AP® Computer Science Principles review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/csp/units/5/5-5)
Unit 5 · Topic 5.5
5.5 Legal and Ethical Concerns
Anything you make on a computer belongs to you, but digital work is easy to copy and share. This topic covers intellectual property, copyright, plagiarism, the legal ways to use other people's work (Creative Commons, open source, open access), and the wider legal and ethical questions computing raises.
Key terms
- intellectual property
- copyright
- Creative Commons
- open source
- open access
- plagiarism
Intellectual property and copyright
Intellectual property is a creation of the mind that belongs to someone: a song, a photo, an essay, a game, a program. Whatever you create on a computer is your intellectual property, or your employer's if you made it as part of your job.
Copyright is the legal protection that gives the creator control over copying, sharing and changing their work. In the United States, your work is protected by copyright as soon as you create it in a fixed form, like a saved file. You don't have to register it.
The trouble is that a digital copy is perfect, free and instant. A song can be copied a million times in a day without any loss of quality. That raises hard questions about who owns a work, what it's worth and how it may be used, and creators use tools like licenses, paywalls and digital rights management to protect their work.
Plagiarism and citation
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own. It's dishonest and can lead to school discipline. If you also had no permission to use a copyrighted work, it can lead to legal trouble too.
Always credit material you didn't create, even when you're allowed to use it. That includes code: if your program uses a procedure from a library, a tutorial or a classmate, say where it came from. The Create performance task requires you to acknowledge code written by someone else (see topic 1.3).
Legal ways to use others' work
| Option | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Creative Commons | A free public license the creator attaches to a copyrighted work, saying how others may share, use and build on it (for example, with credit, or only for noncommercial uses) | A photo on Wikimedia Commons you may use with attribution |
| Open source | Programs whose source code is freely available and may be shared and modified by anyone | Linux, Firefox, Python |
| Open access | Research published online that anyone can read for free, with few limits on reuse | Papers in free online journals and archives |
Bigger legal and ethical questions
These three options have made huge amounts of information, software and research freely available, which helps students and people who can't pay for expensive journals or software.
Computing raises many other legal and ethical concerns. Software that lets people download or stream media can be used to share copyrighted music and movies without paying the creators. Algorithms can carry bias (topic 5.3). Devices that constantly monitor what you do, such as smart speakers, doorbell cameras and fitness trackers, collect data that people may not realize is being gathered. Online tools can be used to harass people or spread false information, and computing plays a part in political issues like elections and protests.
The digital divide (topic 5.2) is also an ethical concern, because unequal access means unequal opportunity.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Is this use OK?
For a class project, Maya wants to use (1) a photo she found on a news site, (2) a Creative Commons photo whose license requires credit, and (3) a sorting procedure from an open source library. Which can she use, and what must she do for each?
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: (1) The news photo is copyrighted, and the site hasn't given permission. Using it as if it were hers would be plagiarism and could break copyright law. She should find a different image or ask the owner for permission. (US law allows some limited "fair use" of copyrighted work, such as for commentary or teaching, but deciding what counts is a legal judgment you won't be tested on. Permission or a licensed image is the safe choice.)
- Step 2: (2) The Creative Commons license allows use with credit, so she can use it as long as she credits the creator in the way the license says.
- Step 3: (3) Open source code may be used and modified. She should still cite where the procedure came from, both because it's honest and because her project or the Create task may require it.
Answer: (1) Not without permission. (2) Yes, with the credit the license requires. (3) Yes, with a citation of the library.
Common mistakes
- Thinking that anything you can find online is free to use. Most of it is copyrighted.
- Thinking credit isn't needed for Creative Commons or open source work. Always cite what you didn't create.
- Mixing up open source (code anyone can see and modify) and open access (research anyone can read for free).
- Assuming copyright only applies if the work shows a © symbol. Work is protected as soon as it's created.
On the exam
- Expect scenario questions asking whether a use of someone else's material is legal or ethical, or which option (Creative Commons, open source, open access) matches a description.
- Select-two questions may ask for two actions that would let a student legally use a work, such as getting permission or using a Creative Commons version and giving credit.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 5.5 Legal and Ethical Concerns. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
A student copies a paragraph from a website into a school report without quotation marks or a citation, so it looks like the student wrote it. What is this?
A photographer wants anyone to be able to share and reuse her photos, as long as they give her credit. What is the best way for her to do this?
Which of the following best describes open source software?
A university publishes its researchers' articles online, free for anyone to read, download and use. Which term describes this?
0 of 4 answered