Contents

• RA 8293
Intellectual and • Categories of Intellectual Property

Intangible Property Intellectual Property In Patents

Trademark
Chapter 3 The Philippines Copyright
• Functions of the Intellectual Property Office
• Intellectual Property Protection for Software
• Multicultural Perspective
• Interdisciplinary Topics
• Foundation of Intangible Property Law
2 3

Intellectual Property In The Intellectual Property In The Intellectual Property In The

Philippines Philippines Philippines
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8293 Intellectual property refers to anything created by someone, • All these creations are protected by the law, ensuring that
including but not limited to: the people behind it are given due recognition or
• An act prescribing the intellectual property code and
establishing the intellectual property office, providing for its • Inventions remuneration for their effort.
powers and functions, and for other purposes • literary works, • At the office of the Intellectual Property in the Philippines,
• items created by artists (e.g. artwork and musical pieces), there are several categories wherein a creator or innovator
can register their creation under.
• symbols,
• designs,
• images,
• pictures, and
• names that are used for commercial purposes.

4 5 6

Intellectual Property In The

Patent
Philippines
Some categories of intellectual property: • A patent refers to the exclusive rights to a product or
• Patent process, as well as its improvements—granted that the
product or process offers something new and useful.
• Trademark
• The inventor or creator with the patent has the right to
• Copyright choose as to who can use, sell, or even make something
similar during its 20 year validity period.
• Patent is not renewable.
Patent
• Throughout the entire duration, a patent’s information
must be available to the public, as the owner is given
enough time to gain ample commercial returns.
• Some examples of inventions or creations that can be filed
as patents include:
new and useful machines,
products and processes (non-biological and
microbiological in nature);
improvements of machines, products and processes;
microorganisms.

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 Patent Patent Patent
The basic requirements for a creation to be considered Types of Patents Invention
patentable are that the creation would have a: • Invention • An invention must be a technical solution to issues in any
• novel idea, • Utility Model field of human activity.
• inventive, and • Industrial Design • It may come in may forms such as:
• can be applied in an industrial setting a product,
a device,
a machine, or
a process.

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Patent Patent Patent

Invention
• The invention must meet the following criteria in order to
be considered as a patentable invention the solution:
The solution must be new
The solution must have an innovative step
The solution must be industrially useful
Examples of inventions or creations:
• A product
Such as a machine, a devise, an article of manufacture,
a composition of matter, a microorganism
• A process
Such as a method of use, a method of manufacturing, a
non-biological process, a microbiological process
Examples of inventions or creations:
• Computer-related inventions
Such as an invention involving a computer, computer
network or other programmable apparatus, with
features realized wholly or partly by means of a
computer program

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Patent Patent Patent

Invention: Utility Model Utility Model
Products, processes, or an improvement of the foregoing: • A utility model is a protection option, which is designed to • A utility model is entitled to seven (7) years of protection
Other examples: protect innovations that are not sufficiently inventive to from the date of filing.
• Aesthetic creations meet the inventive threshold required for standard patents • There is no possibility of renewal.
application.
• Abstract Ideas • Example:
• It may be any useful machine, implement, tools, product,
• Discoveries, and other scientific theories The ball pen is an existing invention but you observe
composition, process, improvement or part of the same,
• Methods of treatment for the animal body or human body that is of practical utility, novelty and industrial applicability. that when exposed to air the quality of ink decreases so
you have come up with the cover and that cover is the
• Animal breeds or plant varieties
utility model - a development to an existing invention.
• Computer programs Then in a pencil you have created the eraser and that is
• Anything that is against public morality also an improvement or part of the same invention.

16 17 18
 Patent
Utility Model
• Utility model is not novel and it is just a part and
improvement of an invention or process while patent is
novel.
• Patent have heavier and longer protection compared to that
of utility model but both have the same format for
registration and are under the same law which is the
Republic Act 8293 or also known as the Intellectual Property
Code.
Patent
Utility Model
• A utility model is a technical solution to issues present in any
field of human activity.
• Utility models must also meet the criteria needed for
inventions to be patentable.
• Utility models must be of practical utility through its form,
configuration or composition.
• Novel tools, and products are common examples of objects
that can be considered as utility models.
Patent
Industrial Design
• An industrial design gives a product or handicraft a distinct
look.
• It may be 2-Dimensional (lines and colors), 3-Dimensional
(shapes) or a combination of both.
• Industrial design registration protects the ornamental or
aesthetic aspects of the product.
• The industrial design is good for five (5) years from filing
date of the application and may be renewed for not more
than two (2) consecutive periods of five (5) years each.

