Notes And Questions NCERT Class 12 Computer Science Chapter 16 Society Law And Ethics

Please refer to Society Law And Ethics Class 12 Computer Science Notes and important questions below. The Class 12 Computer Science Chapter wise notes have been prepared based on the latest syllabus issued for the current academic year by CBSE. Students should revise these notes and go through important Class 12 Computer Science examination questions given below to obtain better marks in exams

Society Law And Ethics Class 12 Computer Science Notes and Questions

The below Class 12 Society Law And Ethics notes have been designed by expert Computer Science teachers. These will help you a lot to understand all the important topics given in your NCERT Class 12 Computer Science textbook. Refer to Chapter 16 Society Law And Ethics Notes below which have been designed as per the latest syllabus issued by CBSE and will be very useful for upcoming examinations to help clear your concepts and get better marks in examinations.

Introduction

Information forms the intellectual capital for a person. Some ethical issues involved with the usage and availability of information are:
i. Intellectual property rights
ii. Plagiarism
iii. Digital property rights
Intellectual property rights
These are the rights of the owner of information to decide how much information is to be exchanged, shared or distributed. Also it
gives the owner to decide the price for doing (exchanging/sharing/distributing) so.
The intellectual property rights must be protected because:
i. Ensures new ideas and technologies are widely distributes
ii. Encourages individuals and business to create new software and improve the existing application.
iii. Promotes investment in the national economy

Plagiarism

It is stealing someone else’s intellectual work such as idea, literary work or academic work etc. and representing it as your own work without giving credit to creator or without citing the source of information.

Digital right management

It is used to protect your software from being scraped for source code using decompilers etc.
♦ Digital property (digital assets)
It refers to any information about you or created by you that exists in digital form, either online or on an electronic storage device.
♦ Measures to protect digital property
a. Anti-temper solution
b. Legal clauses
c. Limit the sharing of software code

Licensing

A software license is a document that provides legally binding guidelines to the person who holds it for the use and distribution of software. It typically provide end users with the right to make one or more copies of the software without violating copyrights. It also defines the responsibilities of the parties entering into the license agreement and may impose restrictions on how the software can be used. Software licensing terms and conditions usually include fair use of the software, the limitations of liability, warranties and disclaimers and protections.
♦ Creative commons: Creative Commons (CC) is an internationally active non-profit organization to provide free licenses for creators to use it when making their work available to the public in advance under certain conditions. CC licenses allow the creator of the work to select how they want others to use the work. When a creator releases their work under a CC license, members of the public know what they can and can’t do with the work.
♦ General Public License: General Public License (GNU GPL), is the most commonly used free software license, written by Richard Stallman in 1989 of Free Software Foundation for GNU Project. This license allows software to be freely used modified, and redistributed by anyone. WordPress is also an example of software released under the GPL license, that’s why it can be used, modified, and extended by anyone.
♦ Apache License: The Apache License is a free and open source software (FOSS) licensing agreement from the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). The main features are copy, modify and distribute the covered software in source and/or binary forms, all copies, modified or unmodified, are accompanied by a copy of the license.

Open Source

Open source means any program whose source code is made available publically for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. Open source software is usually made freely available.
Eg: Open source software: python, java, linux, mongodb etc Open data Open data is data which can be accessed, used and shared by anyone to bring about social, economic and environmental benefits. Open data becomes usable when made available in a common, machine-readable format.

♦ Open source terminologies and definitions:
a. Free Software: They are freely accessible and can be freely used, changed, improved, copied and distributed by all and payments are not needed for free Software.
b. Open Source Software: Software whose source code is available to the user and it can be modified and redistributed without any limitation .OSS may come free of cost but nominal charges have to be paid for support of Software and development of Software.
c. Proprietary Software: Proprietary Software is neither open nor freely available, normally the source code of the Proprietary Software is not available but further distribution and modification is possible by special permission by the developer.
d. Freeware: Freeware are the software freely available, which permit redistribution but not modification (their source code is not available). Freeware is distributed in Binary Form (ready to run) without any licensing fees.
e. Shareware: Software for which license fee is payable after some time limit, its source code is not available and modification to the software are not allowed.

♦ Privacy
It is the protection of personal information given online.

Online fraud
Fraud committed using the internet is called online fraud. Online fraud occurs in many forms such as non-delivered goods, non-existent goods, stealing information, fraudulent payments.

♦ Preventive measures to stop online fraud
a. Strong security mechanism by the e-commerce site and payment gateways to prevent stealing of crucial information.
b. Official guidelines and safeguards on the selling of users’s data to third parties.
c. A monitoring official body that ensures the delivery of goods/services as promised.

