Week 3

Part 1

1)                  If a person has an idea for a novel (i.e., nothing other than a set of thoughts in their mind), they can copyright it

False, ideas cannot be copyrighted according to Section 203 of the Copyright Protection act.

2)                  Which of these extends copyright to computer programs?

The Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations and The Copyright, Design and Patents Act both extend to copyrighting computer programs.

3)                  Decompilation is when a program is taken apart.

4)                  If I publish something on the Internet it is not covered by copyright law

              False

5)                  Copying programs is allowed when the copy is a backup

6)                  Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize for a novel called ‘Wolf Hall’, in 2009. Imagine she dies next year (2012). When would you be free to copy ‘Wolf Hall’ in the UK?

               2080

7)                  If you illegally copy software you will be liable for prosecution if you run away and even if you didn’t know the law when you committed the crime.

8)                  You can decompile software when it allows you to achieve a permitted objective

9)                  A person has written software and published it. They can copyright it

               True

10)               Trojans, viruses and back-door programs are against which Act

               The Computer Misuse Act

Part 2

Jailbreaking an iPhone

The act of jailbreaking an iPhone is to remove the limitations that apple have put on to the device, in effect making the device more open to the public as applications can be downloaded through a separate application called Cydia. The members can all upload their ‘tweaks’, ‘themes’ or ‘apps’ onto Cydia meaning that they bypass Apples vigorous testing process that is normally needed when uploading to the app store.  However it can also allow the user to download free applications that would originally have to be bought through the app store. This can be done through the use of apps downloaded from Cydia which then link to several different sites with the .ipa file ready to be downloaded and installed on their device. Finally the user can also unlock their phone so that it can work on different networks, this is a bonus as they would then not be limited in having to use one network for that particular phone and instead can simply unlock it and let their original SIM work on that device.

When jailbreaking an iPhone, I stated earlier that the user would have access to free applications that a normal user would then have to pay to get hold of. This is where the copyright law could come into the situation as in effect they are stealing the applications from the developer in order to get the app free. Also another place where there is a copyright issue would be that the hacker would actually be altering code in the root of the OS to get their software onto it.  

Jailbreaking an iPhone would not be considered illegal, however it does come with other ramifications if the user chooses to do it, which includes voiding their warranty. The main reason is which it was deemed legal to jailbreak the phone was because that many people jailbreak their iPhone not to download the applications that I talked about earlier, but because  they don’t to have to deal with the limitations that apple have put in place for its users due to the restrictive nature of them.

File Sharing is illegal

File sharing really is a broad issue when talking about Copyright due to not wanting to restrict the user too much in what they can and cannot upload and share.  For example the user could upload their whole collection of personal pictures online, and this would be perfectly legal as it is originally their content to do what they want with. However it starts to get messy where the user starts to upload on to the net files that are not theirs and are copyrighted to some other person or organisation. These can range from movies or TV shows, music and computer software such as games and other applications.

Peer to peer is a massive part in this day and age as it will allow the user to get the files they need quickly and easy and all they need to download is a P2P client. Napster was the first peer to peer client that allowed the user to download music or software through the use of hooking up their computer to others through the internet and download their files through there. This in itself, would not be considered illegal, however again it depends on if the user has the ownership of the file that they are uploading. As users who used Napster were mostly using it to share copyrighted music among their peers, it ended up with Napster going bankrupt in 2002, after several court hearings with bands such as Metallica.