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Patent Trademark Trademark

Industrial Design vs. Utility Models • R.A. 8293, otherwise known as the Intellectual Property • A trademark is a tool used to differentiate services and
• The term industrial designs for “aesthetic aspects” and Code, defines a trademark as “any visible sign capable of goods from one another.
distinguishing goods”. • It can be in the form of
• The term utility models for “structural aspects.”
a word or a group of words;
a sign, logo, or symbol.
• It could even be a combination of those above.

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Trademark Trademark Trademark

• Essential in marketing your products or services, a
trademark will help consumers identify your brand among
the many others in the market.
• To protect your business’ trademark, it is advisable to have it
registered.
• The owner of the trademark would have exclusive rights to
make use of the mark.
Examples of trademarks: • Trademark registration is valid for ten years from the
registration date.
• A trademark or service mark registration may
be renewed for periods of ten (10) years after the
expiration of the original ten-year term.

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 Copyright Copyright Copyright
• A copyright refers to the protection given to the owner of an Other Examples Other Examples
original work covering: • These include books, pamphlets, articles and other • Models or designs for works of art; original ornamental
literary works, writings; periodicals and newspapers; designs or models for articles of manufacture;
musical pieces, • lectures, sermons, addresses, dissertations prepared for • Illustrations, maps, plans, sketches, charts and
paintings, and oral delivery; letters; dramatic or dramatico-musical three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography,
computer programs, compositions; architecture or science;
among others. • choreographic works or entertainment in dumb shows; • Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical
musical compositions; character; photographic works including works produced by
• drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving, a process analogous to photography;
lithography;

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Copyright Copyright Copyright

Other Examples
• Lantern slides;
• Audiovisual works and cinematographic works and works
produced by a process analogous to cinematography or any
process for making audio-visual recordings;
• Pictorial illustrations and advertisements and computer
programs.
• Under the copyright laws, the owner of the original work is
entitled to economic rights and moral rights.
• Economic rights enable the creator to receive profit gains
should his works be distributed by third parties.
• Moral rights, on the other hand, protect the connection
between the creator and his work.
• Once the owner receives the rights to his work,
unauthorized third parties are prohibited from selling or
distributing the works, especially for trade purposes.
• In the Philippines, copyright protection for artistic, literary
and derivative works lasts during the lifetime of the author
plus 50 years after the author’s death.

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Functions of the Functions of the

Copyright
• This term of protection also applies to posthumous works.
• In the case of joint authorship, the economic rights shall be
protected during the lifetime of the last surviving author
plus 50 years after such author’s death.
Intellectual Property Office
1. Examine applications for the grant of letters patent for
inventions and register utility models and industrial
designs;
2. Examine applications for the registration of marks,
geographic indication and integrated circuits;
Intellectual Property Office
3. Register technology transfer arrangements and settle
disputes involving technology transfer payments covered
by the provisions of Part II, Chapter IX on Voluntary
Licensing and develop and implement strategies to
promote and facilitate technology transfer;
4. Promote the use of patent information as a tool for
technology development;

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 Functions of the Intellectual Property Protection for
Intellectual Property Office Software
5. Publish regularly in its own publication the patents, marks, Copyright and Trademark Protection for Software
utility models and industrial designs, issued and approved,
and the technology transfer arrangements registered;
Complications • Copyright is used to protect the parts of a computer
program that are works of creative authorship.
6. Administratively adjudicate contested proceedings
affecting intellectual property rights, and
Surrounding Intangible Example:
• The source of a computer program is a creative work
7. Coordinate with other government agencies and the
private sector efforts to formulate and implement plans Property • Note that very short snippets of code may not be
and policies to strengthen the protection of intellectual copyrighted, because they are not sufficiently original or
property rights in the country. creative.
• Also, the code itself is not always enough to tell you
whether two or more programs are the same.

