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Lecture 6-Intellectual Property

This document discusses search engines, online libraries, free software, and patents for software inventions. It describes how search engines like Google display snippets of copyrighted books and negotiate licenses to show headlines and photos. It also discusses tools like Creative Commons that enable sharing. The document outlines the free software movement and GNU project. It debates whether all software should be free or if proprietary models provide necessary incentives. Finally, it examines debates around patenting software, including benefits of rewarding inventors versus costs of potential litigation stifling innovation.

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Mohamed aboaly
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
26 views

Lecture 6-Intellectual Property

This document discusses search engines, online libraries, free software, and patents for software inventions. It describes how search engines like Google display snippets of copyrighted books and negotiate licenses to show headlines and photos. It also discusses tools like Creative Commons that enable sharing. The document outlines the free software movement and GNU project. It debates whether all software should be free or if proprietary models provide necessary incentives. Finally, it examines debates around patenting software, including benefits of rewarding inventors versus costs of potential litigation stifling innovation.

Uploaded by

Mohamed aboaly
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Computing Ethics and Society

Intellectual Property
Part 3
Search Engines and Online Libraries

Free Software

Corresponding page
Search Engines and Online Libraries

Search Engines
▪ Caching and displaying small excerpts is fair
use
▪ Creating and displaying thumbnail images is
fair use
▪ Google negotiated licensing agreements with
news services to copy and display headlines,
excerpts, and photos.
▪ Trademarked search terms

Corresponding page
Search Engines and Online Libraries

Books Online
▪ Project Guttenberg digitizes books in the public
domain
▪ Microsoft scanned millions of public domain
books in University of California's library
▪ Google has scanned millions of books that are in
the public domain and that are not; they display
only excerpts from those still copyrighted
▪ Some court rulings favor search engines and
information access; some favor content
producers

Corresponding page
Search Engines and Online Libraries

Tools for authorized sharing

▪ Creative Commons: Enables an author to


specify permissions

Corresponding page
Free Software

What is free software?


▪ Free software is an idea advocated and
supported by a large, loose-knit group of
computer programmers who allow people to
copy, use, and modify their software
▪ Free means freedom of use, not necessarily
lack of cost
▪ Open source - software distributed or made
public in source code (readable and
modifiable)

Corresponding page
Free Software

GNU project
▪ Began with a UNIX-like operating system, a
sophisticated text editor, and many
compilers and utilities
▪ Now has hundreds of programs freely
available and thousands of software
packages available as free software (with
modifiable source code)
▪ Developed the concept of copyleft

Corresponding page
Free Software

Should all software be free?


▪ Would there be sufficient incentives to produce
the huge quantity of consumer software available
now?
▪ Would the current funding methods for free
software be sufficient to support all software
development?
▪ Should software be covered under copyright law?
▪ Concepts such as copyleft and the GNU Public
License provide alternatives to proprietary
software within today's current legal framework
Corresponding page
Part 4

Patents for Inventions in Software


Patents for Inventions in Software

Patent decisions, confusion, and


consequences
▪ Patents protect inventions by giving the inventor a
monopoly for a specified time period.
▪ Laws of nature and mathematical formulas cannot be
patented.
▪ Obvious inventions or methods cannot be patented.

Book Page NO: 215-216


Patents for Inventions in Software

A few cases
▪ Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and e-commerce and
Web-viewing
▪ Apple, Android, and tap-touch screens
▪ IBM , Amazon, and electronic catalogues

Book Page NO: 217


Patents for Inventions in Software

Patent trolls
▪ Some companies accumulate thousands of technology
patents but do not make any products.
▪ They license the patents to others and collect fees.

Book Page NO: 217


Patents for Inventions in Software

To patent or not?
➢ In favor of software patents
▪ Reward inventors for their creative work
▪ Encourage inventors to disclose their inventions so others
can build upon them
▪ Encourage innovation

Book Page NO: 218-219


Patents for Inventions in Software

To patent or not?
➢ Against software patents
▪ Patents can stifle innovation, rather than encourage it.
▪ Cost of lawyers to research patents and risk of being
sued discourage small companies from attempting to
develop and market new innovations.
▪ It is difficult to determine what is truly original and
distinguish a patentable innovation from one that is
not.
Book Page NO: 219

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