Chapter 7: Legal and Ethical Issues in Information Technology

Introduction

Scientific and technological improvements in last three decades have made the world as a huge network consisting of various electronics devices sharing and transferring information over the network. Today, we can do a lot of things over such a network, for instance, we can make shopping while we are not in mall, we can access a lot of books without visiting libraries, we can also make business without having an office. As a consequence of recent improvements in technology and science, a new society, called as information society, has been created whose members utilize information technology to facilitate and/ or achieve their daily tasks and/or works. In fact, most of us are members of this society and it is not possible to isolate ourselves, since all sides of us are surrounded by Wi-Fi hotspots and other related network components providing us to access information whenever we need.

As well as in our daily life, information technology, which is often abbreviated as IT, plays crucial role also in business, for instance, international meetings can be easily done by various online meeting programs, most of the companies sell their products by the Internet which reduces some of the costs. In addition, by IT, education background of the societies can be improved. Since it is believed that universal access to information is one of the keys for constructing a more peaceful world, countries have been encouraging to construct a good Internet network and provide open-access to scientific information.

Direction of improvements in science and technology are determined implicitly by our requirements and needs. Therefore, we should shape the technology, however, recently, our requirements are determined who controls the information. In addition, IT has introduced some social problems we have never faced in past. Apart from that, lots of people have been suffering healthy problems due to the drastically increment of radiation. It should be noted that presence of various type of information which is sharing and exchanging over the network has also introduced some ethical dilemmas and problems, we have never considered. The main reason of arising such dilemmas and problems stem from the fact that social norms and laws can not keep pace with the technology, which has drastically improved in the current century.

Ethics in Information Technology

Today, millions of computers share and exchange information over the Internet for many reasons, for instance, bank transfer, business meetings. Hence, our private and financial information, commercial information of many companies, furthermore, many secure information of the countries are somewhere in the network. Due to the presence of such private and secure information, someone may try to access the network in order to misuse such information without any permission. In order to overcome these problems, besides some security protocols, which are developed by software and/or hardware companies, some set of rules and/or laws should be introduced. These rules are not only necessary to keep someone’s privacy, they are also required to respect different cultures and social norms, which are not unique for everyone.

Such a set of rules in business organizations is often called code of ethics. It is a written document that describes the main principal values and ethical issues of the organization. Code of ethics are not written only for employees, professionals and other members of the organizations, it is developed to

• affect all stakeholders,
• enhance the public’s confidence,
• assist training of the organization’s members,
• clarify the responsibilities of the organization’s members.

It is clear that code of ethics in business corresponds to a guideline for the employess, professionals and other members what they should take into account in decision process. However, it is not easy to say that code of ethics is also sufficiently enough to improve the performance of workers, since they can not cover ethical behavior of every member in large organizations. Furthermore, breaking a code of ethics does not mean a crime in itself. Besides code of ethics, there should exist some set of certain rules in order to proper utilize IT such as

• It is strictly forbidden to use someone’s computer, software, or data files without his/her permission.
• Usage of the Internet or information technology to demean individuals or groups is ethically unacceptable.
• Network administrators or professionals who are responsible for the network should consider the physical safety, human dignity of all workers.

In the current century, the information has been regarded as a commodity and source of a power. Therefore, it may be a key to construct a more peaceful world, which has a sustainable economic development. Under this idea, UNESCO has been encouring its Member states and international organizations to

• provide open-access to scientific information, education resources and materials
• facilitate access and use of basic computer skills
• ensure universal access to information.

In addition to these, UNESCO has proposed code of ethics to overcome and minimize the worst effect of misuse and abuse of information technology in 2011.

