Intellectual Property

Issues
RUEL G. GRAFIA
Presenter

topics

Plagiarism
Reverse Engineering
Open Source Code
Competitive Intelligence
Cybersquatting

Source: Reynolds G.W. (2014). Ethics in Information Technology. 5edition. Cengage Learning

Definition of Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of stealing someones ideas
or words and passing them off as ones own
(Reynolds, 2014, p.234).

Plagiarism is presenting someone elses work or

ideas as your own, with or without their consent,
by incorporating it into your work without full
acknowledgement (University of Oxford).

ACCORDING TO THE MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE

DICTIONARY,

TO "PLAGIARIZED 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

Academic Definition of Plagiarism

The use of borrowed information without proper
acknowledgement of the source(s).
Failure to attribute may be due to negligence,
carelessness, laziness, and ignorance or malice.
In other words, PLAGIARISM is:
a) a form of academic dishonesty
b) a moral offense.

Forms of Plagiarism and Academic

Dishonesty
Copying word for word from a source without
acknowledging the source by quotation marks and
an appropriate reference.
Paraphrasing someone elses ideas in your own
words without acknowledging the source by an
appropriate reference.

Source: Dept. of Speech Communication, Mankato State Univ., 1998, p.1 in

Plata, Mirador, Dayag & Chua (2002)

Forms of Plagiarism and Academic

Dishonesty
Turning in as your own work a paper or portion of a
paper conceived jointly with others but not giving
credit for others contributions

Source: Dept. of Speech Communication, Mankato State Univ., 1998, p.1 in

Plata, Mirador, Dayag & Chua (2002)

What needs to be credited/documented?

Words/ideas in a magazine, book, song, newspaper,
TV program, web page, computer program, and
advertisement.
Exact words or a unique phrase
Reprint of diagrams, illustrations, charts, and
pictures (copyrighted)
Composing a piece of music that borrows heavily
from another composition.

What needs to be credited/documented?

No need to document:

Common knowledge (ex. Myths, legends,

historical events but NOT historical documents)

BUT CAN WORDS AND IDEAS REALLY BE STOLEN?

According to U.S. law, the answer is YES.

The expression of original ideas is considered
intellectual property and is protected by copyright
laws, just like original inventions.

Legal Aspects
Plagiarism is not the same as copyright infringement.
False claims of authorship may constitute plagiarism
regardless of whether the material is protected by
copyright.
Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a
copyright holder
Plagiarism, in contrast, is concerned with the
unearned increment to the plagiarizing author's
reputation that is achieved through false claims of
authorship.

Best Practices in Paraphrasing/Summarizing

Use a statement that identifies your source when you

paraphrase or summarize (ex. According to Smith ..)
If possible, paraphrase or summarize the passage that you
need and then acknowledge your source(s).
If you must quote, try to weave the quotation into the
text. (Dont start a sentence with a quotation)

Some list of Plagiarism detection

services and software
iThenticate
Turnitin
SafeAssign
Glatt Plagiarism Services
EVE Plagiarism Detection

www.ithenticate.com

www.turnitin.com
www.safeassign.com
www.plagiarism.com
www.canexus.com/eve

iThenticate & Turnitin

A software product developed by California-based
iParadigms.
Supports 15 languages and used by over 10,000
educational institutions around the world.
3 primary databases for content matching (24-M
web pages, 300-M archived student paper, and
120-M articles) from over 110,000 journals,
periodicals, and books.

Reverse Engineering
Is the process of breaking something down in order
to understand it, build a copy of it, or improve it.
Reverse engineering was originally applied to
computer hardware but is now commonly applied to
software.

Source: Reynolds G.W. (2014). Ethics in Information Technology. 5edition. Cengage Learning

Why do it?
Discover Trade Secrets
Find Vulnerabilities
Academic Research
Patch Binary and Alter Behaviour
Pure Curiosity
Analyse Protocols
Circumvent [Copy] Protection

Tools for RE
Debugger (Dynamic code analysis)
Disassembler (Static code analysis)
Hex Editor
PE Analyzer
Resource Editor and more...

