Ethics in Information Technology 5th Edition Reynolds Solutions Manual

Ethics in Information Technology 5th
Edition Reynolds Solutions Manual

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Ethics in Information Technology, Fifth Edition
Ethics in Information Technology, Fifth Edition 9781285197159

Chapter 6
Intellectual Property
Self-Assessment Questions
1. d. all of the above

2. patent
3. True
4. a. patent infringement
5. False
6. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
7. trademark
8. cross-licensing
9. fair use
10. c. trade secret
11. Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS
12. False
13. reverse engineering
14. prior art
15. True
16. cybersquatting
Discussion Questions
1. Explain the concept that an idea cannot be copyrighted, but the expression of an idea can be,
and why this distinction is a key to understanding copyright protection.
Students’ answers may vary. Some of them may say that the concept that an idea cannot be
copyrighted but the expression of an idea can be is key to understanding copyright protection. For
example, an author cannot copy the exact words that someone else used to describe his feelings
during a World War II battle, but he can convey the sense of horror that the other person expressed.
Also, there is no copyright infringement if two parties independently develop a similar or even
identical work. For example, if two writers happened to use the same phrase to describe a key
historical figure, neither would be guilty of infringement. Of course, independent creation can be
extremely difficult to prove or disprove.
2. Briefly discuss Title I and II of the DMCA, including the primary protections it provides for
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copyright material as well as the associated penalties.. Do you believe that the DMCA has
given excessive powers to copyright holders? Why or why not?
Students’ answers may vary. Title I implements the WIPO treaties by making certain technical
amendments to U.S. law in order to provide appropriate references and links to the treaties. It also
creates two new prohibitions in the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S. Code)—one on
circumvention of technological measures used by copyright owners to protect their works and one
on tampering with copyright management information. Title I also adds civil remedies and criminal
penalties for violating the prohibitions. However, Title II (Online Copyright Infringement Liability
Limitation Act)—enables Web site operators that allow users to post content on their Web site
(e.g., music, video, and pictures) to avoid copyright infringement liability if certain “safe harbor”
provisions are followed.
Without the safe harbors that the DMCA provides, the risk of copyright liability would be so great
as to seriously discourage ISPs from hosting and transmitting user-generated content. Others see
the DMCA as extending too much power to copyright holders. They share the viewpoint of
Verizon General Counsel William P. Barr, who stated in testimony before Congress that the “broad
and promiscuous subpoena procedure” of the DMCA grants “truly breathtaking powers to anyone
who can claim to be or represent a copyright owner; powers that Congress has not even bestowed
on law enforcement and national security personnel.”
3. Identify the necessary conditions to grant a patent according to Title 35 of the U.S. Code.
Students’ answers may vary. The main body of law that governs patents is contained in Title 35 of
the U.S. Code. Section 101 of the code states that “whoever invents or discovers any new or useful
process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement
thereof, may obtain a patent therefor.” Section 102 defines novelty as a necessary condition to
grant a patent and describes various kinds of prior art which can be used as evidence that the
invention is not novel. Section 103 describes “nonobviousness” as another mandatory requirement
for a patent. To be patentable, an invention must not be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in
the field on which the invention is based.
4. How did the America Invents Act modify U.S. patent law? Do you think this act was an
improvement over the preexisting way of patenting? Why or why not?
Students’ answers may vary. Under the America Invents Act, which was passed in 2011, the U.S.
patent system changed from a “first-to-invent” to a “first-inventor-to-file” system effective March
16, 2013. The America Invents Act also expanded the definition of prior art used to determine the
novelty of an invention and whether it can be patented. For example, if something resembling a
person’s invention that is on sale anywhere in the world before they filed for a patent, that item is
now considered part of the prior art and could prevent them from obtaining a patent. Prior to the
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passing of this law, only items for sale within the United States were considered prior art. The
America Invents Act makes it more difficult to obtain a U.S. patent.
5. What is a cross-licensing agreement? How do large software companies use such

