Welcome to Computers & Society Module 5!
The Congress shall have Power To… promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries
-U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8
You may be thinking, “I signed up for Computers & Society, not a course on United States History and Constitutional Law!” Modern societies are composed of laws and standards. These are essential to understand as they provide a context to understand the impact of technology.
In this module will discuss property, Intellectual Property principles, copyright, patents, trademarks, software licensing and other methods used to protect and control access to technology related inventions. As we will learn, the key to understanding intellectual property protection is to understand that the thing protected is the intangible creative work, not the physical form.
Please read the following for Module 5:
The four sections "Intellectual Property," "Copyright," "Software Usage," and "Patents" from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School
"US Copyright Office Fair Use Index" from the US Copyright Office
"What is open source?" from opensource.com
"About CC Licenses" from Creative Commons
Read the following article and follow the directions on your syllabus: