Computer Law and Intellectual Property Analysis for Facebook Report

This report provides an analysis of Facebook's legal standing in relation to computer law, specifically focusing on intellectual property, data protection, and computer crime. The introduction highlights the importance of computer law in the digital age, emphasizing areas like intellectual property (including trademarks, patents, and copyrights), data protection, and computer crimes. The report examines the potential issues Facebook faces, such as the terms of service agreement and customer data usage, and the infringement of intellectual property rights. The report suggests that Facebook obtain copyrights and trademarks to protect its original content and prevent confusion among consumers. The report also focuses on data protection, citing cases of data breaches and violations of EU data protection laws. It recommends the application of the Data Protection Act of 1998, highlighting its eight principles to ensure fair and lawful data processing. The report also touches upon computer crimes, such as hacking and spam, providing Facebook with ways to strengthen its legal protection and identify potential weaknesses.

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Computer Law and Intellectual Property
Report
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
About the company.............................................................................................................................2
Intellectual property....................................................................................................................................3
An analysis of any potential problems or issues in the company........................................................3
Reason for choosing ‘Intellectual property’ as the area of law............................................................4
Application of the law..........................................................................................................................4
Ways to ensure the strength of legal protection and identifying the potential issues and weaknesses
of the company....................................................................................................................................5
Data Protection...........................................................................................................................................6
An analysis of any potential problems or issues in the company........................................................6
Reason for choosing ‘data protection’ as the area of law....................................................................7
Application of the law..........................................................................................................................7
Ways to ensure the strength of legal protection and identifying the potential issues and weaknesses
of the company....................................................................................................................................8
Computer Crime..........................................................................................................................................8
An analysis of any potential problems or issues in the company........................................................8
Reason for choosing ‘computer crime’ as the area of law...................................................................9
Application of the law..........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
References:................................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Computer Law is a set of the legal enactments that have been done recently and adopted by
several countries that aims to govern the way in which the information is disseminated digitally
(Michael, 2013). This law also covers the legal areas that affect the design and the use of
computers and the computer software. One of the areas of concern in this law is the intellectual
property. Under the federal and the state law, there is a property right given, which is called
intellectual property (Cornish, 2013). This includes the works, ideas, inventions and discoveries
that are copyrightable. Intellectual property is basically an intangible form of property like the
trademarks, patents, copyright, and trade secrets (Bently, 2014). Apart from the intellectual
property, this law is also concerned about data protection, the contracts of IT and the electronic
contracts; and finally the computer crimes like hacking, SPAM etc.
The companies have to comply with this law because it is very important in the process of
development and safety of these companies, its employees and the customers. In line with this,
the report aims to advise ‘Facebook’ on how it can ensure its operations to be conducted in a
legal manner, with relation to the Computer Law and Intellectual Property. Along with the legal
area related to Intellectual property, the report will also focus on the areas of Data Protection and
Computer Crime. The report focuses on giving advice to Facebook on these legal areas along
with a proper guidance on why it should chose these areas of law. Also, the company will get an
advice on how to ensure strength of legal protection as well as identifying any potential issues
and weaknesses.
About the company
Facebook is a company which is involved in online social media and the social networking
service. It is based in California, US. Since it is a digital company, it can be accessed by anyone
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and from any number of desktops, laptops, tabs, smartphones or any other device which can use
the internet. The customers or the visitors need to register themselves for using the site and they
need to create their profile. All this is done digitally and by using various software applications.
Thus, computer law is applicable for this company for maintenance of the systems and the
security.
Intellectual property
An analysis of any potential problems or issues in the company
Facebook is such a company that gives a platform where professional networks can be created
and the business can be generated via advertising, posts, sharing, tweeting etc. But, the visitors or
the customers have to ‘agree’ to the terms of service of this website and by agreeing to this, the
customers permit the company to publish online and license the material for their own
commercial benefit. Also, the customers do not get any royalty or compensation in return for that
(Dwivedi, 2015). Facebook proclaims its customers that their privacy is important for the
company. But, in reality, when the terms of service is agreed for any content that has intellectual
property right with the customers, the customers gives the right to or the authority to “non-
exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use” (Derclaye, 2015).
In return for that, the customers do not get any money. Also, Facebook can sell the content that is
posted by the customers to any third party.
Secondly, the company is very big and provides one of the largest platforms to the people all
over the world for fulfilling their personal and professional needs. So, it faces the fear of getting
its privacy violated. For example, anyone can use the name of Facebook for promoting anything;
they can also use the logo of the company for posting it in any illegal activity.
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This is a big issue in the company because it is causing the infringement of intellectual property
rights of the customers and they cannot protect their content if they want to post it on Facebook.
Reason for choosing ‘Intellectual property’ as the area of law
Intellectual property Law is chosen to solve this issue because this law helps the owners of
intellectual properties to protect their names of products, their inventions, designs of products,
written things etc. from getting stolen or used by others (Goodridge, 2016). This law covers all
types of intellectual properties like the copyrights, designs, trademarks and patents.
If Facebook commits itself that it will help people and the companies in protecting their
intellectual property right by applying this law, then, the IPR will not be violated. This will help
the visitors and the customers in protecting the copyrights and trademarks and at the same time
they will be able to tell the world about their achievements (Safari, 2014). For example, if they
have published a book, or they have written some text, introducing a products etc.
Also, the intellectual property will help the company in getting its name, logo and activities
protected from any harm or duplicity, for example, if a new entrant wishes to enter the industry,
they cannot use the name logo as that of Facebook and they cannot use its name to enter the
market.
Application of the law
Facebook is advised to obtain the copyright. This is a legal right that the company will get and it
will be able to protect all the original works of the authorship (Cornish, 2013). For example, if a
person makes a short film and posts on Facebook, then the copyright with Facebook will help in
securing the right to publish that film at any other place. With the copyright, the company will
also be able to protect the original expressions that the customers post like the words that they
write and the images that they post. If in case, the copyright is violated, the customers can seek
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redressal for that they can report the violation of the copyright (Alm, 2014). In this way, their
work will be protected from being duplicated and the originality of the work will be maintained.
In Peter Smith V.s. Facebook (2009), a third party application mined the data of Facebook and
used the photographs of Peter and his wife in their ads (Webb, 2012). This happened because
Peter agreed to the Terms of service of the company and his pictures got misused by others. But,
if Facebook had the copyright, the person could have stopped the application vendor from using
his pictures. But, in this case, he did not have the right to sue that vendor legally because he
himself agreed to the terms of service which gave the right to the third party of using any data on
Facebook.
Again, the trademark law under the intellectual property law will help in preventing any type of
confusion among consumers regarding any word, slogan, symbol, slogan or design that
differentiates the products an services offered by one person or company (LaLonde, 2015). This
will allow the customers in promoting their products and publish their logos on the company’s
page without any fear of losing their identity. This law can be applied when the Facebook
registers the trademark and then it will get protected under the Trade Marks Act 1994 of UK
(LaLonde, 2015).
Ways to ensure the strength of legal protection and identifying the potential issues and
weaknesses of the company
To ensure that this legal protection helps the company in solving its issues, immediate steps
needs to be taken by the company to alert the person who is found to be responsible in scooping
the protection of the intellectual property. When the law is applicable, the perpetrator will have
to comply with the request and there will not be any need of any further action.
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But, in case, the resolution to the problem is not obtained, the complaint can be filed against the
person or the company who tries to violate the privacy. But, the issue that Facebook will face
here is, that the burden of proof will lie on the shoulders of the company. Facebook will have to
prove that the content that was copied or used or duplicated belongs to it and it has obtained the
intellectual property rights for that.
The company can make the customers use their own privacy checkup where they can review and
adjust the privacy settings to make sure that they share what they want and they can also select
the people to whom the content shall be visible. Thus, the Facebook as well the users must
check the settings regularly to protect the profile information and the posts.