Cybercrime
Any criminal offense that is facilitated by the use of electronic device, computer or internet is called cybercrime. Eg: Information Theft, scams, illegal downloads etc.
♦ Phishing 

♦ Scams

Any fraudulent business practice that extracts money from an unsuspecting, ignorant person is called scams.
Measures to avoid online scams
i. Never enter personal information or any financial information on unsecure website.
ii. Never replays to emails from any unknown or unreliable source.
iii. Never respond to an e-mail or advertising claiming you won something.

♦ Illegal download
Illegal downloading refers to obtaining files for which you don’t have the right to use or download from the internet.

♦ Child pornography
It is considered to be any depiction of a minor or an individual who appears to be a minor who is engaged in sexual or sexually related conduct. This includes pictures, videos, and computer-generated content. Even altering an image or video so that it appears to be a minor can be considered child pornography.

Cyber forensics (digital forensics)

It refers to methods used for interpretation of computer media for digital evidence.

Digital forensic investigation process 

IT Act 2000
Cyber law refers to all the legal and regulatory aspects of internet and WWW. Cyber laws are enforced through IT Act 2000. The IT Act 2000 came into force on 17th October 2000. The primary purpose is to provide legal recognition to electronic commerce and to facilitate filing of electronic records with government. IT act 2000 was amended in 2008. Some sections under IT act 2000:

Technology and society

Technology affects the way individuals communicate, learn, and think. Technology has both positive and negative effects on society including the possible improvement or declination of society. Society is defined as, “the sum of social relationships among human beings” and technology is defined as, “the body of knowledge available to a civilization that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials.” Technology shapes our society and has both positive and negative effects.
Societal issues and cultural changes induced by technology

• Social issues
• Identity Theft
• Cyber Bullying
• Gaming Addiction
• Privacy
• Health & Fitness
• Education
• Terrorism & Crime
• Communication Breakdown
• Defamation of Character

• Cultural changes

Technology has completely changed our culture from our values, to our means of communication. Now, many people have trouble having a face to face conversation, When people spend time with friends, its on their phones, Tablets, Or computers. Also, now people judge others by how their car is, Or if they have the newest iPhone or Tablet. Most people want to put their headphones in and listen to music rather than listening to another person. Videogames isolate all things from the world. Most people prefer technology today, just because that is all they know. Today it’s all about touch screen cell phones. Technology just isolates people from reality. People now a day don’t know how to communicate in real world situations like personal relationships, Problem solving and exhibiting adult behaviors.

E-waste management

♦ E- Waste:- It is defined as discarded computers, office electronic equipment, mobile phones etc.
♦ E-waste disposal process:-
1. Dismantling
2. Segregation of ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal and plastic
3. Refurbishment and reuse
4. Recycling/recovery of valuable materials
5. Treatment/disposal of dangerous materials and waste
♦ E-waste recycling- Benefits
1. Allows for recovery of valuable precious metals
2. Protects public health and water quality
3. Creates jobs
4. Toxic waste
5. Saves landfill space

Identity theft

It is the theft of personal information in order to commit fraud.
♦ Measures to prevent identity theft
1. Protect personal information
2. Use unique Ids to protect your devices and accounts
3. Use Bio-metric protection

• Unique Ids- To protect your accounts and devices use unique Ids Following are the best practices for generating unique Ids
• Avoid names, address, and birthdates for login credentials
• Make password hard to guess
• Make sure the password contains capital letters, small letters and special characters
• Do not use same password for multiple account

♦ Biometrics
Biometrics is any metrics related to human physical features such as your voice waves, fingerprint, iris pattern etc. To prevent identity theft, biometric protection can use.

Gender issues while teaching/using computer

♦ Issues
1. Under representation
2. Not girl-friendly work-culture
♦ Factors that attributed under representation
1. Preconceived notions
2. Lack of interest
3. Lack of motivation
4. Lack of role models
5. Lack of encouragement in class

♦ Possible solutions

1. There should be more initiatives and programmes that encourage girls to take up computer science subject.
2. In the practical rooms, girls should be encouraged more to work on computer on their own and also to find solutions to their routine problems.
3. The film and TV censor board should ensure fair representation of female role models in TV, cinema etc. so that more girls get encouraged to take up computer science.

Disability issues while teaching and using computers

♦ Issues
1. Unavailability of teaching materials/Aids
2. Lack of special need teachers
3. Lack of supporting curriculum
♦ Possible solution
1. Schools must work towards making available the required teaching aids/ materials to fulfill special needs of students with disabilities.

2. School must employ special needs teachers and should also train other teachers about how to interact with students with special needs.