Legal Issues in Technology

Protection of digital Intellectual Property (IP) is a vital part of our modern infrastructure/economy. Protecting IP gives an incentive to the creators to do what they are good at: Inventing. Intellectual Property Rights also helps in recovering the costs associated when creating a new technology as well as any profits for continuous investments. What is IPR? “IPR refers to the legal rights given to the inventor or creator to protect his invention or creation for a certain period of time.” ( 1 ) With the advancement of technology, opportunities are arising for businesses to develop and share their inventions around the world. The gap between production and customers is shortening. Consumers can access digital products near instantly. Business can receive payments instantly through online payment systems. This seamless interconnection between manufacturers and consumers is possible because of new tools and software, such as payment systems, being invented. Why is protecting Intellec...

Contracts and Contracting: Laws, Issues, and Tips A Contract is described as “a written or spoken agreement, especially one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law.” ( 1 ) Generally, a contract should be set in place to legally bind an individual or an organization to the agreed upon work, otherwise, a lawsuit may not stand in court. For an organization, establishing contract agreements is essential to protect itself of any litigation.  In many cases, organizations opt for Independent Contractor (IC) Services for work. When hiring an IC, organization run the risk of misclassification employees as ICs as there are certain tax (payroll, FICA, etc.) responsibilities tied to the employee, and IRS considers a worker to be an employee unless proven otherwise ( 2 ). These risks “can be minimized by following certain tips as stated in this article.  • The IC’s work should not be supervised and have freedom to hire subcontractors. • An IC...

In the 21 st century websites are essential for any business. Most consumers are either gained or retained through some form on interaction with the website. This interaction can be buying a product from an ecommerce website or signing up for a newsletter using a form. In-fact, 80% consumers initially look and assess a product or service through the website. (1) While the process of creating a website is easy, there are many legal issues to lookout for that could make any organization liable to high statutory damages. By Copyright law, without a Website Development Contract in place, the web developer holds the rights to the website. That is why it is necessary to have a formal contract with the web developer that addresses the responsibilities of both parties. The Website Development Contract is a formal agreement between the developer and the organization that legally binds the responsibilities and should have the following components addressed that could raise legal issues. (2) W...

 Piracy and Crime: Schemes and Scams Cybercrime has many forms (e.g., financial fraud, Identity Theft, spoofing, phishing, malware, piracy, intellectual property crime, etc.) that can negatively affect an individual’s life. It can cause either a major inconvenience to the victim or downright lead the victim to financial ruin, or even threaten the safety of the victim. Because of the increasing easy access of digital world, criminals are finding new ways to steal, harass, and commit crimes. According to FBI, Internet crimes scams and schemes are stealing millions of dollars each year (1). The scammers are not even taking a break during the recent pandemic. Rather, they have increased their attempts on scamming people for money or information and are even leveraging the COVID-19 by sending fake CDC emails asking to click on harmful links or download attachments, sending phishing emails asking for private information such as Bank information to receive stimulus checks (2). Altho...

 Privacy, Policy, Encryption Https Encryption Since before the invention of modern technology, privacy was a major concern for organizations and individuals. Locks on filling cabinets and renting safety deposit boxes were used to protect sensitive data such as proprietary research materials. However, with the advancement of technology much of privacy concerns have moved to data privacy. In the digital age, data privacy refers to the personal identifiable information (PII) of an individual or, in the case of businesses, besides the PII of customers and employees, it can refer to financial information or the proprietary research and development data. Leak of such information can result in misuse of personal data to cause scams and fraudulent activities. Or release the companies’ proprietary data to the competitors. How can data privacy be protected? There are many policies set by government agencies and agreed upon by experts. Once such is the General Data Protection Regulati...

