Topic 6: Digital Law.

Introduction

Definition: Digital law is the electronic responsibility for actions, deeds which is either
ethical or unethical.

Unethical use manifests itself in form of theft and/or crime. Ethical manifests itself in the
form of abiding by the laws of society. It is basically about what you are and are not allowed
to do while surfing and using the Internet. Everybody should respect the law and abide by it.
Not following the law can result in serious punishment.

The Internet has made it easy to post, locate, and download a vast array of materials. Indeed,
this ability to share information easily is one of the strengths of the Internet. However, users
often do not consider what is appropriate, inappropriate, or even illegal when posting or
accessing information on the Internet. Users often remark, “We did not think it was wrong -
all we were doing was sharing information.” The issues of intellectual property rights and
copyright protection are very real, and have very real consequences for violations.

These issues were brought to the forefront when the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) fined students and others for downloading music illegally (Wired News,
2003). This action caused some technology users to think twice about what is appropriate and
illegal for online file sharing. However, in 2009 a three-year compilation of 16 countries by
the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) found that 95% of music
files were illegally shared (IFPI, 2009). Ironically, a 2003 survey conducted by Ipsos (a
market research company) for Business Software Alliance indicated that twothirds of college
faculty and administrators said it is wrong to download or swap files while less than one-
quarter of students felt the same way (CyberAtlas, 2003).

Essential questions
Are students using technology the way it was intended?
Are students infringing on others’ rights by the way they use technology?
Should students using digital technologies be accountable for how they use digital
technologies?
The new digital technologies are bringing with them a whole new realm of issues that most
likely were not imagined by their creators. Often these issues arise from unforeseen and
unintended uses of the new technology. For example, the issue of sexting (the taking and
sharing of sexually explicit materials, such as nude or semi-nude pictures) has become huge
for teens. If the participant is under the age of 16, this can be considered child pornography
even if the sender is a willing participant or has sent a self-portrait. If this material is received
by a phone (or other device), the person who owns the device can be criminally charged for
just having the material (even if that person didn’t want it in the first place). Whoever sends
the pictures to others can be arrested for the distribution of child pornography (again, even if
underage persons take and send pictures of themselves). Conviction for one of these crimes
can ruin someone’s reputation permanently, and will require that the person register as a sex
offender. Each state and country is different, but many have already passed such laws. Even if
the laws in your area do not yet cover sexting as a crime, the recipients (or sender) may be in
an area where such laws do apply.

There will always be people who do not follow the rules of society and who engage in
activities that run counter to the ideals of society as a whole. In this regard, digital society is
no different. As such, consequences are being established for those who act as inappropriate
digital citizens - users who steal others’ information, hack into servers, create and release
viruses, and so on. As new laws are being drafted, it is important that digital citizens help to
decide how to address these activities as they occur. If members of the digital society do not
provide information to help determine these good-citizenship policies, the laws passed by
politicians will not reflect a good understanding of digital society.

Laws related to technology use are becoming more of an issue for school districts. Even
though issues may occur outside the school walls or not on school computers, the effects may
still need to be addressed during the school day. Administrators need to provide teachers and
students with resources and guidance on what is legal and illegal.

The legal aspects of student technology use can be a major concern for school administrators.
Technology leaders and teachers need to provide resources to help administrators make good
decisions. Likewise, teaching students how to make good choices helps not only the students,
but the school administrators. Students need to realize that what they do today may affect
them in the future.

They also need to determine whether their technology rules and policies are supported legally.
Digital citizenship helps all technology users become more aware of the legal ramifications of
technology use.

Examples of Illegal Technology Use

 Students download copyrighted music from social networking or file-sharing sites
(e.g., Kazaa).
 Students scripting (using computer code) to bypass firewalls or other network
protection.
 hacking into people’s personal details, pirate software, and creating viruses or Trojan
horses.
Identity theft is becoming a rising problem. Studies show that one in five families have been
victims to this in the U.S. The thieves can steal your credit card number allowing them to buy
or rent various products using your information. The worst thing is that you don’t realize what
is happening until you are sent bills or receive calls about different transactions. It takes
months to restore all of your information and secure it all. Therefore everyone should take
precautions.

Spoofing generally means to convince people to provide personal or financial information

that lets the hacker commit credit card/bank fraud or other forms of identity theft. Spam
criminals often use spoofing as an attempt to get into someone else’s computer.