Besides code of ethics, another set of rules often arise in some certain places, which are open to public such as at hotels, pubs, restorants, airports. These rules are often known as acceptable use of policy, which bounds the ways in which the network may be used in such places. These rules are determined by the Internet and/or network connection providers and, in general, the rules are common. Acceptable use of policy is often required in business because of the following reasons

• improvement of productivity
• reduction of the costs
• keeping the privacy
• ensuring certain bandwidth

Intellectual Property in Information Technology

Intellectual property refers to the creations of the human mind, such as inventions, artistic works,designs, symbols that are used in business. These creations have moral and commerce values and their protection is really important. Intellectual property rights are the legal rights given to the inventor to protect and fully benefit from his/her own work in a certain period of time. Protection and promotion of intellectual property by certain laws in countries lead to

• economic growth because of creation of new industries,
• enhance the life quality because of creation of new artistic and scientific works,
• motivate the creator or innovator for new works.

Intellectual property is generally divided into two branches: industrial property and copyright. The industrial property branch of intellectual property covers the rights of

• inventions,
• industrial designs,
• trademarks service marks, commercial names,

and the copyright branch covers the rights of

• literary, artistic and scientific works
• performance of performing artists, phonograms and broadcasts.

Invention: Invention can be something that has never been made before. It can be a product or a process of creating something. However, it should be clearly defined what type of inventions are in domain of industrial property. In general, industrial property covers the inventions that find applications in the industry, agriculture, and extensive industry. All inventions related in this domain can be patentable in order to protect the rights of the creator. Patent can be defined as a right granted for an invention which can be used in its domain, for instance, a new machine design to solve some of the serious problems in industry. Note, a patented invention can be used for commercial purposes if its owner gives permission. It should be noted that an invention can be patentable if it satisfies some certain conditions. These conditions are not necessarily to be same in all countries, however, an invention should be:

• in domain of patentable inventions that is described by national laws of the countries
• applicable,
• new, however, not be obvious,
• presented clearly while applying for a patent.

Industrial design: Industrial designs play crucial role in business, since visual appearance is one of the main factors that determines the market success of manufactures. Hence, rights of their creators should be protected. Note, an integrated circuit (IC) is also considered as an industrial design even most of them have similar properties and shapes., An IC consists of millions of electrical and electronic circuit components, however, their connection requires a huge investment in terms of professional and financial resources.

Trademark: Trademark is a sign of product such that it distinguishes the product from the others, which have similar functionalities. A trademark should identify the product of a company, in addition, it should refer to particular quality. Furthermore, it is expected that it should promote the marketing and sales of the product

Copyright: Copyright, which is a legal term, is another form of intellectual property. It describes the rights given to the authors of literary works, such as books, and creator of artistic works, such as paintings. Some of these rights lead to right owners to authorize or prohibit

• reproduction of the work,
• distribution of copies of the work,
• public performance of the work,
• translation of the work into other languages, and adaptation of the work.

Copyright infringement is the act of violating rights granted to the copyright holder. However, in some of cases, permission of the copyright holder is not necessary. This is called a fair use, for instance; quoting a few lines from some songs of popular musician, summarizing and quoting from a scientific article or magazine, use of works by way of illustration for teaching purposes. In order to protect the rights granted to the copyright holder, the following factors should be taken into account whether a particular use of copyrighted property is fair or not:

• the purpose and character of the use (commercial, nonprofit, educational purposes)
• the used portion of the work compared to whole of the work
• the effect of the use on the value of the copyrighted work.

Copyright, different than the industrial property, considers the expression of idea. In addition, duration of protection for copyright and related rights is much longer than for patents.

Privacy in Information Technology

Privacy is one of the fundamental rights of mankind. In addition, democracy and liberty are based on individuals having a certain degree of freedom. It is believed that many human rights can not be satisfied unless the right of privacy is protected. However, since the time when information regarded as a commodity, protection of privacy has gained more value. Most of our personal and financial information have been exchanging over the Internet or other networks, since most of us prefer to use the Internet for shopping. However, due to the technical reasons, someone may access our personal and financial information over the network to use it for illegal objectives. Apart from that violation of privacy rights often appear in business, since most of the companies monitor network connections of their employees in order to ensure and improve their productivity. In fact, such a monitoring is everywhere for the sake of ensuring the public safety. On the other hand, this can be considered as a violation of privacy rights.