Copyright, Trade Secrecy, and Patents as They Relate to Software - Term Paper Example

Running Head: Ethics in Technology Ethics in Technology [Institute’s Copyright, Trade Secrecy, and Patents as they relate to software Technology being an important part of our daily lives need to incorporate ethics to define its boundary of usage. Unless the usage is being exploited for selfish purposes, the actions are considered legal. There are many ways content or creations can be protected. As with software, the laws enforce many forms of protection but there are only a few that are used with strong purposes. As much as any physical creation is necessary to be protected, the software is protected too. Copyrights are the basic intellectual property and for software, specifically copyrights are the extension to copyrights law for machine-readable software. The software companies purchase these copyrights so that the software cannot be copied anywhere else globally. In any case, if the owner wants duplication of the software then a unique kind of copyright is purchased for the software, which is known as the copy left. It allows duplication within specific regions allowed by the owner. Trade secrecy is another form of software protection, which allows the owner to determine where he is willing to sell his software in the world. There are no rights purchased for this type of ethical measures. One of the major characteristics that differentiate trade secrets from others is utilization of trade secrets by companies when they classify the work that does not fall in existing public domain of information. As for software patents, there is no legal existence because the law cannot define whether a software is genuinely a unique invention or not (Reynolds, 2010). Patents usually are given for a period of twenty years for an invention or creation. These are three ways software can be protected and their legal usage i.e., ethical usage be made possible. Technological ethics need to be highlighted on a vast scale as when they are enforced with great force, legal usage of the technology can be achieved on a greater margin. These methods of protecting the technology are common yet need special considerations in their development so that they become a strong force in battling against the unethical usage of technology. The Owner of a Copyright has Five (5) Principle Rights Any use of product or service that exploits is considered unethical and which gives rise to ethical perceptions. The technology has enabled us to apply several concepts of ethics by our own selves yet we are unable to define what the exact perimeters of ethical usage in technology are. The copyright act of 1976 proposes five basic rights owned by a copyright owner (Tavani, 2011).These rights describe as to what owner’s obligations are and how it can commercially exploit its limitations to make use of his rights. The rights formed by the law are consistent in providing full authority and protection to the owner. For implementation for ethical technological usage, a copyright owner has been given five basic rights from the law. These rights can be reviewed as follows: 1. The exclusive rights of reproduction 2. Rights of adaptation 3. Unique rights of publication 4. Rights of performance 5. Rights of display With these rights, the owner of the technology is entitled to perform any of the above activities with legal consent thus preventing the unethical usage of the technology by others. These rights work separately according the nature of the obligation. Sometimes most owners do not allow access of a computer program by others outside the organization or the individual itself to use the software for their purposes. The copies of that software cannot be made unless the owner allows. The assessment of fair use can also be determined through fair usage. The individuals own work can be copyrighted and not those that have been publicly displayed for the knowledge of the masses. If these rights are followed and implemented with honesty, legal protection of software can be promoted on a larger basis without hassles. Legal Protections related to Copyright, Trade Secrecy, and Patents Legal protection related to copyright, trade secrecy and patens describe how the protection for software through these measures is legally supported. Copyright legal protection has to have the form of expression of an idea to be protected and the idea itself because an intangible production or invention cannot be copyrighted without physical existence. The work must be original which states that the creations does not match with any previous innovation and must maintain its originality. Copyright requires registration by jurisdictions, which specify the legal authority. Legal requirements for trade secrecy for mostly describe that the creation be protected in the first place and be kept secret and not publicized. The information can be marked confidential so that users online cannot get access to it without permission. In this regard a non-disclosure agreement is signed which keeps the information secret. Finally, patent filing requires that before making the data or creations publicly you must purchase patents for it in all countries or the fewer to which you are enabling access. In case of software, the software publishing is assisted by the patent protection, which determines in where and when the software can be accessed. When it comes to enforce legal protection via copyrights, patents, or trade secrecy, there are many examples in the history, which have acquired these methods. Legal protection measures have been taken by various renowned names in the world. Sony/BMG records have used copyrights as ‘extended copyright protection to restrict the duplication of their customer sold discs. Cisco is another popular name in using copyright laws for its brand name and logos. In some cases, it allows using the name and logo after taking special permissions from the authorities. As for trade secrets, Coca Cola can be named as one of the biggest names who have been using copyrights and both trade secret as means of protecting their ethical usage of technology. Apple is again another name that is using the copyrights technology to secure its latest inventions by avoiding duplication of the unique features that it incorporates into every invention (Reynolds, 2011). The examples given in this paper are of those world-renowned companies who have brought great innovations in their respective industry and since the protection of their rights was, necessary copyrights took a stronger form of legal protection as compared to other methods. Today, copyrights are adopted widely by every new invention whether it is the technology, brand name or the logo itself. References Reynolds, G. (2010). Ethics in Information Technology. Boston, MA : Cengage Learning. Reynolds, G. (2011). Ethics in Information Technology. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning. Tavani, H. T. (2011). Ethics and Technology: Controversies, Questions, and Strategies for Ethical Computing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Read More