This document discusses several legal and ethical issues related to using information and communication technologies (ICT). It covers topics like intellectual property rights, copyright, plagiarism, privacy, censorship, cybercrimes, and the digital divide. The document provides guidance on addressing these issues, including developing acceptable use policies, educating users, obtaining consent for personal information, and upgrading infrastructure to improve access. Overall, the document outlines many important legal and social considerations for responsibly using ICT and digital content.

1. Working with ICT
Legal & ethical issues
B. P. Chauhan
Librarian, Thapar Institute of
Engineering &
Technology, Patiala
bpchauhan2000@yahoo.com

2. Learning outcomes
By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
 Address ethical, legal and other issues involved
in using the Internet
 Have understanding of intellectual property
rights in digital environment
 Explore possible solutions to address these
issues

3. Scope
 What are the ethical, legal and other issues involved in
use of ICT?
 Possible solutions to the ethical, legal and social issues
 Recap of copyright provisions
 Technology and Copyright
 Situations where copyright issue become important in
Institutional activities
 Myths and facts about copyright in digital environment

4. Netiquettes
 Ethics governing Internet - acceptable behavior on
the Net, mostly related to use of e-mail and relay
chat
– For Example:
 Be brief, keep paragraphs short
 Try to use mixed upper and lowercase
 Use CAPITALS & special characters for emphasis only
 Do not SPAM or send junk e-mail
 Refrain from flaming (sending hate messages)
 Follow acceptable standards of politeness as used in all kinds
of communication
 Be wary of virus hoaxes, urban legends and chain letters

5. Intellectual Property Rights
– Plagiarism – using somebody else’s work and claiming it as your
own
– Copyright Law – protection of the author’s original work
– Fair Use – reproduction of materials for educational and research
purpose
– Software piracy – theft and illegal reproduction of software
– File swapping – exchange of digital materials like audio and video
over the Net without the owner’s permission

6. Civil liberties
 – issues regarding the rights of an individual
– Freedom of speech – ability to express oneself on the
Internet
– Personal privacy and records confidentiality– handling of
personal information, e-mail and other electronic
correspondence
 in the USA the FBI uses a software named “Carnivore” to spy
on e-mail passing through ISPs
 collection of user’s data i.e. personal information and browsing
habits by some software (spyware), and using it directly or
selling it for a profit
– Censorship – regulation or control of content
 for example: use of blocking or filtering software

7. Cybercrimes (Computer facilitated
crimes)
– Hacking / Cracking – breaking-in to computer systems with
or without malicious intent
– Dissemination of Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, and other
similar destructive software
– Denial of service and other attacks
– Internet Fraud – false advertisement and malpractices of
individuals and companies
– Spamming – sending unsolicited e-mail
– Flaming – sending of hate messages
– Pornography – proliferation of obscene and indecent
materials

8. Digital Divide
Social and economic issues
 Provisions for the handicapped and marginalized
– Accessibility issues with regards to the physically
handicapped
– The widening “digital divide” between the information rich
and information poor
 Multilingualism
 Charging for information – fee based information
resources and services

9. Digital Divide
Social and economic issues
 Technological limitations
– Slow download due to small bandwidth and increasing
number of users
– Lack of standards with regards to software and interface
design
 Other limitations
– Not all the information you may need is available on the
Internet
– Information on the Internet is not permanent; it may be
revised, edited, deleted, moved to a new directory, or
filename changed
– Commercialization and high cost of information services

10. Possible solutions
 Creation of Internet Acceptable Use Policy in the
workplace, for staff and students
 User and staff education regarding Intellectual Property
Rights and Copyrights issues
 Respect of personal privacy and confidentiality of
personal information
 Express consent for use of personal information
 Vigilance and continuous education in the productive and
responsible use of the Internet

11. Possible solutions
 Implementation of a system of safeguards against
deliberate or accidental damage to the system or data
 Creation of programs and services that address the
needs of the handicapped and marginalized
 Upgrade and maintenance of infrastructure, hardware
and software
 Utilization of other information resources aside from the
Internet

12. Digital Copyright
Some issues in IPR in
e-learning environment

13. Digital Copyright
Some issues of IPR in
digital environment

14. Some issues in IPR digital
environment
 Recap of copyright
 IPR and E-learning
 Teacher
 Students
 Libraries
 Peer to peer sharing of files
 E-publishing and open Access
 Open Source and Open Access
 Licensing

15. Nature of Copyright
Exclusive right given by law for a certain term of years to
an author, composer, designer, etc to
print, publish, and sell copies of his original work.
Applies to literary, dramatic, musical work, computer
program, artistic work, irrespective of the media-
paper, cinematographic films including sound track and
video films, records, CDs, tapes, DVDs, VCDs …
Given to a person or organization responsible for
creation/intellectual input, skill to a work.

16. Nature of copyright
Multiple nature of rights: bundle of different rights in the same work
 To reproduce and store in any material form and medium
 To issue copies to the public
 To perform in public or communicate to the public
 To make film or recording in respect of the work
 Translation, adaptation and to do the above in respect of
translation and adaptation.
 To sell or give on hire, or offer for sale or hire any copy of the
computer program, regardless of whether such copy has been
sold or given on hire on earlier occasions.

