LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN ICT

LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN ICT

Introduction

Due to the advancement of technology and widespread use computers today,it gives rise to many problems. Use of computers and technology is wide in each and every field Information is easily accessible to everyone, and so it has become easy to download or copy information. This leads to problems like plagiarism and copyright violation. The users feel unsafe that others will misuse their computers and might steal their data to commit fraud. Basic knowledge regarding legal and ethical issues must be familiar to everyone.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN ICT

 Legal and Ethical Issues refer to the various challenges and laws related to human rights, intellectual property, censorship, control, access, privacy, and professional responsibility. Ethical considerations in cybersecurity involve ensuring privacy, fairness, transparency, and accountability in handling data, implementing security measures, and responding to threats.

 

COPYRIGHT

Copyright is the legal ownership of intellectual property such as original works of fiction and non-fiction and conveys the right to control its reproduction and distribution.

•“Copyright is a legal device that provides the creator of a work of art or literature, or any work that conveys information or ideas, the right to control how the work is used” (Fishman, 2008).

• The intent of copyright is to advance the progress of knowledge by giving the author of a work an economic incentive to create new works (Loren, 2000).

•Copyright means that the owner has complete control of what can be done and to what extent with his/her original intellectual work . The original work is protected under copyright and thus it cannot be stolen or copied without the permission of the owner.

Copyright act

The Copyright Act is a law designed to protect the rights of creators of original works such as literature, music, art, and other intellectual property. It grants authors and artists exclusive rights to their creations, including the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, and adapt their works. The specifics of copyright laws can vary by country, but generally, the act aims to encourage creativity and innovation by providing creators with control over the use of their work and the ability to benefit financially from it.

How copyright works

Intellectual property is loosely defined as an original or unique product that required significant mental activity to create. Intellectual property can be copyrighted to protect it from misuse or unauthorized distribution.

Examples of unique creations include:

• Novels

• Art

• Poetry

• Musical lyrics and compositions

• Computer software

• Graphic designs

• Films

• Architectural designs

• Website content

 

Creative commons license

Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted “work”.[a] A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of a given work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author’s work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.

Work licensed under a Creative Commons license is governed by applicable copyright law.[15] This allows Creative Commons licenses to be applied to all work falling under copyright, including: books, plays, movies, music, articles, photographs, blogs, and websites.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using someone else’s work or ideas without giving proper credit. In other words, because you are not giving attribution to the owner of the original work or idea – you are presenting the idea or thought as your own.

Plagiarism is a violation of academic norms but not illegal; copyright violation is illegal but quite common in academia.

Plagiarism is an offense against the author; copyright violation is an offense against the copyright holder. In traditional academic publishing, they are usually not the same person, because copyright transfer agreements (CTAs) are so common.

Plagiarism applies when ideas are copied; copyright violation occurs only when a specific fixed expression (e.g., sequence of words, use of an image) is copied.

Avoiding plagiarism is about properly apportioning intellectual credit; copyright is about maintaining revenue streams.

Examples of plagiarism

Quoting someone’s words from the Internet, a printed article, or an interview, without acknowledging the author.

Copying part of the content of a work into one’s own paper without citing the source.

Copying or buying a paper and handing it in as one’s own.

Falsely creating a citation that doesn’t exist.

Failing to credit and cite someone else’s thoughts or ideas when paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing in a way that relies too heavily on another’s language or syntax.

 

Consequences of plagiarism.

• Failing in the assignment or getting poor or lower grades

• Failing in the class or detention

• Expulsion or restication from school

• Termination from workplace

• Court appearance and fines or may be both, in some cases

• Embarrassment and humiliation faced due to the above mentioned charges.

Detecting plagiarism:

Identify distinctive phrases (2-3 words) in student’s papers. Search for them using a search engine such as Google to detect any kind of theft from the original work.

Search for a relevant subject using a Web search tool, well-known ‘page mill’ sites under various topics, online databases (EBSCO, ProQuest) and CD-ROM reference tools. Once you find a suspect source, use your browser’s ‘find’ tool to locate distinctive phrases from student papers.

Hacking

Hacking is the act of identifying and then exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network, usually to gain unauthorized access to personal or organizational data. Hacking is not always a malicious activity, but the term has mostly negative connotations due to its association with cybercrime.

What damage can hackers do?

Cybersecurity hacking can cause real havoc. Whatever technique hackers use, once they have gained access to your data or devices, they can:

• Steal your money and open credit card and bank accounts in your name

• Destroy your credit rating

• Request new account Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) or additional credit cards

• Make purchases on your behalf

• Add themselves or an alias that they control as an authorized user so it’s easier to use your credit

• Obtain cash advances

• Use and abuse your Social Security number

• Sell your information to others who will use it for malicious purposes

• Delete or damage important files on your computer

• Obtain sensitive personal information and share it, or threaten to share it, publicly

How to Safeguard us from the Hackers?

Hacking is a chronic problem that jeopardizes a nation’s and its residents’ security. Individually, it can result in incalculable economic losses, even wiping out a person’s financial savings. At the organizational level, it has resulted in data theft, resulting in significant financial losses and long-term consequences. To stop this terrible threat, protections must be put in place at the correct moment and at all levels. So to protect ourselves from hackers always remember the following points:

• Always keep your system updated because hackers always look for holes in security to attack. So, updating the operating system and software will prevent the user from getting hacked.

• Always set unique and strong passwords for different accounts never use the same passwords for the same accounts because it is easy to hack.

• While using websites always look for HTTPS encryption. It ensure that the connection is secure.

• Use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as a type of point-to-point communication that allows business networks to connect to offsite and remote sites. VPN services, such as ExpressVPN, encrypt the sending and receiving IP addresses, preventing unauthorized access.

