2. Legal and Ethical Issues
• The rapid rise of technology has raised a host of legal and ethical issues that are unique
to the 21st century. From personal privacy online, to the appropriate uses of new
technology, to copyright and intellectual property on the Internet, the legal and ethical
issues in technology are multifaceted and complex.
3. What is ethical use of
Technology?
Ethical use of technology entails a behavior which consists on using every
technological resource in the classroom in a way that, as the word "ethical" means,
is:
• honest
• decent
• proper
• fair
• honorable
4. Concerns:
One of the biggest ethical concerns, which often also becomes a legal issue, is the
appropriate use of technology.
5. Privacy
The use of technology by some governments to infringe on
the privacy rights of their citizens is a troubling legal and
ethical issue being dealt with in the legal systems of many
countries.
7. Copyright
• Copyright and intellectual property rights are also major
issues that have taken the public spotlight with the advent
of technology. The development of the Internet as a
publishing medium created a forum where copyright
infringement became extremely easy and almost
unavoidable for many creators. Software piracy and the
battle of copyright holders to exert control over their
intellectual property is a fight that is played out on a daily
basis online and in the courts.
8. Copyright continued:
The term “copyright” can be defined as “the exclusive right of the author or producer of a
literary, scientific, or artistic work to publish and reproduce it.” The copyright issues arising
related to NET can be categorized into the following three categories
• Unlawful use of user-generated content created by NET;
• Unlawful publication of copyright content on social networks; and
• Unlawful collection of copyrighted content from social networks.
9. PATENT ISSUES
The term “patent” can be defined
as: “an exclusive right or rights
provided by a government to an
inventor for a certain period of time
in exchange for the public
disclosure of an invention”.
Software patents are a
controversial topic. While some
countries prohibit the grant of
software patents, others allow
inventors to receive patents for
software. Interestingly, the
proponents and the opponents of
software patents use the same
reasoning to justify their position.
10. Summary
Legal issues related to technology (i.e., privacy issues, issues related to gathering
evidence, copyright issues, and patent issues). These issues can be overcome to a large
extent by a joint cooperation between private organizations and governments