CT218 Professional Issues
Lectures 10 + 11
Computer Misuse Act
Intellectual Property
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CT218 Professional Issues
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Computer Misuse Act 1990
S 1 – Basic Offence
Obtain unauthorised access to computer
material (includes “browsing” or “probing”)
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Aimed at “benign hacker”
Even if hacker is not aiming at
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particular programs or data
programs or data of a particular kind
programs or data held in any particular computer
Penalty: up to 6 months in jail or £5000 fine
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Section 2 - Hacking with intent
to commit a serious crime
Obtain unauthorised access to computer material
with intent to commit or facilitate the
commission of a serious crime
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Applies even if
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further offence does not involve use of a computer
further offence is not in fact committed
further offence is not possible (e.g. victim dead)
Penalty: up to 5 years in jail under the CMA
(plus further penalty for the further offence itself e.g. blackmail,
death or injury, etc.)
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S. 3 - Unauthorised modification
of computer material
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Covers:
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Wiping out data
Circulating “infected” material (e.g. virus)
Unauthorised addition of virus or worm to a
computer “library” of programs
(to use up the computer capacity)
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Unauthorised addition of password to a data file
(to make it inaccessible to people who don’t know the
password)
Unlawful activities may also constitute an offence
under other legislation, e.g. forgery, theft, etc.
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Intellectual Property
From the Reading List
 Bott, F. et al Professional Issues in
Software Engineering 3rd Ed., Taylor and
Francis, Chapter 6
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Legal mechanisms
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Trade Secrecy
Patents
Copyright
Trade Mark
Registered Design
Domain Name protection
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Trade secrecy
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Must
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have novelty
represent economic investment by claimant
have involved development effort
have been subject of considerable effort to
protect secrecy
Mechanisms
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non-disclosure clauses in contracts of
employment; licence agreements
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Trade secrecy limitations
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Can’t enforce employee confidentiality to
extent of preventing re-use of ideas
Similarly, licensing agreements can’t prevent
users from exploiting experience with
proprietary software to build ‘a better
mousetrap’.
Strong protection allows owner to keep out of
public realm, but once exploited, this is lost.
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Patents
Read Definition in handouts
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A grant of the right to exclude others from
making, using or selling one’s invention;
includes right to licence others to make, use
or sell it
a legitimate monopoly
lasts 20 years (UK)
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Patents in Employer/Employee
relationship
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Patentable inventions by employees
belong to the employee unless
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Developed in the normal course of
employee’s duties
Or in specifically assigned duties
And the development of the invention
could be anticipated as likely to arise from
the work
Or employee is a senior manager
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Patent principles
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Purpose is the advancement of the useful arts
and sciences
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not simply the right of inventors to reap rewards a means not an end
Foster inventions
Promote disclosure of inventions
Assure ideas in public domain remain free
improve economy and employment
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Patent claims
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Must fall within the category of permissible
subject matter:
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“a process, machine, manufacture or composition
of matter or … an improvement thereof.”
Must satisfy three tests:
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utility
novelty
non-obviousness
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Varieties of software licence:
Commercial end user
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Single copy licence
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restricted to one machine
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special terms for categories of user, e.g. student
Multiple-copy licence
Network licence
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sometimes eased to one machine at work and one at
home or a portable
up to N images in simultaneous use
Site/Department/Enterprise licence
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Approaches
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Developer’s licence
Shareware
Free for non-commercial use
Freeware
GNU Public licence
Details in notes >>>
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Copyright works
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Original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic
works
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Sec 3 of 1988 Act defines literary work to include
a table or compilation, a computer program,
preparatory design material for a computer
program and certain databases
Sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable
programmes
The typographical arrangement of published
editions
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The exclusive rights of the
copyright holder [“the six acts”]
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Copy the work
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Including making copies which are transient or
incidental to some other use of the work
Issue copies to the public
Rent or lend the work to the public
Perform, play or show the work in public
Broadcast the work or include it in a cable
programme service
Make an adaptation of the work or do any of
the above with an adaptation
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Infringement of Copyright:
Primary Infringement
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Anyone who does any of the six acts is liable
for primary infringement
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even if unaware the work protected by copyright
Infringes the civil rights of the copyright
owner
Not regulated by criminal law
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Secondary Infringement
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Sections 22 to 26 or
1988 Act
Must know or have
reason to believe
actions infringe
copyright
Breaches civil
rights, and may
amount to a
criminal offence
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import,
possess an infringing copy
in the course of a business,
sell,
let for hire,
distribute so as to
prejudice owner;
make, import, sell, hire,
possess equipment for
copying;
transmit or broadcast
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Permitted Acts
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Fair dealing
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private study/research; criticism or review;
reporting current events
Not fair dealing to convert a low level
program to a higher level language
Backup copies
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Max of one copy allowed. None if supplied
on non-volatile medium
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Permitted Acts Cont’d
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Transfers of works (Sec 56)
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If A sells copy to B, must retain no copies
Decompilation for the purpose of
interoperability
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permitted if this is the only way to obtain
information necessary to enable
interoperability - not if owner publishes API
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Permitted Acts Cont’d
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Error correction
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if necessary to its lawful use
provided this is not prohibited by any
contract term
Databases
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a lawful user may download if necessary to
access the contents or part of contents
Doing anything in relation to a database
for commercial research is not fair dealing
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Remedies for Breach of
Copyright
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Search and seizure, injunctions, damages
(only if aware), action for profits made
If copying is flagrant, court may award
additional damages
Copyright owner has a right to enter premises
without force to seize and confiscate
copyright material and copying equipment
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Databases
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To be covered by copyright (1988), had to be
original, representing author’s intellectual effort.