• Only download software from reputable sources. Before downloading free software or file-sharing applications, give them a thorough examination.

• Make use of a two-way firewall.

• Stay away from dubious websites.

• Increase the security settings of your browser.

• Always install antivirus software

Netiquette

Netiquette, or Internet etiquette, is an ideal pattern of behavior for Internet users, guidelines about what is acceptable in an online medium for personal and professional use. The rules of netiquette apply to web users of any age—just like manners. Parents can teach their children proper netiquette to ensure smooth communication and avoid online misunderstandings.

Here are some examples of netiquette:

• Keep the good education. It is a basic rule that, although it seems obvious, is not always so in communication that does not occur face to face. We look at examples of how to lose shape on a daily basis on social networks like Twitter.

• Respect each other’s bandwidth. This implies not sending by email or instant messaging files of great weight or difficult to download.

• Don’t send pictures or videos of other people,especially if they’re intimate. The modification of the Criminal Code in Spain in 2015 includes this action as a crime that can be punished with between three months and one year in prison, even if the images have been taken at the time with the authorization of the person who appears in it.

• Also, do not disseminate private information about yourself or others.

• Take care of spelling. Unfortunately, this is one of the points to which less attention is currently paid.

• In e-mails, it retains the structure of traditional mail. Includes subject, greeting, theme to develop, farewell and signature. If there are any attachments, mention them.

• In forums, chats, social networks or WhatsApp groups, express your opinion with respect and never attacking others.

Phishing

Phishing is a common type of cyber attack that targets individuals through email, text messages, phone calls, and other forms of communication. A phishing attack aims to trick the recipient into falling for the attacker’s desired action, such as revealing financial information, system login credentials, or other sensitive information.

As a popular form of social engineering, phishing involves psychological manipulation and deception whereby threat actors masquerade as reputable entities to mislead users into performing specific actions. These actions often involve clicking links to fake websites, downloading and installing malicious files, and divulging private information, like bank account numbers or credit card information.

Why Is Phishing a Problem?

Phishing is a significant problem because it is easy, cheap, and effective for cybercriminals to use. Phishing tactics, particularly email, require minimal cost and effort, making them widespread cyber-attacks. Victims of phishing scams may end up with malware infections (including ransomware), identity theft, and data loss.

The data that cybercriminals go after include personal identifiable information (PII)—like financial account data, credit card numbers, and tax and medical records—as well as sensitive business data, such as customer names and contact information, proprietary product secrets, and confidential communications.

Cybercriminals also use phishing attacks to gain direct access to email, social media and other accounts or to obtain permissions to modify and compromise connected systems, like point-of-sale terminals and order processing systems. Many of the biggest data breaches start with an innocent phishing email where cybercriminals gain a small foothold to build upon.

Software Piracy

Software piracy is the unauthorized use of legally protected software, which includes stealing, copying, distributing, modifying or selling the software. Copyright laws were originally put into place so that people who develop software (programmers, writers, graphic artists, etc.) would get proper credit and compensation for their work. When software piracy occurs, compensation is stolen from these copyright holders.

Software Piracy Regulation

Software piracy is illegal and constitutes a federal crime. The monetary penalties for those who break this law can reach up to $150,000 per instance of copyright violation. An end-user license agreement (EULA) is a license used for most software. It is a contract between the manufacturer and/or author and the end user. This agreement defines rules for software use, and not every agreement is the same. One common rule in most EULAs prohibits users from sharing the software with others.

Consequences of software piracy include:

Increased chances of software malfunction or failure: When software is obtained illegally, there is a greater chance of encountering glitches, errors or failures. Pirated software lacks the quality control measures that legitimate software uses to test or improve the software to a more functional version, resulting in compromised performance and potentially unstable systems.

Forfeited access to support services: Training, upgrades, customer support and bug fixes are all included with legitimate software purchases. Users lose access to these services when they use pirated software, leaving them without the assistance they need to optimize their software experience.

No warranty and lack of updates: Pirated software lacks warranties, meaning users have no resource options if it fails to work. Users who do not have access to official updates miss out on important security patches and improvements, leaving their systems vulnerable to cybersecurity threats and lacking the latest features.

Increased risk of malware, viruses or adware: Users are more vulnerable to malware, viruses and adware when downloading unofficial software. Pirates can modify software packages to include malicious code, which puts the software and the user’s computer system at risk of compromised data.

Slowed PC performance: Illegitimate software may contain added programs, features, or altered code that may significantly slow down a computer’s performance. This negatively impacts the user experience and puts the entire system’s stability and reliability at risk.

Legal repercussions due to copyright infringement: Individuals who use pirated software risk serious legal consequences. Copyright infringement is a punishable offense and may cause software companies to actively pursue legal action against you. Using pirated software can result in fines, penalties and even imprisonment.

Compatibility issues: Pirated software might not work with other programs or operating systems, resulting in data loss, formatting issues or inefficiency.

Conclusion

With the growth of ICT from its infantry of 19th centuries to today’s mighty form there emerged numerous questions regarding the ethical and legal uses of ICT from time to time. Ethics of ICT and indeed the ethical theory in general has typically been concerned with the normative analysis of individual intentional action. The standard topics of computer ethics such as invasions of privacy, misuse of personal data and disputed ownership of intellectual property appear to lend themselves well to such analysis, and because organizations and states are intentional agents too issues of regulation, legislation, corporate responsibility and other forms of collective action have also been relatively amenable to this approach. However, another set of normative issues exists of equal or arguably perhaps greater importance is the role played by ICT in globalization and eradication of poverty etc. Every technological developments and inventions, after all, are for the need and betterment of the society and should be helpful in the upliftment of the society

Reference

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