the media or other elements may use this private information gathered through the invasion to defame and slander. This has especially happened to popular people like politicians and public figures. It also leads to Cyberbullying.
The importance of Intellectual Property and cyber law can be put in perspective using the Consequentialism philosophy. This Philosophy proposes that the outcomes of an action can be used to judge the action as either moral or immoral. If an action leads to positive results or consequences them it is deemed as moral, while one that lead to negative results or consequences is immoral. Using this logic, to determine if actions like invasion of privacy, theft and hacking and copyright infringement are ethical, we only look at the outcomes discussed. These outcomes are emotional pain, financial and self-esteem loss all these are negative results meaning that the action are not only immoral, illegal but also very unethical. Actions like implementation of Intellection Property and cyber law however lead to gained security, proportion of lives and property, this are positive consequences, hence ethical actions (BBC, 2014).
Rights and duties in ethics are intertwined, whereas one has rights, another has the duty to ensure those rights are always upheld. Artists have a right to have their original works protected from copyright infringement, theft or hacking. Individuals and organization having their personal businesses in the Internet have a right to security as well as privacy. It is therefore the duty of Governments and other security organs to ensure all these rights are upheld. This can be through instating laws like the Intellectual property and cyber law and also monitoring to ensure that forces or elements trying to hamper people’s genuine rights are apprehended.
Introduced by the Philosopher Kant in 1785, the theory determines ethicality of actions based on the individuals’ reason or motivation to perform them. If the reason or motivation is immoral like greed, to hurt others or any other selfish agenda then the actions are deemed Unethical. Also if the actions come from a positive angle like to help others do better or achieve more therefore their actions are ethical. Using this logical Intellectual property and cyber law were put in place to ensure the rights of individuals and artist are upheld, this is a positive reason hence the actions are ethical. For hackers, thieves and people who wish to perform copyright infringement or invade individual’s privacy, with the aim of embarrassing this people or enriching themselves the reasons are negative hence unethical (Kant, 2015).
By understanding the importance of Intellectual Property and Cyber law and also the factors that may lead to an individuals or organization compromise on the same, steps must be taken to be ready for any eventuality (Badway & Schnapp, 2012).
Making decisions: Artist and creators of original work should make a decision on having their products protected by the government under the copyright law; this is the only way to ensure they obtain full benefits for their creations. Individuals having presence in the social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, among many others, should critically examine the kind of information they share with the rest of the Internet world. The aim should to be as general as possible and avoid specifics. Shared items should be ones the user is willing to have the whole public scrutinize without worry. Organizations have a large footprint in the Internet and are at huge risk from the Cyber hacking criminals. Decisions to be taken are on ensuring their staffs are aware on the cyber risk, implementation of monitoring cyber risk mechanism and availing a contingency plan in case of an attack (Flynn, 2013).
Planning and Implementation: This is particularly important for organizations. To ensure safety, organization must invest and implement on working E-policies. E-policies are an outline of authorized and unauthorized uses of Internet connections, social media, software’s, computers and e-mails. The organizations should expect compliance from its employees on upholding the preset E-policies. The main objective of E-Policies is to identify and mitigate electronic risks, create security protocols that govern employee use of organizations systems, software and Internet. Below are some examples of expectation in terms of E-policies:
Email Policy sets out employees' responsibilities in using the organizations emails. It prohibits use of the official organization email address for personal and illegal factors. The company reserves the right to examine and monitor and record employee Internet and email use. It is the duty of the employee to maintain the company confidentiality.
Internet use policy sets out employees’ responsibilities while using the organizations Internet. Employee use on the Internet, especially social media should be limited and always reflect positively on the organization. Employees should be cautious of viruses and malware in the Internet and it is their responsibility to maintain Internet security. Employees should avoid sites that promote immoral and unethical behaviors such as gambling and pornography, while using the organizations Internet. Employees should be aware the organization holds the right to monitor and record employee Internet usage (Heathfield, 2014).
Intellectual Property Policy - all Intellectual property created in part or whole by the organization or employees while within the organization or using the organization resources belongs to the organization wholly and therefore protected under the Intellectual property law. This property includes inventions, creations and discoveries. The purpose of the Intellectual policy, is to guard the company’s innovations from being published illegally, and stops employees from demanding rights to these inventions, because they were accomplished in the organization and using the organization resources. Firms can use Trademarks, patents and copyrights to further protect their intellectual property.
Badway, E. E., & Schnapp, D. A. (2012). Protecting Companies’ Intellectual Property From Cyber Crime. New York Law Journal, 71-85.
BBC. (2014, March 02). Ethics Guide. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml
Cyber Tech . (2013). Cyber Law and Intellectual Property Rights. New York: Cyber Tech Publications,.
Dratler, J. (2000). Cyberlaw: Intellectual Property in the Digital Millennium. Michigan: Law Journal Press.
Dratler, J. (2015). Licensing of Intellectual Property. Michigan: Law Journal Press.
Flynn, N. (2013). The EPolicy Toolkit: Social Media, Mobile, and Messaging Management. NewYork: Pfeiffer.
Heathfield, S. M. (2014, Feburary 14). Internet and Email Policy. Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/od/policiesandsamples1/a/email_policy.htm
Kant, I. I. (2015). Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals. Chicago: Create Space
Independent Publishing Platform.
Ludes, P. (2008). Convergence and Fragmentation: Media Technology and the Information Society. New York: Intellect Books.
Palfrey, J. (2011). Intellectual Property Strategy. New York: MIT Press.
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