agreements? Do you think their use is fair to small software development firms? Why or why
not?
Students’ answers may vary. This is an agreement in which each company agrees not to sue the
other over patent infringements. Large companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems,
and Hewlett-Packard, go into agreement with one another to obtain the rights to technologies that it
might use in its products. This provides a tremendous amount of development freedom without the
risk of expensive litigation. It does not seem fair that small businesses must pay an additional cost,
from which larger companies are exempt, to license the patents they use.
6. What is the role of the WTO, and what is the scope and intent of its TRIPS agreement?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with rules of international trade based on WTO
agreements that are negotiated and signed by representatives of the world’s trading nations.
The WTO developed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, also
known as the TRIPS Agreement, to establish minimum levels of protection that each government
must provide to the intellectual property of all WTO members. This binding agreement requires
member governments to ensure that intellectual property rights can be enforced under their laws
and that penalties for infringement are tough enough to deter further violations.
7. Briefly discuss how the courts and USPTO have changed their opinions and attitudes toward
the patenting of software over the years. Do you believe that software patents inhibit new
software development? Why or why not?
Students’ answers may vary. The introduction of Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (2011) and
several cases of software patents have triggered change in the patenting of software over the years.
In the 1981 Diamond v. Diehr case, the Supreme Court granted a patent to Diehr, who had
developed a process control computer and sensors to monitor the temperature inside a rubber mold.
The USPTO interpreted the court’s reasoning to mean that just because an invention used software
did not mean that the invention could not be patented. Based on this ruling, courts have slowly
broadened the scope of protection for software-related inventions. As a result, during the 1980s and
1990s, the USPTO granted thousands of software-related patents per year.
8. Identify and briefly discuss three key advantages that trade secret law has over the use of
patents and copyrights in protecting intellectual property. Are there any drawbacks with the
use of trade secrets to protect intellectual property?
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Students’ answers may vary. Trade secret law has several key advantages over the use of patents
and copyrights in protecting companies from losing control of their intellectual property, as
summarized in the following list:
• There are no time limitations on the protection of trade secrets, as there are with patents and
copyrights.
• There is no need to file an application, make disclosures to any person or agency, or disclose
a trade secret to outsiders to gain protection. (After the USPTO issues a patent, competitors
can obtain a detailed description of it.)
• Although patents can be ruled invalid by the courts, meaning that the affected inventions will
no longer have patent protection, this risk does not exist for trade secrets.
• No filing or application fees are required to protect a trade secret.
Drawbacks of using trade secrets to protect intellectual property: the trade secret laws vary greatly
from country to country—the Philippines provides no legal protection for trade secrets and many
Asian countries require foreign countries operating there to transfer rights to their technology to
locally controlled enterprises. Trade secrets can be lost and employees are the greatest threat to the
loss of company trade secrets, whether by accident or theft.
9. What problems can arise in using nondisclosure and noncompete agreements to protect
intellectual property?
Students’ answers may vary. It can be difficult to get employees to agree to sign them—especially
noncompete agreements. It can also be difficult and expensive to interpret and enforce them.
Defining reasonable nondisclosure agreements can be difficult. When courts are asked to settle
disputes over noncompete agreements, they must weigh several factors.
10. Outline a multistep approach that a university might take to successfully combat plagiarism
among its students.
Students’ answers may vary. Some of the actions that schools can take to combat student
plagiarism include:
• Help students understand what constitutes plagiarism and why they need to cite sources
properly.
• Show students how to document Web pages and materials from online databases.
• Schedule major writing assignments so that portions are due over the course of the term, thus
reducing the likelihood that students will get into a time crunch.
• Make it clear to students that instructors are aware of Internet paper mills.
• Ensure that instructors both educate students about plagiarism detection services and make
them aware that they know how to use these services.
• Incorporate detection software and services into a comprehensive anti-plagiarism program.
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11. Under what conditions is the use of reverse engineering an acceptable business practice?
Students’ answers may vary. The courts have ruled in favor of using reverse engineering to enable
interoperability. In the early 1990s, video game maker Sega developed a computerized lock so that
only Sega video cartridges would work on its entertainment systems. This essentially shut out
competitors from making software for the Sega systems. Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc.
dealt with rival game maker Accolade’s use of a decompiler to read the Sega software source code.
With the code, Accolade could create new software that circumvented the lock and ran on Sega
machines. An appeals court ultimately ruled that if someone lacks access to the unprotected
elements of an original work and has a “legitimate reason” for gaining access to those elements,
disassembly of a copyrighted work is considered to be a fair use under section 107 of the
Copyright Act. The unprotected element in this case was the code necessary to enable software to
interoperate with the Sega equipment. The court reasoned that to refuse someone the opportunity
to create an interoperable product would allow existing manufacturers to monopolize the market,
making it impossible for others to compete.
12. How might a corporation use reverse engineering to convert to a new database management
system? How might it use reverse engineering to uncover the trade secrets behind a
competitor’s software?
Students’ answers may vary. Reverse engineering is the process of taking something apart in order
to understand it, build a copy of it, or improve it. Using reverse engineering, the corporation can
use the code of the current database programming language to recover the design of the
information system application. Next, code-generation tools can be used to take the design and
produce code in the new database programming language. This reverse-engineering and code-
generating process greatly reduces the time and cost needed to migrate the organization’s
applications to the new database management system.
Decompilers and other reverse-engineering techniques can be used to reveal a competitor’s

