1 cs 501 spring 2003 cs 501: software engineering lecture 5 legal aspects of software engineering i

1 CS 501 Spring 2003

CS 501: Software Engineering

Lecture 5

Legal Aspects of Software Engineering I

2 CS 501 Spring 2003

Administration

Project Announcements

Assignment 1 Submission

Email report to cs501@cs.cornell.edu

Lecture 7 postponed to:

Wednesday evening, February 12, 7:30 to 8:30, Upson B 17.

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Administration

Quizzes

The first quiz is on Thursday.

Each quiz:

30 minutes

open book and notes

2 questions on lectures and required readings to date

The best four of the five quizzes will be used in calculating your final grade.

Note. Grading of Quiz 1 will be delayed until February 18.

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Legal Environment

Software is developed in a complex legal and economic framework.

Every software engineer needs to be aware of some parts of the framework.

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Legal Topics in Software

• Jurisdiction (international, federal, state laws)

• Intellectual property (copyright, patent, trademark)

• Contracts

• Privacy

• Free speech and its limitations (government secrets, obscenity)

• Complex areas (ISPs, e-commerce)

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Legal Change

• Changes in laws usually follow changes in technical world.

• Lawyers and politicians typically have poor technical backgrounds

• The interpretation of laws has often never been tested in court because of the cost of litigation.

• Law usually develops incrementally. As a result, strange analogies are often made between new technological paradigms and old world systems

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Jurisdiction: Boundaries

• “The Internet has no boundaries”

• If you break a law in Finland, but you were on the Internet in the United States, what happens to you?

• What if you are in California and you break a law in Minnesota?

• Where do you pay taxes?

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Jurisdiction: Federal Court System

Jurisdictions:

• United States Constitution• International treaties• Federal and state statues• Precedents

• 13 Circuits, each with a court of appeals (appellate court)

• Supreme Court ultimate appellate court

• Jurisdiction can be a determining

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Copyright

Copyright applies to literary works.

Originally applied to textual materials, but gradually extended to cover text, music, photographs, designs, software, ...

Copyright applies to the expression of ideas (e.g., the words used), not to the ideas themselves, nor to physical items.

Software

Copyright applies to the program instructions, but not to the concepts behind the instructions, nor to the files on disk or on paper where the programs instructions are stored.

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Ownership of Copyright (USA)

At creation

• Copyright is automatically owned by the creator.

• Except works for hire, where the employer owns the copyright.

Transfer of copyright

• In the USA, copyright is property that can be sold or licensed.

• The agreement to sell or license software is written as a contract.

"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on." (Attributed to Yogi Berra.)

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Ownership of Copyright

International differences

Moral rights

In some countries, e.g., Canada, France, the creator of a work retains moral rights, which cannot be sold, for instance the right of attribution.

Registration

In the USA, copyright is established automatically when something is created. In many countries, it is necessary for the creator to register it to claim copyright.

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Copyright

In the USA, copyright gives the owner exclusive right to:

• reproduce• distribute• perform• display• license

Special rules

• First sale (can sell an object, e.g., a book, without permission of the copyright owner)

• Fair use (limited use without permission of the copyright owner, e.g., in a review or short quotation)

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Derivative Software

When software is derived from other software:

• New code is owned by new developer

• Conditions that apply to old code apply to derived work

If you write S, which is derived from A, B, C and D, you cannot distribute or licenses S unless you have right to distribute each of A, B, C and D.

To create a software product, you must have documented rights to use every component.

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Software Copyright Questions

• You are a student on CS 501. What you finish what use can you make of your project work? What use can Cornell make of it?

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Software Copyright Questions

• You are a student on CS 501. What you finish what use can you make of your project work? What use can Cornell make of it?

(Answer: At Cornell, students own the copyright in the work that they do for their classes. Anybody else, including Cornell or your client, needs your permission before using the software in any way.)

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An Old Exam Question

When software is written, who owns the copyright?

How can somebody else be permitted to use the software?

How can copyright be transferred to somebody else?

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An Old Exam Question

When software is written, who owns the copyright?

The person who writes the softwareExcept works for hire, where the employer owns copyright

How can somebody else be permitted to use the software?

By permission from the copyright owner(usually a license)

How can copyright be transferred to somebody else?

Copyright is property that can be sold or given away(usually a contract)

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An Old Exam Question

You are employed for company X writing software.

When you leave, who owns your work?

What use can you make of the work?

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An Old Exam Question

You are employed for company X writing software.

When you leave, who owns your work?

The company (work for hire)

What use can you make of the work?

None, without permission of the copyright owner.(Perhaps some minor use under "fair use".)

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An Old Exam Question

You work free-lance for company X.

When you finish, who owns your work?

What use can you make of the work?

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An Old Exam Question

You work free-lance for company X.

When you finish, who owns your work?

It depends on the circumstances.Have a written contract.

What use can you make of the work?

If you hold the copyright -- unrestricted.Otherwise -- none without agreement.(Perhaps some minor use under "fair use".)

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Contracts and Licences

Contracts allow intellectual property to be sold or licensed

• Promise in exchange for some consideration (e.g., money)

• Written document with signature

• Permanent or temporary, whole or part

• Exclusive or non-exclusive

• Termination, problems and difficulties

• Terms and conditions as agreed

• Enforceable by courts

For simple agreements, an exchange of letters is a convenient form of contract.

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Patents

Patents apply to inventions

• Should be: non-obvious, novel, useful

• Requires a complex process of patent application

• 17 years from award (20 years from application)

Copyright applies to the expression of ideas, patents to the ideas themselves.

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Software Patents

Problems with software patents

• Poor quality of patent examiners can lead to broad patents for routine computing concepts

• Usually difficult to know where ideas originate

• International differences

The situation is a serious mess!