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Intellectual Property Protection for Intellectual Property Protection for

Software
Copyright and Trademark Protection for Software
• Fig 3.5 shows source code for the same program written in
two different languages, Java and Scheme.
• Even though these two programs look very different, they
could be considered the same program because they use
exactly the same logic.
Software
Copyright and Trademark Protection for Software
• Trademarks is used to protect the parts of a program that
uniquely identify it.
• Both copyright and trademark can be used to protect the
look and feel of a computer program.
• In the case of Pac-man, it was a work of creativity and thus
copyright was more appropriate.

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Intellectual Property Protection for Intellectual Property Protection for Intellectual Property Protection for
Software Software Software
Patents for Software Amazon 1-Click The Patentability of Algorithms
• Can software be patented? Controversy • An algorithm is a mathematically precise set of steps for
• Was the idea sufficiently non-obvious to be considered an computing something.
Example: invention? • Controversy, can a patent be used to protect algorithms?
• Amazon 1-Click • An idea cannot be patented if it would be obvious to skilled • It is not possible to patent a basic mathematical fact.
practitioners
• In 1997, Amazon applied for a patent
• In 1999, the US Patent Office, issued Amazon a patent for
this.

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 Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Patentability of Algorithms
Google’s search algorithm.
• Google’s main method for estimating the importance of a
Web Page, the Page Rank algorithm is patented.
• This was invented by Larry Page and they were not simple to
discover.
• He created a set of formulas for estimating the importance
of a Web page.
46
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Creative Commons
• Many popular media-sharing Web sites, like Flickr, YouTube,
Google’s Picasa, allow users to set the license terms of their
content using Creative Commons licenses.
• These makes it easy for other creators to download, reuse
and remix their work without fear of lawsuits.
• If you need a photograph, you can find something and use
it, as long as you credit the creator.
49
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Creative Commons (Philippines)
You are free to:
• Share
Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or
format
• Adapt
Remix, transform, and build upon the material for any
purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you
follow the license terms.
52
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Patentability of Algorithms
Google’s search algorithm.
• The original PageRank patent did expired January 2019
• Google holds an updated PageRank patent titled “Producing
a ranking for pages using distances in a web-linked graph.”
• This patent uses more inputs that the original PageRank
algorithm, and the patent is still effective.
47
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Creative Commons
• Music is an interesting case for creative commons.
• Is there really such as thing as “free” music?
• Would you consider others to use your photo posted on
social media free of charge?
50
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Creative Commons (Philippines)
Under the following terms:
• Attribution
You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the
license, and indicate if changes were made.
You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any
way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your
use.
• No additional restrictions
You may not apply legal terms or technological
measures that legally restrict others from doing
anything the license permits.
53
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Creative Commons
• In many societies, there are many resources that are not
owned by any one person.
• Example: fish in the ocean, grass on public land, bench on
the park.
• These resources are called Commons.
48
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Creative Commons
• Creative Commons is working with the e-Law Center of
the Arellano University School of Law to create Philippines
jurisdiction-specific licenses from the generic Creative
Commons licenses.
51
Intellectual Property Protection for
Software
The Creative Commons (Philippines)
Notices:
• You do not have to comply with the license for elements of
the material in the public domain or where your use is
permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
• No warranties are given.
• The license may not give you all of the permissions
necessary for your intended use.
• Example - Other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral
rights may limit how you use the material.
54
 Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent, The Pirate Bay, and the Pirate Party
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology is a way to share music, video
and documents, play games, and facilitate online telephone
conversations.
• The technology enables computers using the same or
compatible P2P programs to form a network and share
digital files directly with other computers on the network.
55
Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent (Philippines)
• BitTorrent technology is legal in the Philippines.
• BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer filesharing technology that
allows files to be shared extremely efficiently by a peer
network.
• This is 100% legal, and Filipino’s may legally download
popular torrent client software like utorrent, vuze, deluge,
etc…
58
Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent, The Pirate Bay, and the Pirate Party
• There is an entire political party in Sweden called the
Piratpartiet (Pirate Party).
• This party focuses on three main issues:
Privacy protection
Copyright reform
Reduction or elimination of patents and other private
monopolies.
61
Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent, The Pirate Bay, and the Pirate Party
• Because virtually anyone can join a P2P network just by
installing particular software, millions of computers could be
connected at one time.
• Examples: BearShare, LimeWire, KaZaa, eMule, Vuze,
uTorrent and BitTorrent
56
Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent (Philippines)
• The legal issues start when copy-protected files are shared
without a license to distribute those files.
• Examples of copy-protected files may include: Major movie
releases, music, books, etc…
• These works of art are protected by international
intellectual property laws.
• This protects them from being redistributed, shared, or
downloaded without the copyright owners’ consent.
59
Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent, The Pirate Bay, and the Pirate Party
• Piratpartiet principles include:
• “the copyright will encourage the creation, development
and dissemination of culture …. We claim that widespread
and systematic abuses of today’s copyright actively oppose
these purposes by limiting both the creation of culture and
cultural access.”
NOTE:
• The Philippines has an officially registered Pirate Party
62
Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent, The Pirate Bay, and the Pirate Party
• When P2P file sharing software is not configured properly,
files not intended for sharing may be accessible to anyone
on the P2P network.
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer
protection agency, has written this guide to highlight the
security problems that can result when organizations allow
their employees – and others with access to their networks
– to use P2P file sharing software.
57
Multicultural Perspective
BitTorrent (Philippines)
• Though there are many legal torrents available, a high
percentage of torrent traffic is actually copyrighted material.
• The legality of sharing this material depends mostly on the
local laws of the country in which the downloader lives.
• Some countries are more torrent friendly.
60
Interdisciplinary Topics
Intellectual Property Protection Through Intentional Errors
• Plagiarism identification schemes exists today, in the form
of watermarking on images.
• Digital watermarking means embedding small errors into a
digital image so that someone viewing the image cannot see
the errors with the naked eye, but special computer
programs can use the errors to identify the source of image.
63
 The Philosophical Foundation of The Philosophical Foundation of
Interdisciplinary Topics
Intangible Property Law Intangible Property Law
Plagiarism, the Web, and Writing The Consequentialist Argument The Consequentialist Argument
• In a creative culture based on remixing, is it acceptable to • Consider Linux operating system, and other open source • Consider Wikipedia, thousands of editors have contributed
cut-and-paste short passages from someone else and use it software products. articles or edits to Wikipedia.
without attribution? • Authors of this open source willingly give up most of their • Contributors do not get paid.
• The argument is that if the new work created by mixing is intellectual property rights. • For those who believe intellectual properties are necessary,
original and authentic overall, it does not matter if some of • Their simple demand: there is a significant debate about how long the “limited
the sentences are taken from elsewhere. time” of monopoly should last.
Be given credit
• Agree or disagree? If you reuse their code in your own code, you make
your code available to be reused in the same way
• Their motivation appears to be altruism, not
compensation.
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The Philosophical Foundation of The Philosophical Foundation of The Philosophical Foundation of

