ENGR 482 Lecture 15

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Intellectual Property and Cyber Ethics

• Ethics applied to digital information
• clip art, logos, sound bites, music, software (!), etc.
• What information is public domain/protected/private?

"Intellectual property is imagination made real. It is the ownership of dream, an idea, an improvement, an emotion that we can touch, see, hear, and feel. It is an asset."

Protection Mechanisms

Trade Secrets

keep information secret from competitors

Only let a few people know the secret

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

No limit on lifetime

Trade secret production lost if published

E.g. Coca-Cola recipe

Patents

exclusive rights to inventions for up to 20 years; utility, design, plant

Ideas not obvious to one "skilled in the art"

All sorts of things can be patented now:

• Drugs based on discovery of genes
• Amazon's one-click ordering
• medicinal use of plants
• Blurs line between copyright and patent

Can algorithms be patented?

• Algorithms are ideas
• Can only patent inventions, not ideas or concepts

Patents getting broader and broader, so "patent trolls" get increasingly common.

Examples:

• IDEA encryption patent expired in 2012 and is now trademarked
• GIF images
• "Look-and-Feel" patents
  • Lotus-123 vs. VP-Planner
  • Apple sued Microsoft over WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointing device) interaface
  • Apple vs. Samsung over smartphone design

Genes cannot be patented: Myriad did not "create" or "invent" anything

Standards Essential Patents (SEP)

Patent required to comply with a technical standard:

• 4G wireless
• HDTV
• GIF
• JPEG
• Torx screw head

Standards organization identifies relevant SEPs and gets agreement from patent holders

Assembled into "patent pool" for licensing

SEPs must be licensed under "fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory" terms (FRAND)

Companies want to aquire a huge pile of patents and make agreements with other companies (not necessarily for profit) so their engineers can do whatever they want without worrying about copyright infrigement

US used to have a "first to invent" system

• keep dated, signed notebooks, emails, etc.
• Frequent disputes
• Submarine patents: idea kept hidden until everyone started using it; then file patent and sue everyone

Other countries used a "first to file" system

• fewer disputes
• US switched to this system on 3/16/2013

International aspects: each country has their own patent system

Trademarks

protect words, names, symbols, sounds, colors that distinguish goods and services; can be renewed forever as long as it's in use

Copyrights

protect works of authorship:

• writings,
• music,
• works of art,
• chip layouts,
• ship hull designs,
• architecture,

that have been tangibly expressed

Original works protected, but the ideas behind work of authorship are not protected.

• One can copyright a story like The Telltale Heart, but not the idea of a person racked with guilt going crazy

Exists from moment work is created, but registration is voluntary.

Span of time is life of author plus 70 years, 120 years after creation

Derivative works are not allowed unless permission is given

Copyright for Software

Now software doesn't quite fit the definition of a copyright or a patent:

• Cannot copyright an algorithm (viewed as an idea)
• Expression/implementation code can be copyrighted (like a book)

What if someone rewrites copyrighted code in another language, is it still free to use? Changing variable names?

Can a programming language itself (like SAS, SQL, or Java) be patented?

Can a file format (like .xls or .csv be copyrighted? Sure, but probably not in company's best interest.

Author/employer of software becomes owner

• Protects from exact copies or substantially similar work
• Rights:
  • distribute (exact) copies
  • create derivative works: affects updates, versions, translations

License Agreements

Legal contract: You don't buy the software, you buy a license to use the software. (otherwise you could resell it)

Additional restrictions on use beyond law:

• allowed to make one backup copy
• Governed by contract (civil) law

Fair Use

Copyrighted works have "fair use" clause

• Upcoming screen shots of web sites
• Quoting a book in a book review
• Making copies (e.g. backups) of software for personal use

No black/white definition on what is okay; courts decide based on context

Balance:

• purpose and character of use: commercial or non-profit, educational?
• Nature of copyrighted work
• Amount and substantiality of portion used
• Effect of use on pontential market for copyrighted work

Digital Millenium Copyright Act

• Restricted some uses like circumventing DRM

Quiz

Can I modify my own (legally purchased) copy of Product X from Company Y and then resell it?

No, this would violate the copyright of Company Y

My friend has written this nifty program. Can I acquire the copyright and then sell the software?

Sure, your friend can either give you redistribution rights or transfer the copyright to you.

Free Software

GNU (incl. Linux)

"Public Domain": make program available without copyright

"Copyleft": copyright program, but strictly define its distribution terms:

• Everyone has rights to use, modify, and redistribute the program's code, or any program derived from it, but only if the distribution terms remain unchanged.
• E.g. GPL, LGPL

Open Source Software

• Free redistribution
• Release Source code
• Derived works under same rights
• Intergrity of author's source code
• ...

Examples:

• Apache
• Asterisk
• Blender
• FreePBX
• GNU/Linux
• KiCAD
• Mozilla Firefox
• Thunderbird
• OpenVPN
• qCAD
• spice

Open Source Hardware

• Arduino
• 3D printers
• LEGO Mindstorms

Summary

• Know others' IP (avoid accidental infringement)
• Respect others' IP
• Protect your own IP

Ethical Side

Aspire to do the right thing, not just minimally follow the rules

• Aspirational ethics
• Make decisions based on principles, not just restrictions and liability, etc.

Principles:

• Respect for persons (golden rule)
• Give credit, acknowledge source