program code, which can then be used to develop a new program that either duplicates the original
or interfaces with the program. Thus, reverse engineering provides a way to gain access to
information that another organization may have copyrighted or classified as a trade secret.
13. Why might an organization elect to use open source code instead of propriety software?
Students’ answers may vary. Two frequently cited reasons for using open source software are that it
provides a better solution to a specific business problem and that it costs less.
14. What is the nominative use defense? What are the three key elements of this defense?
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Nominative fair use is a defense often employed by the defendant in trademark infringement cases
where a defendant uses a plaintiff’s mark to identify the plaintiff’s products or services in
conjunction with its own product or services. To successfully employ this defense, the defendant
must show three things:
• The plaintiff’s product or service cannot be readily identifiable without using the plaintiff’s
mark.
• It uses only as much of the plaintiff’s mark as necessary to identify the defendant’s product
or service.
• The defendant does nothing with the plaintiff’s mark that suggests endorsement or
sponsorship by the plaintiff.
15. What measures can companies take to combat cybersquatting?
Students’ answers may vary. The main tactic organizations use to circumvent cybersquatting is to
protect a trademark by registering numerous domain names and variations as soon as the
organization knows it wants to develop a Web presence. Other tactics can also help curb
cybersquatting. For example, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
is a nonprofit corporation responsible for managing the Internet’s domain name system. The
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), enacted in 1999, allows trademark owners
to challenge foreign cybersquatters who might otherwise be beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.
What Would You Do?
1. Students’ answers may vary. For example, some may have employees who monitor the public
announcements of property transfers to detect any plant or store expansions of competitors. Note
that an effective competitive intelligence program requires the continual gathering, analysis, and
evaluation of data with controlled dissemination of useful information to decision makers.. Almost
all the data needed for competitive intelligence can be collected from examining published
information or interviews.
2. Students’ answers will vary. Note that because organizations can risk losing trade secrets when key
employees leave, they often try to prohibit employees from revealing secrets by adding
nondisclosure clauses to employment contracts. Thus, exiting employees cannot take copies of
computer programs or reveal the details of software owned by the firm.
Another option for preserving trade secrets is to have an experienced member of the Human
Resources Department conduct an exit interview with each exiting employee. A key step in the
interview is to review a checklist that deals with confidentiality issues. At the end of the interview,
the exiting employee is asked to sign an acknowledgment of responsibility not to divulge any trade
secrets.
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Employers can also use noncompete agreements to protect intellectual property from being used by
competitors when key employees leave. A noncompete agreement prohibits an employee from
working for any competitors for a period of time, often one to two years. When courts are asked to
settle disputes over noncompete agreements, they must weigh several factors.
3. Students’ answers will vary. The laws in Antigua are substantially different from those in the U.S.
(most of the online gambling websites are located there). It sounds like students are being asked to
reverse engineer the competitor’s software in order to steal trade secrets and they are being
relocated to Antigua to avoid possible copyright and/or patent infringement. They should ask
specific questions about what is expected of them, including whether they will be asked to reverse
engineer their competitor’s code, violate patents, copyrights, and steal trade secrets. If the answer
to any of the questions is yes or they feel that they are being misled in any way, they should not
consider taking the position.
4. Students’ answers will vary. The two options provided by the roommate are tempting but unethical
options. The first option, where he will write the paper may seem like a good solution, but he
would still be committing plagiarism since he is taking someone else’s words and passing them off
as his own. The second option, purchasing a paper from an online “paper mill” is also plagiarism
and they will likely be caught since most schools use plagiarism detection systems. The only
option is to sit down, map out their remaining time, and decide how much time to devote to
studying for each course, and how much time to devote to writing the paper, and then get to work.
They would still have five days and by effectively utilizing their time they might just be surprised
how much they can accomplish. Perhaps they can learn from this experience not to wait until the
last minute to start working on their English papers.
5. Students’ answers will vary. The website would have a considerable amount of information that
would carry a personal trademark. Apart from that, this information would include events that were
sponsored by corporates along with their trademarks. For this reason, the person developing the
website should keep it in his mind not to infringe the corporate sponsors’ copyrights.
6. Students’ answers will vary. They could schedule a private meeting with their manager to discuss
the fact that they are feeling pressured by coworkers to reveal information about the marketing and
product development plans of their ex-employer. They should explain that they have signed a
nondisclosure agreement and are unable to provide trade secrets. Point out that if any information
is revealed, they and their current employer may face legal action. Note that this may be the
opportune time for the manager to educate the sales department about nondisclosure agreements
and the ramifications of violating them.
7. Students’ answers will vary. Students may argue that the protection of the company’s intellectual
property is crucial to its survival. They may also note that the cost of failing to protect this valuable
asset is not only lost revenue, but also the potential loss of future rights. The Product Development
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Department should discuss, in its proposal, its strategy for protecting intellectual property and the
role the new hardware and software will play.
8. Students’ answers will vary. Students may choose one of those options depending on the following
understanding: unlike copyright infringement, there is no specified limit to the monetary penalty if
patent infringement is found. In fact, if a court determines that the infringement is intentional, it
can award up to three times the amount of the damages claimed by the patent holder. The most
common defense against patent infringement is a counterattack on the claim of infringement and
the validity of the patent itself. Even if the patent is valid, the plaintiff must still prove that every
element of a claim was infringed and that the infringement caused some sort of damage.
Cases
Case 1: Alice Case Raises Concerns for the Future of IT Software Patents
1. Section 103 describes “nonobviousness” as a mandatory requirement for a patent. To be patentable,

