Portfolio Section D: Computer labs Portfolio Section D: Ethics, Copyright and IP
ID: 3713360 • Letter: P
Question
Portfolio Section D: Computer labs Portfolio Section D: Ethics, Copyright and IPR in Computer labs In the normal course of their teaching duties, several lecturers have reported finding pirated software improperly installed on the computers in the computer labs. Lecturers also found that students have copied and pasted materials from various Internet resources into their own assignments and reproduced them as if they were their own. This, they find, is a common problem among their students. Before taking a decision on what should be done, lecturers asks you, as students, for your inputs to decision-making. Submit your answers to the following questions in either a one page Word document (aim for around 500 words) or a PowerPoint presentation of no more than 8 slides in the Assignments tool: What are the ethical and IPR issues that the faculty are confronted with? What are the steps that the faculty should take to address the ethical and IPR issues? If you were the student who copied and was caught for plagiarism, what are the consequences you would expect?
Explanation / Answer
The act of copying the content of other’s work or self without proper citationsis reffered as Plagarism. It exists in many forms like patchwriting, paraphrasing, self-plagarism etc.
Ethical Issues of plagarism: (is similar to Ethics of stealing )
The conseqences of plagarism depend on the sevearity of the plagarism as well as the type of plagarism. If a student commits plagarism, not only the students stature is at stake but also the institutes. The student, in case the plagarism is proven, is expelled or suspended from the school. The same will be reflected in the students record which prevents him from being accepted into other institutions. If a proffessional does plagarism he should face the legal actions which may result in monetary compensation, destroyed reputation.
Plagarism is not only a serious ethical issue, it is also a legal issue
IPR Issues of Plagarism:
In case of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) one should not assume ownership for themselves. The rules and regulations of the institute should be taken into consideration while claiming ownership. Infact one point most of the authors forget is that by acknowleging the source, one will not get permissions to use others work.
The rights legally given to the owner of the copyrighted content is Reproduction, Translation, Public Distribution, Public Performance and Display. The three main factors effected by plagarism are
Legal Issues
Reputaion Issues
Security Risks
Steps to be taken to address Ethical & IPR issues:
The faculty who wishes to eradicate the plagarism by any individual member or a team may follow a procedure. The procedure is described in detail below.
Investigate the Issue:
If the faculty finds any issue with the proceedings, he may constitute an ethics comitte to dig into the issue and also may ask for the comitte to come up with a possible solution to the issue. The ethics comittee should conduct the preliminary investigation to access the allegations and the facts. The comitte may also incorporate an external expert.
Investigation Report and Recommendations:
The comitee after investigation, submits a detailed report on what are the consequenses of the act done by the party and also recommends steps to be taken. They may recommend to susped/debar/warn etc. Based on the severity of the offence.
Consequences:
If i were the student who was caught for plagarism, i would expect that the allegations stating the plagarism would be investigated throughly and the report which states all the violations be made available to me and discussed in presence of the faculty whom i am working with. The comitte which does the investigation should also consider my report which states all the observations and considerations made with respect to time, all the discussions with the faculty, all the resources available at the time of publishing etc.
In case found gulty, i should be treated according to the rules and regulations of the institute and i am no exception. In case if all the allegations were proven wrong, then i should be let free of any punishments.