CS5038 The Electronic Society
Lecture 7: Legal and Ethical Issues
Lecture Outline
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Legal and Ethical Issues
Privacy Issues
Privacy Policies
Protecting Intellectual Property
Freedom of Speech
Other Legal Issues
Avoiding Legal Problems
Crime
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Legal and Ethical Issues
Privacy – Collection, Storage, Dissemination
Accuracy
 Who is responsible for errors
 Are errors intentional or accidental
 How is injured party compensated
Accessibility – right to access information, payment of fees to access it
 Genealogy
Intellectual Property – ownership and value
 Difficult to protect - easy to copy digitised information, hard to detect
Free Speech
 Internet provides the largest opportunity; but some postings offend people
Taxation
 Especially between different countries
Computer crimes
Validity of contracts
Legality of public key encryption infrastructures
Liability of ISPs
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Privacy Issues
Information Privacy = The claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to
determine for themselves when, and to what extent, information
about them is communicated to others
Privacy must be balanced against the needs of society
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eliminate fraud, organised crime, tax evasion, welfare cheats, terrorists
How to collect your private information:
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Making you register on a Web site
Finding you in the Internet Directory
Electronic Surveillance – e.g. an employer
 Reading your e-mail
 Monitoring your surfing
 Making your browser record information about you – Cookies
 Handy for user – website remembers you
 Potential to gather information about preferences, interests
 Access information in databases
 Banks and financial institutions, Cable TV, Telephones, Employers,
Schools, Insurance companies, Online vendors
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Privacy Policies
Notice/Awareness
 To enable consumer to make informed decisions
Choice/Consent - aware of options + “opt-out” clauses
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Individuals must give consent before data can be gathered
Data collection
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Used only for specific, explicit legitimate purpose
Retained no longer than necessary for fulfilling original purpose
Data should be adequate, relevant, not excessive in relation to objective
Data accuracy
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Data should be accurate and, where and when necessary, kept current
The file should be made available, so individual can ensure correctness
Data confidentiality
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Third parties should not be given access to data without the individual’s
knowledge or permission, except as required by law
Integrity/security – data protected from unauthorised access
Enforcement/Redress
 Obtain judicial remedy and compensation for privacy infringement
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Protecting Intellectual Property I
Copyright = Gives author of intellectual property ownership of it. Lasts for 50
years after death of author in UK (28 years in US)
 Infringements attracting criminal liability:
 Commercial production of infringing works
 Selling or dealing with infringing works
 Possessing infringing works for trade or business
 Manufacturing and selling technology for defeating copyright
protection systems
 No Electronic Theft Act: Americans who copy software or other
material worth more than $1,000
 Copyright Protection
 Digital watermarks - hidden in source data, inseparable
Patent = Grants holder exclusive rights on invention for 20 yrs in UK (17 in US)
 Must be Novel, involve a sufficiently inventive step and capable of
industrial application
 Stronger than copyright – rights to an idea or invention regardless of
how it may be expressed
 Harder to get – especially in Europe, easier in US – amazon 1-click 5
Protecting Intellectual Property II
Trademark = Graphical sign used by a business to identify its
goods and services (can be words, designs, letters, numbers
shapes)
 Must be distinctive, original and not deceptive
 Registered trademarks
 Can be kept forever (periodic fee)
 Criminal offense to
• Fraudulently use it, including importing goods bearing trademark
• Use or possess equipment for forging trademarks
 Unregistered trademark
 Cannot pass-off products or services representing them
as those of a competitor
Domain Names – use the trade name of another company to help
attract traffic http://domainmagistrate.com/
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Freedom of Speech
Governments protective of their role in society
Governments attempting to deal with illegal actions – shutting down sites
 Organised Crime, Anarchy/Terrorism
Individuals concerned about their right to information on the Internet
 Organizations: The Electronic Frontier Foundation / Blue Ribbon Campaign
Children
 Parents concerned about inappropriate Web pages and chat rooms
 Merchants solicit information from children about their families
Approaches to protect children from inappropriate material
 Parents should be responsible for monitoring their own children
 Government should protect children from this material
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Communications decency Act (CDA) unconstitutional
 Internet providers responsible for all information they enable access to
Impossible to control Internet - Freenet
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Freedom of Speech – Freedom to Spam
Spam = Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE)
U.S. introduced “Electronic Mailbox Protection Act of 1997”
 Accepts the use of UCE
 Prohibits activities that misappropriate the resources of ISPS
 Disguising the source of the message
 Distributing an e-mail list with knowledge that a user on list has "opted out“
 Sending UCE to a user who has "opted out"
 Harvesting e-mail addresses for the purpose of sending UCE
Enforcement
 Injunction
 $500 statutory damages for each violation, and attorney fees
 Can be increased up to 10 times the amount, if actions were particularly
egregious, willful, or knowing violations
http://www.spamlaws.com/
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Other Legal Issues
Internet Taxation – Many unresolved issues – Links: UK EU
 Point of taxation for a service – Operator or user? Maybe different countries
 U.S taxes only in state where vendor is located
 Is a ‘hard’ copy (book, cd, dvd) dealt with the same as a downloaded file?
Contracts – legally binding requires: offer, acceptance & consideration
 Click-wrap contracts – clicking "I agree" button = binding contract
 Electronic agents can enter contracts with no human present
When are electronic documents admissible evidence in courts?
Who is liable for errors, software malfunction, theft, fraud?
 Post disclaimers about content – e.g. sample code that your
company does not support
Much existing law hinges on physical location of information
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Avoiding Legal Problems
Useful Web warnings:
 Have attorneys review your Web content
 Issue written policy guidelines about employee use of Internet
 Do not use copyrighted or trademarked material without permission
 Post disclaimers about content – e.g. sample code that your
company does not support
 Post disclaimers of responsibility concerning content of forums/chat
sessions
 Make sure Web content and activity comply with laws in other
countries
 Appoint someone to monitor changing Internet legal and liability
issues
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Computer Crimes
Computer fraud (=deception to gain unfair advantage) committed by:
 Example: illegally promoted stocks on computer bulletin boards,
online newsletters and investment Web sites
 Example: Selling bogus investments, phantom business
opportunities, and other fraud schemes
 Auction Fraud (covered earlier)
Computer abuse (maybe not for personal gain) committed by:
 Misuse of company resources - unauthorised private work or play
 Compromise of system integrity by:
 Altering company data
 Introducing viruses
 Hacking into the system
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Summary
Legal and Ethical Issues – privacy, free speech, IP, crime
Privacy Issues – how to gather your personal information
Privacy Policies – notice, consent, collection, accuracy, redress
Protecting Intellectual Property – copyright, patent, trademark
Freedom of Speech – anarchy, terrorism, children
Other Legal Issues – tax, contracts, gambling, liability
Avoiding Legal Problems
Crime – Fraud, Abuse
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QUIZ 17
skip questions 12 and 13
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