an invention must not be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the field on which the
invention is based. Students’ answers will vary based on the ideas they hold regarding the idea of
pre-roll advertisements being patentable.
2. Students’ answers will vary. Some students may find patent trolls justifiable since they protect the
ideas of bankrupt companies. Whereas, some students may disagree with patent trolls since they
are only dependent on the innovations of other companies and people.
3. Students’ answers will vary. Some students may argue that small companies cannot afford to
defend themselves against costly patent lawsuits often—whether the claim is raised for legitimate
reasons or as a threat against entering a new market or offering a new product. As a result, the
current patent system can stifle small innovators rather than help them. Even large companies may
agree to pay licensing fees rather than fight a patent infringement lawsuit.
Case 2: Rockstar Consortium—Beware the Patent Troll
1. Students’ answers will vary. Some students may point out that Rockstar can aggressively pursue
filing patent lawsuits as it produces no products that could form the basis for a patent infringement
countersuit. Also, mall companies often simply cannot afford to defend themselves against costly
patent lawsuits. Even large companies may agree to pay licensing fees rather than fight a patent
infringement lawsuit.
2. Students’ answers will vary. Some students may say that the law must be followed regardless of
whether the individual or firm against whom patent lawsuits are filed is an important customer or
founder, or not.
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3. Students’ answers will vary. In 2012, Business Insider listed Rockstar as number 3 on its list of the
8 most fearsome patent trolls in the industry. Wired magazine notes that some call them a “straight-
up patent troll.” In October 2013, Rockstar had initiated legal action against eight companies,
including Google, Huawei and Samsung, as well as other makers of Android phones including
Asustek, HTC, LG Electronics, Pantech, and ZTE. In December 2013, Google initiated legal
action against Rockstar, with a countersuit filed in San Jose, California.
Case 3: Google Book Search Library Project
1. Students’ answers will vary. Students might argue that it would have taken much longer to use
another approach, such as having publishers opt in. Other students might argue that Google should
have gotten permission before scanning copyrighted material, believing that this oversteps the
boundaries of fair use.
2. Students’ answers will vary. Students will likely favor anything that help them in their studies and
if this becomes a tool that they can use to find and purchase books relevant to their studies, most of
them will probably be in favor of the project. Google intends to provide free, full-text, online
viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university
libraries. It should be noted that quite a few university libraries are partners in the project.
3. Students’ answers will vary. There is some concern that Google will have a monopoly on the only
comprehensive collection of out-of-print books and could potentially charge whatever they wished
for these books. Microsoft is concerned that Google will have an unfair advantage in online
advertising having a massive, searchable library of books associated with its search engine.
Additionally, the American Society of Journalists and Authors is concerned that large publishers,
several of whom side with Google, will gain too much control over prices of books if the project
becomes the dominant outlet for the purchase of books.

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Ethics in Information Technology 5th

Edition Reynolds Solutions Manual

Ethics in Information Technology, Fifth Edition 9781285197159

1. d. all of the above

5. What is a cross-licensing agreement? How do large software companies use such

Decompilers and other reverse-engineering techniques can be used to reveal a competitor’s

15. What measures can companies take to combat cybersquatting?

What Would You Do?

1. Section 103 describes “nonobviousness” as a mandatory requirement for a patent. To be patentable,

Case 2: Rockstar Consortium—Beware the Patent Troll

Case 3: Google Book Search Library Project

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