Intangible Property Law Intangible Property Law Intangible Property Law
Deontological Argument Deontological Argument Deontological Argument
• Deontological ethics, in philosophy, ethical theories that John Locke • Locke’s argument is for tangible goods, can his argument be
place special emphasis on the relationship between duty • The natural resources of the earth are held in common by all applied to intangible goods such as intellectual property?
and the morality of human actions. people
• But each person has a natural right to his or herself.
• Each person has a total right to benefit from the labor of his
or her own body.
• A natural resource becomes ours if :
There is plenty for everyone else
We transform it into something new through our own
labor

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The Philosophical Foundation of The Philosophical Foundation of

Intangible Property Law
Deontological Argument
• Second Life is an online virtual world, developed and owned
by the San Francisco based firm Linden Lab (2003).
• It saw rapid growth for some years and in 2013 it had
approximately one million regular users;[1]
• In many ways, Second Life is similar to massively multiplayer
online role-playing games.
• Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game:
"There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective".
Intangible Property Law
Deontological Argument
• Virtual goods live on a server computer maintained by a
third party.
• If you create a virtual property in Second Life (for example)
the corporation Linden Lab must pay a bit of money
Thank You
everyday to see that your property continues to exist.
• They pay for the electricity to run the server, the staff, etc.
• If Linden Lab decides to turn off Second life, have they
violated the virtual property rights of the people that have
made things there?