Data Protection
An analysis of any potential problems or issues in the company
Recently, an Australian student has filed a complaint against Facebook that it does not ensure the
protection of the personal data because the company transferred his data from European Union to
US (Mason, 2014). Then, in another case, the EU data protection laws were found to get violated
when a clothing retailer put the ‘like’ button of the company on its website (Lee, 2016). With
this button, the data if the users of the website were being shared by the company Facebook and
the permission of the customers was not obtained before doing all this.
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Many other cases pop up from time to time that criticize the company and many customers file
complaint against the company for sharing their information without their consent. They feel that
their data is not protected. This not only tarnishes the image of the company, but it also put the
company in various law suits and the company has to incur additional costs to deal with that
suits.
A part from this, the data needs to be protected for the company itself. For example, there are
various data sets that are associated with the employees of the company, their attendance, their
leaves etc. So, proper measures need to be taken for protecting that data too.
Reason for choosing ‘data protection’ as the area of law
For dealing with these issues, the Data Protection Act of 1998 needs to be applied here. This act
defines the law on the data processing of the companies on identifiable living people and this act
is the main piece of legislation that governs all the data protection (Manning, 2015). It helps the
people in processing their personal information and it also regulates the free movement of this
data. Therefore, this will help in protecting the data of the customers and it will also help the
employees of Facebook to protect their personal data in the company.
Application of the law
This law is governed by the eight principles. To apply this law in Facebook, the company will
have to comply with these eight principles (Manning, 2015):
1. The personal data has to be processed in a fair and lawful manner.
2. One can obtain the personal data for one or more purpose that has to be specified and
lawful. But, if the obtaining of data is incompatible with the lawful purposes, it cannot be
processed further.
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3. The personal data which is being tried to get obtained shall be adequate and it should not
be irrelevant. Also, it should not be excessive in regard to the purpose for which they are
processed.
4. The data should be accurate and it should be kept up to date
5. The data shall not be kept for a longer time than it is necessary to be kept.
6. The processing of the personal data should be in accordance with the rights of the people.
7. Whenever the data is processes in unauthorized and unlawful manner, the proper
technical and the organizational measure must be taken. This data shall be protected from
the loss caused due to accident, destruction or damage to the personal data.
8. The transfer of the personal data shall not happen to any country that is outside the
European Economic Area. But if this area ensures that an adequate level of protection of
rights and freedom related to the data, then the data can be processed.
Ways to ensure the strength of legal protection and identifying the potential issues and
weaknesses of the company
To ensure the strength of legal protection, the above eight principles can be compiled with. In the
above discussed cases, the data of the student was transferred from EU to US which is not
allowed in the eighth principle, so when the data protection act will apply, it will automatically
ensure that this mistake does not happen.
Computer Crime
An analysis of any potential problems or issues in the company
The company is facing or has the potential to face the seven of the computer crimes. One is the
scam where the individuals are enticed to click on particular links like giving them the offer that
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if they click the link, they will get gift or win a prize etc. Then, second is the cyber bullying
which has also lead to death of many teenagers in the past few years. Third is the stalking in
which people are harassed with messages or texts etc. Fourth is the robbery; fifth is the identity
theft where the personal information gets stolen on Facebook. Sixth is the defamation and last is
the harassment which is again a very serious computer crime (Ali, 2016).
In 2007, a case was registered where Dylan sent a ‘friend request’ to his ex-wife and started
harassing her with calls and messages via Facebook. So, she had to get a restraining order from
court and he got arrested by police (Al-Saggaf, 2014).
Reason for choosing ‘computer crime’ as the area of law
This area of law has been chosen because the Computer Misuse Act can be applied here and the
people can be protected from unauthorized access to the compute material, the unauthorized
access can be forbidden with the intent to facilitate the commission of the further offences and
finally, the computer misuse act can protect people from the unauthorized modifications in the
computer material (Goldfoot, 2016). This law will help in solving the problems of the company
like the crimes that are occurring in this area. Along with this, the law will stop the people from
misusing the information of the people and indulging in crimes.