17. Nature of copyright
 Ideas do not copyright (expressions have)
 Author must have bestowed upon the work sufficient
judgment, skill and labour
 Original work
 No formal registration required
 Universal (not territorial)
 Immoral and illegal works are covered
 Live events are not covered (performers right,
bootlegging)

18. Acts of infringement
 Doing without license or permission Acts that the
owner has exclusive rights
(reproduction, communication, performance in
public, adaptation and translation)
 Permits for profit any place to be used for
communication
 Makes for sale or hire or sells for hire
 Distributes
 Exhibits
 imports

19. Copying
 Casual connection: objective similarity
 Indirect copying: 2-D to 3-D, adaptation
 Substantial copying: How much is reasonable? The
legislation does not specify a percentage that is
acceptable in all circumstances.
– The courts would look to see whether all or a "substantial
part" of the work has been copied.
– "substantial" can relate to quality just as much as quantity. A
small but key part of the work could be ruled by a court to
be a"substantial part

20. Exceptions to infringement
 Fair dealing: private use (incl. research, criticism or review), reporting
in newspapers, broadcasting
 Reproduction for judicial proceedings, for members of legislature
 Reading or recitation of extracts in public
 Publication in a collection for the use of educational institutions in
certain circumstances
 By teacher or students in the course of instructions subject to certain
conditions
 Performance in the course of the educational activities for staff and
students
 Performance in amateur club or religious institutions for non-paying
audience
 Playing sound recording in a closed hall for residents of the building or
in a club not-for-profit

21. Exceptions to infringement
 Making up to three copies by public library if the book is not available
for sale in India
 Reproduction of unpublished work kept in a library for private study or
research or publication. (author not known or beyond copyright)
 Free reproduction of
 Matter published in Official Gazette (expect legislation)
 Legislation with commentary
 Reports of committees/commissions laid down on the table of
legislature
 Judgments of court, tribunal and other judicial authority
 Translation of legislations if not published by the Govt

22. Exceptions to infringement-Computer
Programmes
 Making copies or adaptation by the lawful
possessor
– In order to utilise for the purpose it was supplied
– Back up copies as a temporary protection against
loss
– For operating, interoperrability
– Observation, study and testing the functioning
– For non-commercial personal use

23. Role of technology in Copyright
 Production and storage
 Distribution
 Infringement
 Surveillance and detection

24. Technology in Production and
distribution
 Online creation
 Sharing and networking
 Storage media
 Encryption, codification and security
 Authentication
 License: access, distribution and use
 Loans

25. Technology in infringement and
detection
 Download
 Data protection and corruption
 Unauthorized use and distribution
 Infringement is easy
 Detection is easier than before
 Allowing/facilitating others to infringe is also
infringement

26. Situation of use of IP in education
 Use of third party IP in-
– Class room teaching
– Research
– Theses and publishing
 Putting the contents on the site and/or using
in other internet media (email, listserv etc.)
 Libraries and learning resources

27. Free resources and copyright
 Internet, free sample, trial objects
 Copyright exist
 Implied or express license is required (GPL etc)
 License restrictions
– Commercial use
– Commercial distribution
– Time/place
– Further use

28. Electronic Theses and dissertation
 Ownership: student, sponsor, government,
institution
 Free distribution and copying
 Third party material: Liability
 Instruments: license, assignment,

29. The Digital Library and copyright
 E-resources
– License and permissions
– Archiving the downloads
– Copying: purpose
– lending of a computer program for nonprofit purposes by a nonprofit library, if each
copy of a computer program which is lent by such library has affixed to the packaging
containing the program a warning of copyright
– Lending and distribution of digital object; e-objects, archiving, journals
– Internet Access
 Institutional repositories:
– Self-archival material
– Peer review system
– Self-managed system
– Moderated system

30. Digital Copyright:
Myths and Facts
 Myth: The full text of the journal article was posted to
a discussion list. The person who posted it to the list
will have obtained copyright clearance.
 Fact: It is incredible how often you see people asking
if anyone has a copy of an article that they are
looking for, and a helpful person then responds by
posting the full text of the article to the discussion list
on which the enquirer has made the request. They
might not have even considered the copyright
implications of their actions.

31. Digital Copyright:
Myths and Facts
 MYTH: I am entitled to make a copy of the
work on my Website because I am not
charging people for the material.
 Fact: If you publish someone else's work to
your own Website without
permission, copyright is infringed regardless of
whether or not you charge people for the
copied material.

32. Digital Copyright:
Myths and Facts
 MYTH: I have only created a link to the document
rather than making copies of it. There are no potential
legal problems with doing that.
 Fact: If the link is to a pdf, for example, it could be
argued that each time the link is clicked, the entire work
is being "published". There are plenty of legal hazards
from hyper-linking, particularly if you are using frames
technology. You could be accused of "passing off“
other people's material as your own.

33. Digital Copyrights
Myths and Truths
 MYTH There is no copyright symbol on the
work, so it can't be protected by copyright.
 Fact: Copyright protection is automatic.
There isn't a formal registration process that
an author has to go through to have the
rights to a work; nor do they need to put a (c)
on the work in order to claim copyright
protection

34. Digital Copyrights
Myths and Truths
 MYTH Anyone can copy material on the
Web using fair dealing for research as a
defence.
 Fact: Fair dealing for research or private
study is restricted to fair dealing for a non-
commercial purpose or private study.

35. Digital Copyrights
Myths and Truths
 MYTH : The information is accessible to anyone on the World
Wide Web. It is therefore in the public domain and internet users
have an implied licence to copy the material.
 Fact: Just because information is accessible on the Web, there
is no implied licence to copy it. Copyright material sent over the
Internet or stored on Web servers will generally be protected in
the same way as material in other media.

36. Digital Copyrights
Myths and Truths
 MYTH: My whole site was designed by a
professional Website designer. I paid them for the
work, and therefore they will have checked that it
is alright to use the clip art, pictures, and other
material.
 Fact: Not necessarily. Not all Website designers
will check that the material used has been cleared
for copyright purposes

37. Instruments to avoid/protection IPR
infringement
 License
 Disclaimers
 Agreement/undertaking
 Privacy Policy

38. Statutory v/s contractual
 License Terms and Terms of Law
 Click on Agree
 Is open access material protected?