70 71 72
 References Contents
• https://ap.fftc.org.tw/article/531
• Data Privacy
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/
• https://ndvlaw.com/intellectual-property-protection-in-the-philippines
Philippines • Types of Information
• https://www.chanrobles.com/legal7code.htm#.YEQgRV0zbDI
• https://www.downloadprivacy.com/torrents-in-the-philippines#:~:text=Bittorrent%20technology%20is
%20legal%20in,%2C%20vuze%2C%20deluge%2C%20etc%E2%80%A6
Data Privacy • Exemptions to Data Privacy

• https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/peer-peer-file-sharing-guide-business
March 2021
• https://www.full-suite.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-intellectual-property-laws-philippines/
• https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1745623
• https://www.utc.edu/center-academic-excellence-cyber-defense/course-listing/cpsc3610.php
• wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/aspac/en/wipo_ip_mnl_3_18/wipo_ip_mnl_3_18_p_1.pdf

73

What is the scope of the What is the processing of

What is the Data Privacy Act?
Data Privacy Act? personal information?
Republic Act No. 10173, otherwise known as the Data Privacy • As mentioned earlier, the Data Privacy Act applies to any • Under Sec. 3(j) of the Data Privacy Act, “processing refers to
Act is a law that seeks natural or juridical persons involved in the processing of any operation or any set of operations performed upon
personal information. personal information including, but not limited to, the
• to protect all forms of information, be it collection, recording, organization, storage, updating or
private, • It also covers those who, although not found or established
in the Philippines, use equipment located in the modification, retrieval, consultation, use, consolidation,
personal, or Philippines, or those who maintain an office, branch, or blocking, erasure or destruction of data.”
sensitive. agency in the Philippines.
• It is meant to cover both natural and juridical persons
involved in the processing of personal information.

