1. Chapter 5 Objectives After reading Chapter 5, you will be able to:
Compare and contrast ethics and law.
Discuss the implications of ethical codes and self-regulation.
Identify some of the main privacy concerns within traditional and digital contexts.
Explain some of the important patent, copyright, trademark, and data ownership issues related to the internet.
Highlight key ethical and legal concerns related to online expression.
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2. Software Infringement
Copyright infringement occurs when people or companies loan software to others for which they have no licenses.
Counterfeiting occurs when illegally copied software is duplicated and distributed on a large scale.
Countries with weak software copyright enforcement cost software owners billions of dollars in lost revenue.
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3. Software Infringement, cont.
Globally, over a third of the software sold is an infringing version.
Microsoft uses the following remedies:
Proposes intellectual property legislation.
Files civil lawsuits.
Creates noninfringement technologies.
Microsoft believes that education is the best weapon against piracy. Do you agree?
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4. Overview of Ethics and Legal Issues
Ethics and law are closely related.
Ethics takes into account the concerns and values of society as a whole.
Modern technology presents challenges to marketing ethics. Critical issues include:
Ownership of intellectual property
The role of privacy in a virtual world
Freedom of expression
Use of data and its collection
Status of children and digital networks
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5. The Problem of Self-Regulation
Recent U.S. administrations have left the development of the internet to the free operation of the market.
Supporters of self-regulation stress the private sector’s ability to identify and resolve problems.
Critics argue that incentives for self-regulation are insufficiently compelling and true deterrence will not be achieved.
Recent policy-making activities indicate that governments are asserting themselves in areas such as fraud prevention and children’s issues.
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6. Privacy
The concept of privacy encompasses both ethical and legal aspects.
There is constant debate regarding privacy and it has proved to be an elusive concept, both ethically and legally.
Within society, privacy interests compete with concerns for safety, economics, and need for association with others.
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7. Privacy Within Digital Contexts
Information plays a pivotal role in the concept of privacy.
AMA Code of Ethics for Marketing on the internet: “information collected from customers should be confidential and used only for expressed purposes.”
Online advertising firms such as DoubleClick have traditionally recorded users’ clickstreams to form user profiles for marketing purposes.
Controversy arose in 2000 when DoubleClick acquired consumer names, addresses, and buying histories and planned to combine the offline data with clickstream data.
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8. Cookies and Online Data Collection
Cookies are packets of data created and stored on the user’s hard drive in response to instructions received from a Web page.
Cookies serve many purposes:
Create shopping baskets to hold purchases
Recall stored sales information
Collect user data
Cookies are normally executed without any user action.
They allow marketers to pinpoint an individual’s online behavior.
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9. Privacy Debates and Policy
Privacy supporters advocate policies to inform consumers of data collection and allow them to participate (opt-in) or decline (opt-out).
Critics point out that many users do not understand how computers operate and question whether consumers have the expertise necessary to successfully opt-out.
Others argue that users wish to receive the benefits of targeted advertising.
Access to personal data is another important online privacy issue.
Although several Congressional bills are pending, no law exists to resolve the privacy debate.
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10. Other Privacy Issues
Technologies such as cookies, Java applets, and intelligent agents are ubiquitous applications that can function without the user’s knowledge or control.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) established policies for ethical collection of information from children 12 or under.
Privacy within electronic mail remains an unsettled aspect of online interaction.
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11. International Privacy Issues
The European Union (EU) and the U.S. reached agreement in 2000 to protect EU citizen data.
The FTC has identified the following norms for the ethical use of consumer information:
Notice
Consent
Access
Security
Enforcement
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12. Digital Property
The law protects intangible or intellectual property through 3 basic mechanisms:
Patent law is centered on inventions.
Copyright addresses issues of expression.
Trademark is concerned with words or images used in the market.
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13. Patents
Applying patent law to computing is an uncertain but developing field.
Creators of software are attempting to make use of patent law protection.
Advocates argue that granting of patents for software will encourage innovation.
Critics argue that patents will have stifling and monopolistic effects.
The U.S. Patent Office recently decided to increase the rigor of reviewing applications for software-related protection.
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14. Copyright
Copyright is the primary means of protecting most expression on the Internet.
Chief protections include:
Doctrine of Fair Use
Ability to copy protected material for education and news reporting.
Doctrine of First Sale
Limit the ability of copyright holder to obtain profit after the initial time at which the material is sold.
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15. Copyright, cont.
The No Electronic Theft (NET) Act was signed into law in 1997.
Confers copyright protection for computer content and imposes sanctions for infringement.
The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) contains several provisions.
Protects ISPs from acts of user infringement.
Criminalizes the circumvention of software protections.
Complies with international standards for copyrighted material.
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16. Trademarks
Trademark law concerns the ownership of intellectual property that identifies goods or services.
Trademark law as been applied to the internet naming system of domain names.
Similarities in names may result in trademark infringement claims.
A trademark violation, cybersquatting, involves the registration of domains that resemble or duplicate existing ones.
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17. Licenses
Licenses are an increasingly popular method of intellectual property protection.
Licenses allow the buyer to use the product but restrict duplication or distribution.
Licenses may be two basic types:
Shrinkwrap or break-the-seal licenses
Clickwrap licenses where the user is required to click a button to accept the terms
Legal trend favors enforcement of software licenses.
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18. Data Ownership
Legal and ethical debates about data access and ownership questions abound.
Online technologies such as click data and spidering raise concerns about data ownership.
A movement is growing to protect specially compiled or sui generis data.
U.S. copyright law does not protect facts, so database vendors are seeking legal protection.
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19. Online Expression
Freedom of expression is protected by the First Amendment.
Internet technology has resulted in what many consider inappropriate or untargeted types of consumer contact.
Spam is the mass distribution of unsolicited electronic mail.
CAN-SPAM Act creates a framework for ethical marketing.
Expression directed to children remains a highly visible issue within online law and ethics.
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20. Emerging Issues Online governance
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was formed in 1998.
Jurisdiction is the ability of a court or other authority to gain control over a party.
Traditionally based on physical presence.
Treaties may provide for international resolution and enforcement.
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21. Emerging Issues, cont.
Fraud is the use of deception and false claims to obtain profit.
The internet provides opportunities for novel deceptions.
Spoofing is the use of or Web sites to impersonate individuals or corporations.
The FTC, FBI, and state agencies have increased their efforts to track and prosecute fraudulent conduct.
©2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall