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1.7.1 Ethics

IEEE CS/ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Practice

Software engineers code of ethics

1. PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest.

2. CLIENT AND EMPLOYER - Software engineers shall act in a manner that is in the

best interests of their client and employer consistent with the public interest.

3. PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related

modifications meet the highest professional standards possible.

4. JUDGMENT - Software engineers shall maintain integrity and independence in their

professional judgment.

5. MANAGEMENT - Software engineering managers and leaders shall subscribe to and

promote an ethical approach to the management of software development and

maintenance.

6. PROFESSION - Software engineers shall advance the integrity and reputation of

the profession consistent with the public interest.

7. COLLEAGUES - Software engineers shall be fair to and supportive of their

colleagues.

8. SELF - Software engineers shall participate in lifelong learning regarding the

practice of their profession and shall promote an ethical approach to the practice of

the profession.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the world’s largest educational

and scientific computing society. It has its own Code of Ethics and another set of

ethical principles that were also approved by the IEEE as the standard for teaching

and practicing software engineering.

* Contribute to society and human well-being. Programmers should work to

develop computer systems that can reduce negative consequences to society, such

as threats to safety and health, and that can make everyday activities and work

easier. It is “an obligation to develop to high standards”

* Avoid harm to others. Computer systems have an indirect impact on third parties.

They can cause loss of information and resources that might result severely harmful

for users, the general public, or employers. Therefore, software developers should

minimize the risk of harming others due to coding errors, or security issues, by

following standards to design and test systems

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* Be honest and trustworthy. This principle encourages programmers to be honest

and aware of their limitations in knowledge and education when writing computer

systems. Also, if a programmer knows there is something wrong with a computer

system, he or she should report it immediately to avoid undesirable consequences.

* Give proper credit for intellectual property. It is mandatory for every software

developer to never use and take credit for someone else’s work, even when it has

not been protected by a copyright law, patent, etc. They must recognize and fully

credit other people’s works, and they should use their own ideas to develop

software.

* Respect the privacy of others. Computer systems are wrongly used by some

people to violate the privacy of others. Software developers should write programs

that can protect users’ private information and that can avoid other undesired

people to have unauthorized access to.

* Honor confidentiality. Unless required by law or any other ethical guideline, a

programmer must keep secret any additional information related to his or her

employer that arises from working in a project.

* Approve software only if they have a well-founded belief it is safe and meets

specifications. Programmers cannot assume that a system is ready to use only

because it performs the tasks needed. They should make sure these systems are

also safe and meet every specification required by the user. If programs are not

safe, users are unprotected from hackers that could steal important information or

money. Therefore, several tests should be performed in order to ensure a system’s

security before approving it.

* Accept full responsibility for their own work. If a program presents errors, the

software developer should accept full responsibility for his or her work, and should

work on revising, correcting, modifying, and testing it.

* Not knowingly use software that is obtained or retained either illegally or

unethically. If a computer system will be used as a base for the creation of another,

then permission to do so should be asked by the programmer. This principle

prohibits using any other software for any purpose if the way it was gotten is not

clear or is known to be illegal or unethical.

* Identify, define, and address ethical, economic, cultural, legal and environmental

issues related to work projects. If a programmer notices and identifies that

working on a project will lead to any kind of problems, then the programmer should

report it to his or her employer before continuing.

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* Ensure that specifications for software on which they work satisfy the users’

requirements and they have the appropriate approvals. Software developers

should come to their employers to ask for the correspondent approval to the

system they are creating before continuing working on the next part. If it doesn’t

meet the requirements, then a modification to the source code of the system should

be made.

* Ensure adequate testing, debugging and review of software. Programmers

should perform the appropriate tests to the pieces of software they work with, and

should check for errors and system security holes to make sure that the programs

are well implemented.

* Not engage in deceptive financial practices such as bribery, double billing, or

other improper financial practices. Programmers are exposed to be participants on

illegal activities to get money. They get involved in them due to threats, economical

issues, or simply because they want to obtain easy money taking advantage of their

knowledge about how computer systems work. This guideline prohibits programmer

to form part of such unlawful actions.

* Improve their ability to create safe, reliable, and useful quality

software. Since technology advances faster year by year, and so does virtual

criminality, the need of well-structured and designed programs is increasing.

Computer systems get old and limited by new ones and new devices. Programmers

should “further their knowledge of developments in the analysis,

specification, design, development, maintenance, and testing software and related

documents”

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1.7.2 Ownership

Concept of ownership and copyright of software

What happens when you purchase a specific software application? And if you’ve

purchased software, what is the license agreement for? Do you now own the

software because you paid for it?

Simply put, no. Though you may have paid for the software, what you have actually

done is licensed the application, essentially paying for the rights to use the software

according to guidelines determined by the owner. The owner of the software

remains the person or entity that holds the copyright, giving them the sole legal

authority power to sell, distribute, copy and/or change the content of the software.