What is the processing of

What is personal information?
personal information?
• In other words, processing of personal information is any • Under Sec. 3(g) of the Data Privacy Act, “personal
operation where personal information is involved. information refers to any information whether recorded in
• Whenever your information is, among other things, a material form or not, from which the identity of an
collected, modified, or used for some purpose, processing individual is apparent or can be reasonably and directly
already takes place. ascertained by the entity holding the information, or when
put together with other information would directly and
certainly identify an individual.”
• In other words, personal information is any information
which can be linked to your identity, thus making you
readily identifiable.
What is privileged information?
• Under Sec. 3(k) of the Data Privacy Act, “privileged
information refers to any and all forms of data which under
the Rules of Court and other pertinent laws constitute
privileged communication.”
• One such example would be any information given by a
client to his lawyer.
• Such information would fall under attorney-client privilege
and would, therefore, be considered privileged information.
 Does the difference between
personal information and sensitive
personal information matter?
• Yes.
• The law treats both kinds of personal information
differently.
• Personal information may be processed, provided that the
requirements of the Data Privacy Act are complied with.
• On the other hand, the processing of sensitive personal
information is, in general, prohibited.
• The Data Privacy Act provides the specific cases where
processing of sensitive personal information is allowed.
Is there a difference between
personal information and sensitive
personal information matter?
……. sensitive personal information, as defined in Sec. 3(l) of
the Data Privacy Act, refers to personal information:
(2) About an individual’s health, education, genetic or sexual
life of a person, or to any proceeding for any offense
committed or alleged to have been committed by such
person, the disposal of such proceedings, or the sentence of
any court in such proceedings;
Is there a difference between
personal information and sensitive
personal information matter?
• Therefore, any information that can be categorized under
any of the enumerated items are considered sensitive
personal information.
Is there a difference between
personal information and sensitive
personal information matter?
• Yes.
• While personal information refers to information that
makes you readily identifiable, sensitive personal
information, as defined in Sec. 3(l) of the Data Privacy Act,
refers to personal information:
Is there a difference between
personal information and sensitive
personal information matter?
……. sensitive personal information, as defined in Sec. 3(l) of
the Data Privacy Act, refers to personal information:
(3) Issued by government agencies peculiar to an individual
which includes, but not limited to, social security numbers,
previous or cm-rent health records, licenses or its denials,
suspension or revocation, and tax returns; and
Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
The Data Privacy Act explicitly states that its provisions are
not applicable in the following cases:
(a) Information about any individual who is or was an officer
or employee of a government institution that relates to the
position or functions of the individual, including:
Is there a difference between
personal information and sensitive
personal information matter?
……. sensitive personal information, as defined in Sec. 3(l) of
the Data Privacy Act, refers to personal information:
(1) About an individual’s race, ethnic origin, marital status,
age, color, and religious, philosophical or political
affiliations;
Is there a difference between
personal information and sensitive
personal information matter?
……. sensitive personal information, as defined in Sec. 3(l) of
the Data Privacy Act, refers to personal information:
(4) Specifically established by an executive order or an act of
Congress to be kept classified.
Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
including:
(1) The fact that the individual is or was an officer or
employee of the government institution;
(2) The title, business address and office telephone number of
the individual;
(3) The classification, salary range and responsibilities of the
position held by the individual; and
(4) The name of the individual on a document prepared by the
individual in the course of employment with the government;
 Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
The Data Privacy Act explicitly states that its provisions are
not applicable in the following cases:
(b) Information about an individual who is or was
performing service under contract for a government
institution that relates to the services performed, including
the terms of the contract, and the name of the individual
given in the course of the performance of those services;
Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
The Data Privacy Act explicitly states that its provisions are
not applicable in the following cases:
(e) Information necessary in order to carry out the functions
of public authority which includes the processing of personal
data for the performance by the independent, central
monetary authority and law enforcement and regulatory
agencies of their constitutionally and statutorily mandated
functions. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as to have
amended or repealed Republic Act No. 1405, otherwise
known as the Secrecy of Bank Deposits Act; Republic Act No.
6426, otherwise known as the Foreign Currency Deposit Act;
and Republic Act No. 9510, otherwise known as the Credit
Information System Act (CISA);
Thank You
Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
The Data Privacy Act explicitly states that its provisions are
not applicable in the following cases:
(c) Information relating to any discretionary benefit of a
financial nature such as the granting of a license or permit
given by the government to an individual, including the name
of the individual and the exact nature of the benefit;
Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
The Data Privacy Act explicitly states that its provisions are
not applicable in the following cases:
(f) Information necessary for banks and other financial
institutions under the jurisdiction of the independent, central
monetary authority or Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to comply
with Republic Act No. 9510, and Republic Act No. 9160, as
amended, otherwise known as the Anti-Money Laundering
Act and other applicable laws; and
Ethics in a Computing Culture
Chapter 5
Trust, Safety, and Reliability
Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
The Data Privacy Act explicitly states that its provisions are
not applicable in the following cases:
(d) Personal information processed for journalistic, artistic,
literary or research purposes;
Are there any exemptions to the
application of the Data Privacy Act?
The Data Privacy Act explicitly states that its provisions are not
applicable in the following cases:
(g) Personal information originally collected from residents of
foreign jurisdictions in accordance with the laws of those
foreign jurisdictions, including any applicable data privacy
laws, which is being processed in the Philippines.
Objectives
• Why does software fail?
• What are the consequences of software failure?
• How can we help prevent software failures from
occurring in the future?
Ethics in a Computing Culture 2

Causes of Computer Failure
• A computer might fail to meet expectations by:
– Hardware errors (malfunction)
– Software errors (bugs)
– Being programmed to solve the wrong problem (programmers
fail to deliver client expectations)
– Misuse (a computer is provided erroneous data)
– Communication failure (human misunderstands a computer
prompt)
– Malice (hackers)
Causes of Computer Failure
(continued)
• Suppose a word processor marks a sentence as a
fragment, but the sentence is grammatically correct.
What type of error is this likely to be?
• Suppose an ATM gives someone less cash than was
charged to his or her account. What type of error is this
likely to be?
Case: Ariane 5 Flight 501
• Suppose we knew the identity of the people who made
the decision to omit the code necessary to handle the
arithmetic overflow error, which caused the rockets
during the Ariane 5 flight to self-destruct.
– Would you hold those people responsible for the accident?
• Suppose lives had been lost due to the Ariane 5 disaster.
– Should anyone be considered guilty of criminal negligence?

Ethics in a Computing Culture 3 Ethics in a Computing Culture 4 Ethics in a Computing Culture 5

Ethics in a Computing Culture 6 Ethics in a Computing Culture 7 Ethics in a Computing Culture 8

Ethics in a Computing Culture 9 Ethics in a Computing Culture 10 Ethics in a Computing Culture 11

 Case: Pentium Floating Point Divide

• Did Intel have a moral obligation to replace the defective

Pentium 5 chips, even for those users who had no need
for high precision?