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Would not apply to an alphabetical listing.
Considered unfair to owners of directories.
EU Directive 96/6EC and Copyright and Rights
in Databases Regulations 1997
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If .. “substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or
presenting the contents of the database,” a 15 year
copyright-like protection is granted.
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Case: antiquesportfolio.com
Unauthorised use of images by web designer
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UK court backed website owner who refused to pay
designers’ fees (and sued them for damages) because the
designers had used pictures in breach of a third party
copyright
Court said that their was an implied duty of care on the
part of the designers not to include works that were
knowingly copied
See: “Information required in a Web Development Agreement”
and “Web Development Deals” from out-law.com
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Who Is the Copyright Owner?
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The author (person who creates the work)
The author’s employer (if the author is employee)
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Not necessary for there to be an IPR clause in the
contract of employment
Copyright ownership will belong to the employer
UNLESS a contract clause specifies otherwise
Independent consultants own copyright
unless the client insists on specifying
otherwise in the contract
[Compare with Patents in Employer/Employee relationship (15)]
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Licensing and Assignment
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Copyright owner granting licence does not
give up ownership
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licences may be exclusive or non-exclusive
need not be in writing
Assignment transfers ownership
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not necessarily for whole duration of copyright
period
can be transferred in a will – must be in writing
transferred to trustees on bankruptcy
can extend to future works - cf Elton John, Gilbert
O’Sullivan and George Michael
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Designs
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Engineering drawing is an artistic work
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pre-1988, making the object of the drawing
was an act of copying subject to copyright
new Unregistered Design Right
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lasts 15 years
design of any aspect of shape or configuration
(int/external) of whole or part of article
original, not commonplace in the design field in
question at time of creation, not method of
construction, not related to interconnection
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Registered Designs
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Registered Designs Act 1949
Applies to products that are
aesthetically pleasing
Could apply to keyboards and VDUs
Must be registered
Lasts 25 years
Can register nationally or in EU
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Trade Marks
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Trade Marks Act 1994
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protection starts from date of registration
enables trade marks to be searched
Common law tort of ‘passing off’
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protection only after trading and acquiring
goodwill
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Registered Trade Marks
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Any sign rendered graphically which serves
to distinguish goods or services from one
undertaking
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words, designs, letters, numerals, shape of
goods or their packaging
must have distinctive character, or acquire it
through use
cannot consist exclusively of indications of
kind, size, place of origin, time of production
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Domain Name System
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Top level Domain Names
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Originally intended for specific categories of US
websites but not always strictly enforced
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.com (commercial)
- freely available
.org (non profit organisation) - freely available
.net (Internet gateway or ISP) - freely available
.gov restricted to US Government websites
Country Code (.uk / .au / .fr
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etc.)
Multi level: e.g. UK (.co.uk / .org.uk / .ac.uk / .gov.uk)
Single level: e.g. Switzerland (.ch)
Dual level: e.g. France (abcdef.fr or abcdef.nom.fr)
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Domain Names
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(3)
Some countries restrict the use of their
domain names France - Use of .fr
domain names is restricted (for rules, see
http://www.nic.fr/)
 UK restricts the use of some sub-domains
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.gov.uk for Government websites
.ac.uk for University websites
BUT .co.uk / .org.uk / .net.uk are available to all
(including foreign companies and individuals with no links
with the UK)
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Domain Names
Cybersquatting on name and reputation of
established undertaking infringes of trade
marks or = passing off
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Even doing so for the purpose of selling to the
trademark owner is forbidden by UK law
Difficulty arises over enforcement because
Internet is global
1998, US asked WIPO to recommend to ICANN
that they take account of pre-existing trademarks
and provide dispute procedure
For update on latest legal developments, see www.out-law.com
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Reminder
Examination Paper will be 100% multiple choice questions
Lecture of 30/4/02 will include time for revision for exam.
Lecture of 2/5/02 is cancelled to give you time to prepare
for the exam.
Course notes and additional material is on your I: Drive
My Email: mes@co.umist.ac.uk
Thank you for attending this course and good luck!
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