IP Spoofing is a technique used to get access to computers, where the intruder sends a
message to a computer with an IP address telling them that the message is coming from a
trusted machine and person. To stop IP Spoofing packet filtering is a programm that blocks
other packets getting into your network. This prevents an outside attacker from gaining access
to an internal machine.

Software Piracy is copying and selling of unauthorized computer software, movies etc. This
happens a lot in the Mexico, China, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil and Zimbabwe but many other
countries are also involved. Most of these countries have Copyright Infringement Laws but
many citizens do not abide by them however some countries are more strict about them than
others.
There are 4 types of software piracy:
 Industrial Piracy: An individual or group attempts duplication and distribution on a
large scale for profit.
 Corporate Piracy: Unprotected contents are shared through net works such as peer-to-
peer, LAN and Internet.
 Reseller Piracy: Involves computer hardware companies selling machines with illegal
copies of software preloaded on their hard drive.
 Home Piracy: Includes everything from trading disks with friends to running a not-for-
profit bulletin board for the purpose of illegal software distribution.
Computer hacking is the practice of changing computer hardware and software. People who
are involved with such activities are often called hackers. Since the word “hack” has long
been used to describe someone who is not able to do their job very well. Some hackers claim
this term is offensive, since they are very skilled in their topics. Computer hacking is most
common among teenagers and young adults, although there are many older hackers as well.
Many hackers consider computer hacking an “art” form. They often enjoy programming and
have expert-level skills in one particular program.

Examples of Legal Technology Use

 Students understand what can be downloaded without charge and what is considered
copyrighted material and should be paid for.
 Students inform an adult of others sharing nude or semi-nude photographs (sexting).

Plagiarism
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, to ‘plagiarize’ means:
 to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
 to use (another’s production) without crediting the source
 to commit literary theft
 to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.
In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves stealing someone else’s work and inclusion of
any idea from someone else without giving due credit by citing and referencing that source in his/her
work.

All of the following are considered plagiarism:

 turning in someone else’s work as your own
 copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
 summarising or paraphrasing the work or ideas of another without citing and
referencing the original source failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
 giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
 changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
 copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your
work, whether you give credit or not
 using statistics, tables, figures, formulae, diagrams, questionnaires, images, musical
notation, computer code etc. created by others without citing and referencing the
original source
 copying the work of another student, with or without their consent.

Plagiarism can occur for a number of reasons:

 Simply not understanding what plagiarism is.
 Not citing or referencing properly within your work.
 Pressure from deadlines and/or poor time-management leading to a ‘cut and paste’
approach to research.
 Disorganised research and note-taking leading to confusion between your own thoughts
and ideas taken from other sources.
 A lack of confidence in putting things into your own words.

Copying someone else’s work can have serious consequences. These can be personal or
professional and also legal. Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing
sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and providing your
audience with the information necessary to find that source is usually enough to prevent
plagiarism.

Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic

means. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers. Harmful bullying
behavior can include posting rumors, threats, sexual remarks, a victims’ personal information,
or pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech). Cyberbullying is often similar to traditional bullying,
with some notable distinctions. Victims of cyberbullying may not know the identity of their
bully, or why the bully is targeting them. The harassment can have wide-reaching effects on
the victim, as the content used to harass the victim can be spread and shared easily among
many people and often remains accessible long after the initial incident. The terms
"cyberharassment" and "cyberbullying" are sometimes used synonymously, though some
people use the latter to refer specifically to harassment among minors or in a school setting. A
majority of states have laws that explicitly include electronic forms of communication within
stalking or harassment laws. As of mid-2015, countries in the European Union like the United
Kingdom are in the process of creating laws specially related to cyberbullying.
Researchers suggest that programs be put in place for prevention of cyberbullying. These
programs would be incorporated into school curricula and would include online safety and
instruction on how to use the Internet properly
Digital Law Issues
 Using file-sharing sites
 Pirating software
 Subverting Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies
 Hacking into systems or networks
 Stealing someone’s identity
 Sexting and sharing of illicit photos

Digital Law Keywords

 technology copyright laws
 Person-to-Person software (P2P)
 software piracy

References

Digital Law. https://digiteen.wikispaces.com/Digital+Law

Ribble, M. (2015). Digital Citizenship in Schools: Nine elements all students should know.
3rd ed. ISTE.

University of Bristol Library https://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/support/findinginfo/plagiarism/

What is Plagiarism? http://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism