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Stem 1. Social and Ethical Issues

Students undertaking the HSC course should be aware of the broader social and ethical issues associated with the development and use of software.

This topic builds on the concepts covered in the Preliminary course and looks specifically at the rights and responsibilities of developers from a number of perspectives. Both past and current problems arising from the use of software are investigated to illustrate the effects on society of these and similar problems.

 

Outcomes

A student:

H2.2    explains the relationship between emerging technologies and software development

H3.1    identifies and evaluates legal, social and ethical issues in a number of contexts.


Students Learn About:

The impact of software 

  • inappropriate data structures, for example the year 2000 problem
  • computer malware such as viruses
  • reliance on software
  • social networking 
  • cyber safety 
  • huge amounts of information (which may be unsupported, unverifiable, misleading or incorrect) available through the internet 
Rights and responsibilities of software developers
  • acknowledging the intellectual property of others
  • recognition by others of the developer’s intellectual property 
  • producing quality software solutions 
  • appropriately responding to user-identified problems
  • adhering to code of conduct
  • neither generating nor transmitting malware
  • addressing ergonomic issues in software design
  • ensuring software addresses inclusivity issues
  • ensuring individuals’ privacy is not compromised 
Software piracy and copyright
  • concepts associated with piracy and copyright, including:
    • – intellectual property
    • – plagiarism
    • – copyright laws
    • – licensing issues
    • – licence conditions
    • – shareware
    • – public domain
    • – open source
    • – ownership versus licensing
    • – collaboratively developed software
    • – reverse engineering
    • – decompilation
  • current and emerging technologies used to combat software piracy such as:
    • - non-copyable data sheet
    • - use of serial numbers
    • - site licence,
    • - installation counter on a network
    • - encryption key
    • - registration code
    • - back-to-base authentication
Use of networks
  • • by the developer when developing software
    • – access to resources
    • – ease of communication
    • – productivity
  • • by the user when using network based software
    • – response times
    • – interface design
    • – privacy and security issues
The software market
  • • maintaining market position
  • • the effect of dominant developers of software
  • • the impact of new developers of software and new products
Legal implications
  • • national and international legal action resulting from
  • software development. Identify issues raised in cases at
  • both national and international level, such as:
    • – RACV vs Unisys
    • – Microsoft vs Netscape
    • – NSW T Card system
    • – search engines (e.g. Google vs national censorship
    • laws)
    • – Metallica vs Napster


Students Learn To:


  • recognise the effects of software solutions on society 
  • identify the impact of inappropriately developed software on users 
  • identify the effect of the inappropriate use of software on society and individuals 










  • apply a relevant code of conduct to their own software development



  • interpret licence agreements and develop personal practices that reflect current laws 
  • identify the relationship between copyright laws and software license agreements 
  • acknowledge all sources in recognition of the intellectual contribution of authors






  • identify a range of techniques designed to combat software piracy







  • evaluate the usefulness of networks in the development environment







  • identify the impact of dominant developers of software on software development



  • discuss the reasons for, and consequences of, significant legal actions pertaining to the development of software






Introduction

The development of software solutions has a profound impact on the community and the wider world. Software developers have a responsibility to ensure their products function in a socially responsible and ethical manner. Many software products perform tasks that are vital to the operation of essential services. Many of these services rely on computer software to perform their tasks adequately.

The users of computer software also have responsibilities. To ensure the continued production of quality software products requires developers to include systems to minimise the chance of software piracy. Copyright laws are designed to protect intellectual property rights. Such laws provide developers with legal methods of pursuing piracy cases. Software developers use licence agreements in an attempt to enforce their intellectual property rights and to minimise their liability should the software cause unintended problems.

In this chapter, we examine the impact of software on society. This includes the rights and responsibilities of software developers. Software developers are authors; they produce original works and as such are entitled to have their intellectual property protected in the same manner afforded to any other author. Unfortunately, software products are on the whole easy products to copy. What’s more, the copy is identical to the original. This has lead to widespread piracy of software products. We examine techniques available to developers to combat piracy and other breaches of copyright.