Application of the law
When accessing a computer without the permission will become a crime, the possibility and the
threat of hacking will automatically get reduced. When this law will be applied to Facebook, the
hackers will not be able to access the computer systems and they will not be able to commit the
offenses. Finally, the data that belongs to a particular person like the name, address, phone
number etc. will not be misused or modified by anybody. This will help in reducing the rate of
crimes that happen on the computer systems (Lader, 2012).
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Ways to ensure the strength of legal protection and identifying the potential issues and
weaknesses of the company
To ensure the strength of legal protection, the company Facebook must report all cases of the
computer crimes. For example, if any user of the website has complained against any person for
harassing or bullying, then Facebook must immediately refrain that person from using the
website. This will ensure that the company is trying to protect its customers from the crimes.
Also, Facebook must mention this Act on its website and must make it clear that misuse of the
computer is not allowed, it should also make it clear that anyone doing so will be punished
heavily and is liable to get imprisonment.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that computer law and intellectual property is a
major part in proper working of Facebook. The company is facing many issues related to this
field of law like there are many people or the users of the company who feel that they are not
protected on this website and the company may share their information with others. Also, a lot of
computer crimes and happening here and the data are not fully protected. So, to resolve this, the
intellectual property right, the computer misuse act and the Data Protection Act of 1998 can be
applied here. These will ensure that the company works in a proper manner and this will also
ensure that the security of the people is maintained.
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References:
Ali, M.M., MIMET, U. and Ishak, I.C., 2016. Factors Inhibiting Computer Crime Among Online
Business Entrepreneur.
Alm, J.G., 2014. “Sharing” Copyrights: The Copyright Implications of User Content in Social
Media. Journal of Public Law and Policy, 35(1), p.2.
Al-Saggaf, Y. and Nielsen, S., 2014. Self-disclosure on Facebook among female users and its
relationship to feelings of loneliness. Computers in human behavior, 36, pp.460-468.
Bently, L. and Sherman, B., 2014. Intellectual property law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Cornish, W., Llewelyn, G.I.D. and Aplin, T., 2013. Intellectual property: patents, copyright,
trade marks & allied rights.
Derclaye, E., 2015. The Internet, Facebook, smart phones and intellectual property rights: a
happy combination?.
Dwivedi, A., 2015. Social Media and its Implications for Intellectual Property Law the Facebook
and Twitter Saga. Transforming Dimension of IPR: Challenges for New Age Libraries, p.315.
Goldfoot, J. and Bamzai, A., 2016. A Trespass Framework for the Crime of Hacking. Geo.
Wash. L. Rev., 84, pp.1477-1703.
Goodridge, P.R., Haskel, J. and Wallis, G., 2016. UK intangible investment and growth: new
measures of UK investment in knowledge assets and intellectual property rights.
LaLonde, A.G. and Gilson, J., 2015. Foreign Trademark Protection (Vol. 3). Gilson on
Trademarks.
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Lader, D., Hoare, J. and Lau, I., 2012. Hate crime, cyber security and the experience of crime
among children: Findings from the 2010/11 British Crime Survey. London: Home Office
Statistical Bulletin.
Lee, P. and Pickering, K., 2016. The General Data Protection Regulation: A myth-
buster. Journal of Data Protection & Privacy, 1(1), pp.28-32.
Mason, L.C., 2014. Personal data and credit reference agencies: UK statutory obligations owed
to consumers and the means of redress. Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation.
Manning, A., 2015. Data Protection, Security, and Privacy Policy. In Databases for Small
Business (pp. 123-130). Apress.
Michael, K. and Clarke, R., 2013. Location and Tracking of Mobile Devices: Überveillance
Stalks the Streets' Computer Law & Security Review 29, 3 (June 2013) 216-228. PrePrint at
http://www. rogerclarke. com/DV/LTMD. html.
Safari, A., 2014. Venture Capital and Intellectual Property Rights Effects on Innovation in
Different Industries and Socioeconomic Environments: A Systematic Review and Exploration of
Various Contradictive Studies. Available at SSRN 2516661.
Webb, L.M., Wilson, M.L., Hodges, M., Smith, P.A. and Zakeri, M., 2012. Facebook: How
college students work it. Social media: Usage and impact, pp.3-22.
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