- What is intellectual property? What is the difference between real and intellectual property? Can a person own intellectual property? Why or why not?
When a person claims of anything like intellectual property, he/she means the property of the mind. In simple terms, intellectual property is an intangible asset that resides only in the minds of a person or known only by a corporate body. In most cases, intellectual property is not transferrable from one person to another but is infringed once a person or organization copies the idea of another. Finding the major difference between a real property and intellectual property, it is clear that real property is tangible while intellectual property is intangible. The other difference is the ease of transfer from one person to another. Intellectual property is not easily transferable compared to real property. This makes the aspect of ownership to be also defined differently. In most cases, real property is owned by either an individual or organization but intellectual property is owned by individuals who can then sell it to an organization or company (Ravindran, 2009).
- The most important social issue raised by pervasiveness of IT. How can the society best deal with this issue?
- Ethical implications of using IT to determine quality of work of an employee.
In most companies, IT is being used to determine the effectiveness of an employee. Several ethical issues arise from this aspect of technology. The first ethical aspect is the mechanization of the employees. The systems do not realize when an employee is present or not. This gives false information on employee performance. The other issue is the fact that the system can be cheated. If data entered into the system is tampered with, the integrity and reliability of the data obtained is put at question. The other ethical issue is the unfair treatment of the employees. Apart from mechanization, the working conditions may deteriorate but the employees lack a forum to air their views or the system just classifies the employees without putting into consideration the hardships encountered (Perkins, 2012).
- Is downloading of music from the internet a breach of intellectual properties rights? Though many people are doing it and it can be considered theft, is it ethical or not? Why or why not?
On matters pertaining to whether it is ethical and allowed for a person to download music from an online music store, my opinion is that it is unethical but to some extent it is allowed. Supporting my idea of the unethical part of downloading, it is in the first place stealing from the owner of the song. Since you have not paid for the download, this is unethical according to business law and ethics. In most cases, downloading is allowed making the whole process to be legal. Terming it as stealing may not be very appropriate since people who wish not to allow free download ensures that those downloading are authorized (Ravindran, 2009).
- Identity theft and the implications this might have on the victim of identity theft.
One of the most recent atrocities on the net currently is identity theft. This means that a person takes control of a system as the admin whereas he/she is not. This allows the intruder/ thief to operate the system as he/she wishes and also manipulate any data in the system. In case a person becomes a victim of identity theft, he/she is likely to suffer for malicious activity that the intruder does. This may include alteration of the system settings, any confidential information may leak and any manipulation that might result from the intrusion (Perkins, 2012).
References
Brown, C. V., J. A., Martin, E. W., & Perkins, W. C. 2012. Managing information technology, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 7th edition
Ravindran S. 2009. Real property vs. intellectual property, Altacit global Inc
