Module 11 - Intellectual Property Rights

Most countries, including the Philippines, enforce laws that penalize copying or imitation of inventions, identifying symbols/ and creative expressions. These laws encompass four separate and distinct types of intangible property, namely, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, which collectively are referred to as "intellectual property". Intellectual property shares many of the characteristics associated with real and personal property. For example, intellectual property is an asset, and as such it can be bought, sold, licensed, exchanged, or gratuitously given away like any other form of property. Furthermore, the intellectual property owner has the right to prevent the unauthorized use or sale of the property. The most noticeable difference between intellectual property and other forms of property, however, is that intellectual property is intangible; that is, it cannot be defined or identified by physical parameters.

In computing, an algorithm can be patented (like the Rivest, Shamir and Adelman Algorithm for Encryption and Digital Signatures); a program or an online textbook is copyrightable; and domain names could be considered trademarks.

Software piracy

Software piracy is the act of using software without paying the appropriate license. Doing this is the same as stealing from the software developer. The ethical implication is of course is quite obvious: since stealing is bad, piracy is also bad.

Software is one of the most valuable technologies of the Information Age, running everything from personal computers to the Internet. Unfortunately, because software is so valuable, and because computers make it easy to create an exact copy of a program in seconds, software piracy is widespread. It involves individual computer users as well as professionals who deal wholesale in stolen software; it exists in homes, schools, businesses, and government. Software pirates not only steal from the companies that make the software; their acts also redound to less money for research and development of new software. Thus, all users are hurt by software piracy.

There are several types of software piracy. Three of them are as follows:

1. End user piracy — Using multiple copies of a single software package on several different systems or distributing copies of software to others.

2. Reseller piracy — Reseller piracy occurs when an unscrupulous reseller distributes multiple copies of a single software package to different customers; this includes preloading systems with software without providing original manuals and diskettes. Reseller piracy also occurs when resellers knowingly sell counterfeit versions of software to unsuspecting customers. Indications of reseller piracy are multiple users with the same serial number, lack of original documentation or an incomplete set, and non-matching documentation.

3. BBS/Internet piracy — BBS/ Internet piracy occurs when there is an electronic transfer of copyrighted software. That is, system operators and/or users upload or download copyrighted software and materials onto or from bulletin boards or the Internet for others to copy and
use without the proper license.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a difficult concept to define. Considered a form of fraud and/or theft, plagiarism occurs anytime that a person copies any written work and claims it as his/her own. It includes a range of actions from failure to use proper citation to wholesale cheating. A student who plagiarizes may do so unintentionally or with deliberation. With the advent of the Internet, plagiarism has become rampant. The most common type of plagiarism is the cut-and-paste plagiarism. When preparing a term paper, for example, a student could simply copy from the Internet text relevant to his topic. The worst type of plagiarism is when the student simply downloads a term paper from the Internet and submit this as her own. There are many sites in the Internet where term papers are downloadable for free.

Software and Copyright Law of the US

For us to understand what is copyrightable in a software, let us consider several cases in the US that deals with software and copyright law.

The first case is the Whelan vs. Jaslow case. In 1985, Jaslow Dental Laboratory sued Whelan Associates, Inc. on the ground that Whelan's Dentcom program infringed Jaslow's copyright on its Dentalab program even though both were written using different programming languages. The court ruled in favor of Jaslow on the basis of the argument that the structure (sequence and organization) of a computer program is protectable by copyright. The court found that the coding part is a comparatively small part of programming and that Ms. Whelan spent a tremendous amount of time studying Jaslow's Dentalab program. The court's verdict on this case tells us that copyright protection of programs may extend beyond the code to their structure, sequence, and organization.

The second case is Computer Associates vs. Altai. The court decided that Altai's program did not infringe a program by Computer Associates. The first version of Altai's program had been written by an ex-programmer of Computer Associates who, unknown to Altai, copied 30% of the code from a similar program of Computer Associates. Discovering this, Altai then wrote a second version, using programmers not familiar with the Computer Associates program. Computer Associates nonetheless argued that Altai had copied the structure of the program. The court in this case concluded that the decision in Whelan vs. Jaslow was based on a somewhat outdated appreciation of computer science. This case therefore went against the idea that program structure, sequence, and organization are copyrightable.

The third case is Apple vs. Microsoft. In 1989, Apple sued Microsoft and HP, claiming that the Windows graphical user interface (Windows 2.03 and HP's New Wave) infringed Apple's copyright on the look and feel of the Macintosh deskstop. Apple lost the case. The court had to decide whether the two GUI presentations were virtually identical. Apple argued substantial similarity.

Finally, a related case is the Lotus look and feel suit. At issue was whether the menu structure or the arrangement of commands in the menu hierarchy in Lotus 1-2-3 is copyrightable. Lotus sued Paperback Software and Mosaic Software, which had produced spreadsheets that had the same interface as 1-2-3. There was no copying of code, but Lotus claimed that copying the interface itself constituted copyright infringement. Lotus won the case and Paperback and Mosaic went out of business.

Lotus then sued Borland over Quattro. Even though Quattro's user interface is different from Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro followed the Lotus menu hierarchy and Lotus accused Quattro of copyright infringement. Lotus won at the District court, but Borland appealed and won in the US First Circuit court. This case was elevated to the US Supreme Court, but the highest court was split and thus no decision was made on this case.

______________________________________________________

digital divide for the Disabled

Monday, December 5, 2005 - CNN reports

Technology helping blind, deaf enjoy movies