• When employees of Intel first discovered the bug, did

they have an ethical responsibility to make the problem
public?

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Case: Pentium Floating Point Divide

(continued)
• Suppose a bank was relying on computers that had the
Intel Pentium 5 chip to perform extensive computations
relating to investments. Suppose further that the error in
the chip caused the bank to lose a significant amount of
money.
– Does Intel have a moral obligation to compensate the bank for
its loss? This is not a question of Intel’s legal liability.

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Ethics in a Computing Culture 18 Ethics in a Computing Culture 19 Ethics in a Computing Culture 20

 Case: Why Software Fails
• The consequences of the faulty program in the chemist
conference scenario were not especially costly, but
caused a few participants (approx. 300 of a supposed
6,000 chemists) to be inconvenienced. Is this number
sufficient enough for either the conference organizers or
the programmer to have any ethical responsibility?
• Assuming the conference organizers had a limited
budget, was the organizers’ decision to hire a student to
do the programming a moral one?
Ethics in a Computing Culture
Bugs and Public Safety (continued)
• Many executives of software production companies, as
well as several famous computer scientists, have
asserted that the most important skill needed by a
software developer is the ability to communicate.
• Would more extensive testing of the software have
prevented the Ariane flight failure?
Ethics in a Computing Culture
Case: A&P’s Cash Register Scandal
• The A&P cash register scandal:
– only possible because people trusted a computer to do
arithmetic correctly
• Is it morally permissible to accept a computer’s
calculations without actually checking it?
Ethics in a Computing Culture
Bugs and Public Safety
• Safety-critical software: software that may affect
someone’s safety if it fails to work properly
• Decision point: a place in computer code where the
next instruction executed depends on input data
• Control programs: programs that control some sort of
machinery
21 Ethics in a Computing Culture
Bugs and Public Safety (continued)
• Brooks’s Law: “Adding people to a late project makes it
later.”
– Adding new people adds new lines of communication, which
increase the chances of miscommunication or missed
communication
24 Ethics in a Computing Culture
Case: A&P’s Cash Register Scandal
(continued)
• Suppose you had a long grocery bill. You add up the
prices of the individual items by hand, and your answer
is considerably more than the total on the bill you paid.
Adding them again, you get the same answer.
– Would you assume that you added incorrectly, or that the
computer did?
27 Ethics in a Computing Culture
Bugs and Public Safety (continued)
• Real time: a program must do something within a
specific amount of time
• Multiprocess: programs that execute at the same time
as one or more other programs
22 Ethics in a Computing Culture 23
Case: Therac-25
• Therac-25: machine designed for cancer treatments
– radiation overdose occurred at the Kennestone Oncology Center
in Marietta, Georgia in 1985
– Less than 2 months later, a woman received a severe radiation
burn to her hip from a Therac-25 machine
• Douglas Birsch: applied ethicist who argues that both
the programmer who designed Therac’s software and
the company’s quality assurance officer bear significant
moral responsibility for the accidents
25 Ethics in a Computing Culture 26
Malware
• Malware: short for “malicious software”
• Hackers: people who write and deploy malware
• Worm: program that makes copies of itself and
propagates those copies through a network to infect
other computers
• Virus: similar to a worm, but resides in another program
program that must execute in order for the virus to
propagate
28 Ethics in a Computing Culture 29
 Malware (continued)
• Spyware: program that is secretly installed for the purpose of
collecting information about the computer’s user or users
• Trojan horse: software that masquerades as an innocent or
useful program, but that is actually designed for a malicious
purpose
Case: Stuxnet Worm
• Stuxnet: a computer worm that has significantly set back
the Iranian nuclear development program
– extremely sophisticated software, speculated to have been
created by the CIA and the Israeli governmant
• Can the people who wrote the Stuxnet worm be
considered ethical hackers?
Nuclear Shutdown System
• Darlington Nuclear Generating Station: the first Canadian
nuclear station to use computers to run the emergency
shutdown systems for its reactors
– written by nuclear engineers who knew how to program, that is,
written by experts in the domain of the application for which the
program was intended

• Rootkit: program that embeds itself into a computer’s

operating system and acquires special privileges that would
normally be available to the operating system

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