Introduction to Information Literacy 1

M06:Economic, Legal, and Social Issues for Use of Information

See also:

Chapter 7, Riedling.

Introduction to Information Literacy 2

Outline

Licensing Software piracy Privacy of personal data Data Protection Authorship, intellectual property, copyright and fair use Institutional policies on access to information sources Plagiarism Four ethical issues of the information age

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Licensing A software is a series of instructions that tells

the hardware of a computer what to do. When you purchase a software, you obtain a

license agreement, which grants you the right to use the software.

Some examples of software licenses: single-user license agreement software site license network site license GNU General Public License (GPL)

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GNU General Public License (GPL) The GNU Public License provides for free access to

software published under its terms. The rights include: The freedom to run the program, for any purpose. The freedom to study how the program works, and modify it. The freedom to redistribute copies. The freedom to improve the program, and release the

improvements to the public. Examples: Linux, Open Office, Thiz Office Reference sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

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Software Piracy Software piracy is the unauthorized and

illegal duplication of copyrighted software. In general, you do not have the right to

copy, loan, rent, or in any way distribute the software, unless otherwise specified in the license.

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Software Piracy

Five major types of software piracy could be classified:End User PiracyClient-Server Overuse Internet PiracyHard-Disk Loading Software Counterfeiting

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Privacy in All Media

Privacy is the right of people not to reveal information about themselves.

Data privacy means the right to keep personal information from being used for purposes other than it is intended.

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Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance in Hong Kong Objective

The purpose of the Ordinance is to protect the privacy interests of living individuals in relation to personal data.

Scope of CoveragePersonal data covered by this Ordinance

include paper files, card indexes, microfilm, audio and video tape and computer files.

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Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance in Hong Kong Data Protection Principles -

1 -- Purpose and manner of collection

2 -- Accuracy and duration of retention

3 -- Use of personal data

4 -- Security of personal data

5 -- Information to be generally available

6 -- Access to personal data

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Authorship

Authorship is an explicit way of assigning responsibility and giving credit for intellectual work.

Many institutions, including medical schools and peer-reviewed journals, have established standards for authorship.

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Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) refers to work created by inventors, authors, and artists.

Intellectual property rights are rights to which creators are entitled for their inventions, writings, and works of art.

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Copyright

Copyright is a legal protection that provides the creator of a work with the sole right to publish, reproduce, and sell that work.

Copyright protects works such as movies, CD-ROMs, video games, videos, plays, paintings, music, and others.

A copyright begins when a work is actually created and fixed in a tangible form and ends after the life of the author plus 70 years.

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Copyright and Public Domain

Public domain comprises all works that are not copyright-protected which means that you may use it without permission.

Examples: materials produced by Government or older works for which copyright has expired.

Further information: http://pubdomain.com http://bendict.com/info/publicDomain/publicDomain.asp

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General Information about Fair Use Copyright law protects certain exclusive

rights of copyright holders. However, copyright law does allow limited

copying, distribution, and display of copyrighted works without the author's permission, under certain conditions known as "fair use“.

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General Information about Fair Use Here are the four standards:

The purpose and character of the use. The nature of the copyrighted work. The amount and substantiality of the

portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

The effect of use on the potential market for or value of the work.

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Guidelines for photocopying printed works by not-for-profit establishments The followings are some guidelines

for institutions on multiple copying for instructional purpose:

Multiple copies of a work may be made by a teacher giving a course.

Copies made are for the purpose of distribution to students for teaching, discussion or classroom use.

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Guidelines for photocopying printed works by not-for-profit establishments (Continued from previous page)

For other guidelines, please refer to your lecture notes.

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Plagiarism Plagiarism means using others’ ideas and

words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

In other words, using other person’s works as his/her own is called “plagiarism”.

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Reasons of Plagiarism

A lack of knowledge regarding plagiarism A lack of knowledge regarding information on

the Internet A lack of confidence in one’s ability to write a

paper A lack of knowledge regarding citing sources Procrastination

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Forms of Plagiarism

Four basic forms of plagiarism are classified:ExactBorrowingUnclearMedley

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How can you avoid plagiarism?

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use another person's idea, opinion, or statistics, graphs or others that are not common knowledge.

You can also learn how to ParaphraseSummarizeQuote

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Consequences of Plagiarism Every institution will have a policy

concerning this issue and the penalties may include the following:a failing grade for your assignment;a failing grade for the subject; probationary status; expulsion from the institution.

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Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age - PAPA Privacy:

What information about one's self or one's associations must a person reveal to others, under what conditions and with what safeguards?

Accuracy: Who is responsible for the authenticity,

fidelity and accuracy of information?

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Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age - PAPA Property:

Who owns information? What are the just and fair prices for its exchange? Who owns the channels, especially the airways, through which information is transmitted?

Accessibility: What information does a person or an

organization have a right or a privilege to obtain, under what conditions and with what safeguards?