RE issues
Using RE techniques to reveal a competitors
program code
then, used to develop a new program that either
duplicates the original or interfaces
The courts have ruled in favour of using reverse
engineering to enable interoperability
Software license agreements increasingly forbid
reverse engineering, as well as restrictions in the
DMCA

RE issues
RE might be considered unethical
because it enables access to
information that another organization
may have copyrighted or classified as a
trade secret.

RE advantage

Reverse engineering can also be a

useful tool in detecting software
bugs and security holes

Open Source Code

Open source code refers to any program whose
source code is made available for use or
modification, as users or other developers.
Programmers can read, redistribute, and modify a
programs code, the software improves.
can be adapted to meet new needs, and bugs can be
rapidly identified and fixed.

What is GNU (GPL)?

The GNU General Public License was a precursor to
the open source code defined by Open Source
Initiative (OSI).
The GPL is intended to protect GNU software from
being made proprietary, and it lists terms and
conditions for copying, modifying, and distributing
free software

Why would firms or individual

developers create open source code
A firm may develop open source code in the hope of
earning software maintenance fees
Some people share code to earn respect for solving
a common problem in a elegant way

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is legally obtained
information that is gathered to help a company gain
an advantage over its rival (Reynold, 2014).
Competitive Intelligence (CI) is the gathering of
publicly-available information about an enterprise's
competitors and the use of that information to gain a
business advantage (techtarget.com, 2012).

List of data needed for competitive

intelligence
10-K or annual reports
10-Q or quarterly reports
Press release
Promotional materials
Web sites
Analyses for investment community
Interview with suppliers, customers, and former
employees
Patents

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

According to the Society of Competitive
Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) code of ethics,
those conducting CI investigations must refrain from
illegal activities, disclose information about their
identity and corporate affiliation prior to any
interviews, and provide honest and reliable
information as a result of the investigation.
The illegal gathering of competitors' information is
known as industrial espionage.

USES OF COMPETITIVE
INTELLIGENCE:

Develop corporate or business unit strategies

Shape counter-competitive strategies against one or
more competitors
Prepare a new product launch, new market entry, or
other strategic move in the market
Benchmark other organizations
Anticipate and plan for future market opportunities
and disruptions

Software Tools and databases for

competitive intelligence data
Rapportive is software that can be added to your email
applications or web browser to provide contact profiles
Crunchbase is a free database of technology of over
110,000 companies, people and investors
CORI is a database contract documents available online
(full-text search)
ThomasNet.com is an excellent source for identifying
suppliers and sources for products
WhoGotFunded.com is web site of data about what
organizations have received funding and for what
purposes.

Learning
Without proper management safeguards, the
process of gathering competitive intelligence can
cross over to industrial espionage and dirty tricks.
Competitive intelligence analysts must avoid
unethical or illegal actions such as lying,
misrepresentation, theft, bribery or eavesdropping
with illegal devices.

CYBERSQUATTING
What Is Cybersquatting?
Cybersquatting is registering, selling or using a
domain name with the intent of profiting from the
goodwill of someone else's trademark.
Also know as domain squatting

What is cybersquatter?
A cybersquatter is someone who has registered
another's name or trademark as a domain name
with the prospect of selling it to the rightful
owner.
It's a form of legalised blackmail.
They steal your name and use it to damage your
business or reputation.

Recognizing Cybersquatting

Check where the domain name takes you.

Contact the domain name registrant.
Pay, if it makes sense.

Lawsuits under the ACPA

According to the United States federal law known as
the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act,
is registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet
domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the
goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.

Lawsuits under the ACPA

ACPA is designed to allow trademark owners to sue
an alleged cybersquatter in federal court.
If the trademark owner wins, these lawsuits generally
result in a court order requiring the cybersquatter to
transfer the domain name to the trademark owner.
pay monetary damages

ICANN Arbitration System

Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy(UDNDRP), an
international policy aimed at arbitrating most domain name
disputes instead of litigating.
Under this policy, an action for arbitration can be brought by
anyone that claims that:
The domain name owner has no rights or legitimate
interest in using the domain name,
The domain name in question is identical or similar
enough to be confused with a trade or service mark that
the claimant has rights to, and
The domain name was registered in bad faith.
no money damages being awarded under UDNDRP.

THANK YOU