Copyright Ethics

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COPYRIGHT ETHICS 

In your group, please discuss and come to a determination whether each item is
ethical, unethical, or a crime​. Write your answer and a short rationale after each
question. Each of you submits a copy of this sheet to the dropbox. Here are resources
that may help make your decisions.

1. Please write the names of the people participating in the discussion below.

2. A teacher uses her computer at school to send an e-mail to his or her friends and
family.
● This is unethical teachers must use school computers for professional
use only.
3. A teacher uses the Web at school to access stock market reports. So that he can
periodically check the market, he leaves the Web connection running in the
background all day.
● This is unethical because the teacher is using the school's Web for
personal use.
4. A principal installs a new version of a word processing program on her office
computer. Because no one will be using the old version of the program, she
takes it home and installs it on her home computer so her husband and children
can use it.
● This is unethical, the old version does not belong to him. This violates the
single use license.
5. While checking teachers' e-mail messages, the principal finds that one of his
teachers is using the district's e-mail system to bet on a football game.
● This is unethical because it is a conflict of interests and unprofessional to
use the district e-mail system for personal use.

This is unethical. Teachers must use their professional email system for
professional purposes, not personal purposes.

6. A school technology facilitator has his students develop tutorials on computer


software. When the projects are completed, he offers to sell the tutorials to
another school.

This is unethical. He should have asked students for permission since they
made the tutorials. Furthermore, they made these tutorials in an academic context and
he is making a profit from it.
7. A principal tells a teacher to install a piece of software on numerous computers
on campus. The teacher knows the software has a single-user license, but
because the principal said to install it, he does.

This is a crime since it violates the software’s single-use license.


8. Personnel in the district's computer center occasionally monitor computer use in
the schools. They monitor how often and for what lengths of time particular
teachers are connected to the Internet, as well as what sites have been visited.

This is ethical because they are district computers, not personal computers. The
district has every right to monitor their own computers that are meant for professional
use.

9. The media specialist uses photo retouching software to put her school name on
another school's logo.

This is ethical so long as the other school’s logo is not copyrighted and the media
specialist is not using the new logo for financial gain.

10. A teacher downloads a piece of shareware software. He uses it for the allotted
time and when asked to pay for the software, he simply closes the window and
continues to use it.

This is a crime because the teacher downloaded the software illegally and did not
pay for the copyright to use it.

11. An educational learning company contacts a school principal requesting


information about students, including names and addresses. The company offers
to provide students with free learning supplements. The principal sends the
company her student database.

This is a crime because the principle did not obtain approval from the students to
release their names.

12. Your students are creating Web pages of their own. They search the Internet for
ideas. One of them finds a very cool home page and decides to copy the page,
change the name, and use it.
This is plagiarism and a crime because the website is someone else’s creative
work. It has a tangible form so the creator has its copyright. This is not fair use
because the student

13. You are doing a unit on famous cartoon characters and go to the Disney Website
to get clip art for your curriculum page.

This is ethical. We are using clip art for educational purposes and using only a
small portion of it. It does not affect their future market.

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