Computer Legislation

• The Data Protection Act controls the use of personal data
• The Data Protection Act 2018 gives rights to data subject (people whose personal data is stored on computer systems). The Act has 6 principles

  • Data must only be used in a fair, lawful and transparent way
  • Data must only be used for the specified purpose
  • Data should be adequate, relevant and not excessive for the specified use
  • Data must be accurate and kept up to date
  • Data should not be kept longer than is necessary
  • Data should be kept safe and secure
• The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act protects innovation
• The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 was introduced to protect intellectual property - anything someone has created, e.g. a novel
• Copyright

  • Copyright covers written or recorded content, e.g. books, music, films, software, video games
  • The Copyright, Design and Patents Act makes it illegal to share copyrighted files without the copyright holder's permission, use unlicensed software or plagiarise (copy) someone else's work
• Copyright holders may grant permission for a fee
• Patents

  • Patents cover new inventions - they protect ideas and concepts rather than actual content. E.g. for some new invisibility technology
  • In computing, patents mostly apply to pieces of hardware
• The internet has made it harder to protect copyrighted content due to the ease of file sharing
• Illegal file sharing can take place over peer-to-peer networks using the bitTorrent protocol to share files directly between devices
• Cloud-based file-hosting websites are also used - copyrighted content is uploaded to the website where anyone with an account can download it
• It's difficult to enforce copyright if content is held on servers in countries with more relaxed copyright laws
• It's a grey area as to how much responsibility the website owners have for content that users upload on cloud-based websites. But many websites used for illegal file sharing have been prosecuted for copyright violation and shut down
• The Computer Misuse Act prevents illegal access to files
• The Computer Misuse Act 1990 was introduced to stop hacking and cyber crime. It added 3 new offences:

  • Gaining unauthorised access to a private network or device, e.g. through hacking (just accessing a network could get you a fine or prision sentence)
  • Gaining unauthorised access to a network or device in order to commit a crime, like stealing data or destroying the network
  • Unauthorised modification of computer material - e.g. deleting or changing files. The Act also makes it illegal to make, supply or obtain malware