 Venture Capital and Financiers: Getting Started More and more businesses are opening in the modern era, and to make a small business reach a new level, massive funding is required. One of the ways to get funding is to gain the interest of Venture Capitalists (VC). However, with the increase in businesses, venture capitalists have started a very discerning process when selecting who they want to invest in. To attract VC investments, businesses, at minimum, should have a minimal viable product, an established customer base, and a solid team. One of the most important things that will determine the investors interest is the presentation of the business plan. Business plan and presentation should capture the attention of the investor and should also cover the size of the market, estimated revenue, experiences of the management team, etc. Most VC firms will invest specific industries. Therefore, it is important to do research on the VC beforehand, and ensure their interests are ali...

Negotiations, Policies, and Suggestions The term negotiation is referred to a method by which two or more parties come to an agreement. Both parties hope to achieve the best possible result for their sides. There are some basic steps that can be taken to reach a desired outcome for a successful negotiation. In the tech industry, businesses buy technical services, such as developing custom software programs or buying maintenance services. My previous job outsourced some web application projects to other software development companies. One of the first steps my company did was to release an RFP that listed the scope of work, the desired functionality of finalized product, general terms and the time frame the project was due. In the next step, both companies negotiated, and contract was put in place that listed the scope of work, payment terms, warranty, liability that both parties agree upon.  References: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixbay

 Employee Rights: Obligations and Pitfalls in Litigation. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixbay.com  According to the law, organizations are responsible for employee actions during work hours or work-related tasks. These actions can be digital, such as sending inappropriate content, email, using violating intellectual property rights, or physical accidents caused during the scope of the employment. As stated in the article, “The purpose of this rule is fairly simple: to hold employers responsible for the costs of doing business, including the costs of employee carelessness or misconduct. If the injury caused by the employee is simply one of the risks of the business, the employer will have to bear the responsibility” (1). However, they are exceptions to this rule. As further stated, “if the employee acted independently or purely out of personal motives, the employer might not be liable.” Therefore, depending on the scenario the employer might be responsible for the actions of ...

The Internet: E-Commerce and Getting Paid Starting a business online might look like a daunting task, however with the advancement of the technology it is easier than ever. Creating an e-commerce store has become readily available if you utilize services such as Shopify to build your product's store. However, with the increased ease of starting a new online e-commerce site, it is important to keep aware of legal issues that you might face when doing an online business.  The first and foremost is the issue of violation of intellectual property: any content copied from over the internet is automatically copyrighted by the owner, therefore, content should not copied over from other sites without the actual permission from the owner. Similarly, "Terms of Use" should be added to your own websites to establish a contract with the user. These agreements can be added in the form of clickwrap agreements or browerwrap agreements. (1) If you are doing an online business, there will ...

History, Background Thoughts, and legal considerations History has shown that we as human beings learn from our mistakes. This can be seen from ancient times. Therefore, New laws and policies are set in place when the need arises, and old laws are modified based on circumstances. A law that was set in place 100 years ago may not correspond to the present situation. Hence, the need for reconceptualization. Even the Forth Amendment underwent adjustments on its passage through Congress (1). The changes in laws and limitations can be seen through out history. In some cases, there is no clear policy or there may be versions of the same policy. In those cases, the laws upheld, and the version of policy is chosen based on the “result the court intends to reach and by facts which support that result”(2) . With the advancement of technology, the need arises for new laws pertaining to the improper use of the technology. For e.g., 100 years ago, there were no laws stating that emails could be u...

The following blog by Andrew Marcinek explains exactly what I think the 21st century learning should be. Me and many of my peers have graduated through many layers of  education, from kindergarden to high schools and, finally, undergraduate programs. All of them had one thing in common. The "Mighty Test" as Andrew calls it. However, 21st century learning should be more than that. The amount of information available to students is astounding.  Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash The following paragraph by Andrew perfectly explains why students are still underperforming even with the was amount of information available to them right on their finger tips. One of the reasons this is happening is because of the way we assess our students. Students are residing in a 20th century classroom equipped for the 21st century. Students are taking 19th and 20th century exams in a classroom that has an interactive white board and 1:1 laptop ratio. This is where our problem begins.  ...