And unless the person or organization transfers ownership rights, the rights remain

with the owner no matter how many times the owner legally distributes the

software.

When a user either purchases software or freely downloads software from the

Internet, the user is not buying the ownership rights to the software but a license

to use the software according to the licensing agreement, or EULA (for end user

licensing agreement). The EULA is a legal agreement between the two parties and

is legally actionable if either party violates the terms of the agreement. While no

two EULAs are exactly the same.

It’s a good idea to actually read all the way through the licensing agreements of

software you buy or download. One way that spyware has been able to proliferate

over the Internet is by individuals not paying attention to the licensing agreements

that state that along with the intended software the program will also be installing

spyware on your system.

Legislation to protect ownership, usage and copyright

Computer software is protected by copyright law and international copyright

treaties as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. Copyright law and

other intellectual property laws in many countries or regions protect the rights of a

software owner by granting to the owner a number of exclusive rights, including the

right to reproduce or "copy" the software. Copying software without the permission

of the owner is "copyright infringement" and the law imposes penalties on

infringers.

You make a "copy" of a software program whenever you:

1) Load the software into your computer's temporary memory by running the

program from a floppy disk, hard disk, CD-ROM, or other storage media;

2) Copy the software onto other media such as a floppy disk or your computer's

hard disk;

3) Run the program on your computer from a network server on which the

software is resident or stored.

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Almost all commercial computer software is licensed directly or indirectly from the

copyright owner (the software publisher) for use by the customer through a type of

contract called an "End User License Agreement" (also known as a EULA). Different

products may have different types of EULAs.

Data Protection Act 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998 controls the way that companies, organizations and

individuals handle personal data.

It states that:

1. Data may only be used for the specific purposes for which it was collected.

2. Data must not be disclosed to other parties without the consent of the

individual whom it is about, unless there is legislation or other overriding

legitimate reason to share the information (for example, the prevention or

detection of crime). It is an offence for Other Parties to obtain this personal

data without authorization.

3. Individuals have a right of access to the information held about them, subject

to certain exceptions (for example, information held for the prevention or

detection of crime).

4. Personal information may be kept for no longer than is necessary and must

be kept up to date.

5. Personal information may not be sent outside the European Economic Area

unless the individual whom it is about has consented or adequate protection

is in place, for example by the use of a prescribed form of contract to govern

the transmission of the data.

6. Subject to some exceptions for organizations that only do very simple

processing, and for domestic use, all entities that process personal

information must register with the Information Commissioner's Office.

7. The departments of a company that are holding personal information are

required to have adequate security measures in place. Those include

technical measures (such as firewalls) and organizational measures (such as

staff training)

8. Subjects have the right to have factually incorrect information corrected

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Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was passed in 2000, and

introduces the power to intercept communications with the aim of taking into

account the growth of the Internet. It regulates the manner in which certain

public bodies may conduct surveillance and access a person's electronic

communications

enables certain public bodies to demand that an ISP provide access to

a customer's communications in secret;

enables mass surveillance of communications in transit;

enables certain public bodies to demand ISPs fit equipment to facilitate

surveillance;

enables certain public bodies to demand that someone hand over keys

to protected information;

allows certain public bodies to monitor people's internet activities;

Prevents the existence of interception warrants and any data collected

with them from being revealed in court.

Free software foundation (FSF)

Free software developers guarantee everyone equal rights to their programs;

any user can study the source code, modify it, and share the program. By

contrast, most software carries fine print that denies users these basic rights,

leaving them susceptible to the whims of its owners and vulnerable to

surveillance.

The FSF provides critical infrastructure and funding for theGNU project,

the foundation of the popular GNU/Linux family of free operating systems

and the keystone of the Internet.

Campaigns Team creates educational materials about free software,

convenes the yearly LibrePlanet conference and goes toe to toe against

powerful interests that threaten computer user rights.

Licensing & Compliance Lab defends freely licensed software from

proprietary hoarding, advises on licensing issues, and certifies devices

that Respect Your Freedom

Open Source Initiative (OSI)

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is an organization dedicated to

promoting open-source software.

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Shareware

Most shareware is delivered free of charge for trial basis e.g. 30 days, but the

author usually requests that you pay a small fee if you like the program and use

it regularly. By sending the small fee, you become registered with the producer

so that you can receive service assistance and updates. You can copy shareware

and pass it along to friends and colleagues, but they too are expected to pay a

fee if they use the product.

Shareware is inexpensive because it is usually produced by a

single programmer and is offered directly to customers. Thus, there is practically

no packaging or advertising expenses.

Commercial software

Commercial software, or sometimes payware is a software that is designed for

sale to serve a commercial need. Commercial software is usually proprietary

software, but in some instances it may be public-domain software.

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