Week 12 - Social and Ethical Issues

Lecture:

This weeks lecture was about the social and ethical issues when using ICT. The first part deals with the issues of copyright, plagiarism and intellectual property while the second deals with privacy, security and freedom of speech. The lecture today was very interesting and useful to me because I seem to have quite a lot of problems with viruses on my computer.

Tutorial:
In the tutorial today we were given a chance to go over our bloggs and edit them. The Workshop today was mainly about protecting yourself from viruses as well as Copyright.

Workshop:

1.Five Information Sheets that will help me as an undergraduate student - I plan on studying a Bachelor of Education and majoring in English or Journalism.

Journalism:

When dealing with journalists copyright protect press articles, reports, scripts and interviews. Copyright does not protect information, ideas, styles or techniques. Copyright does not protect such things as titles, slogans and phrases. Freenlance journalists rights in relation to their work depends on their agreement with their publisher. Journalists have moral rights in relation to their work.

Education Institutions:


Education Institutions such as Schools and Universities seem to copyright many things. For example they copy music, for example using it either in a play or in an assembly. Teachers need to be aware of how much they can copy and what they can copy without acknowledging the copyright ownership.

Editors:

This information sheet discusses copyright which is most relevant to people who edit textual material. The reason I felt that this may be relevant to me as an undergraduate student is because as I may be studying Journalism, editing is most relevant to me. The information sheet gives an outline to editors as to what copyright is and how it can be avoided. This would be relevant to me as a Journalist.

Internet: Copying and downloading:


This information sheet is quite broad and generalised, therefore would be relevant to the general public which is of course myself as well. The information sheet has information about how downloading things such as music or films is an exploitation of copyright. There are tips on how it can be avoided as well as frequently asked questions.

Research or Study:

As we you know, we all use the Internet for pertinent types of reasons but particularly for research and study. A student will not infringe copyright if they use the Internet for purposes such as research and study and only if their use is fair. This information sheet would be relevant to me in my chosen undergraduate course because it will give me an idea of how much of the data I am allowed to use on the Internet.

2. What I need to know about music and web:

As a student it is important for me to know and understand copyright and plagiarism. In particular about music and the web because as teenagers we do enjoy our music. It is important to know and understand that everytime a person downloads music off the Internet, the artist or song writer is not being paid. Also that if an artists music is to be used on a website to add interest to readers, then they should be acknowledged.Whenever music is downloaded off the Internet, there are a number of rights that are exploited, such as the reproduction of a musical work; and the communication to the public of a musical work. These points are very concerning but I do admit, like many million others, I myself do download music off the Internet.


3. A plan to protect yourself from atacks on your privacy and security:

Protecting your personal information using a password
From www.howstuffworks.com

> You should never use personal information as a part of your password
>Mix different character types
>Change your passwords every 30-60 days

How to protect your computer from viruses!
From www.netsecurity.about.com
>Buy a virus protective software
>You should never double click on an email attachment that you are weary of
>Put security level on HIGH

Common Viruses and how you can be protected
From www.pcmag.com
Boot sector virus & file infectors
HOW? Booting from an infected floppy disk into your machine, this would unleash a boot sector virus.
AVOID. Run a commercial antivirus program


Macro virus
HOW? A file infector that hides inside such documents as Word and Excel.
AVOID. Set whatever security features the application has to high, or disable macros altogether.

Trojan Horses
HOW? Masquerades as something it's not, to persuade a use to let it into the system.
AVOID. You must take care to avoid running a program that can work it's will on their machines. Scrutinizing all email attachments and download programs from trusted sources only.

Readings:

EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/eff_privacy_top_12.html
This is a good and valuable reading as the website gives an outlines on how to protect your online privacy. Stanton McCandlish has given 12 ways to protect your online privacy and thoroughly explained each step. The explanations are very detailed and the reading is quite long but the information is reliable.

Ethics in Computing - Social Justic Issues: Electronic Monitoring
http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/social/workplace/monitoring/
Articles are given in this reading with links to legal issues and privacy issues. The reading basically just gives links to articles about certain issues and how they relate to electronic monitoring.

Brown & Michaels - Overview of Intellectual Property
http://www.bpmlegal.com/overview.html
Brown and Michaels PC have given an overview on how how to protect your intellectual property in this reading. The reading explains what you can protect and how to protect different kinds of intellectual property. This includes patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.