Instances where copyrights of various parties may have been violated

Instances where copyrights of various parties may have been violated

According to the World Intellectual property organization (WIPO), “Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.” The copyright issues that arise in this question can be discussed in the light of this definition.

The first issue is whether the reproduction of the piece of music by the lecturer, using an algorithm. The copyright of the original piece of music is owned by its creator. According to the section 9(1)(a) of the Intellectual Property Act No 36 of 2003, unauthorized reproduction of a work infringes copyright law. However, the section 11(1) of the act specifically states that “teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)” falls under the category of fair use, thus it is not an infringement of copyright. Therefore, the lecturer has not violated any copyright law.

The next possible issue occurs when a particular student decides to buy a CD and make mp3 copies of the songs. It is obviously not a copyright law infringement to buy a CD (given that it is a legal copy), because a portion of the cost of the CD is given to the creator of the music, since he is lawfully entitled to it, under economic rights. Further, under the section 12(1) of the act, “the private reproduction of a published work in a single copy shall be permitted without the authorization of the owner of the copyright, where the reproduction is made by a physical person from a lawful copy of such work exclusively for his own personal purposes.” This situation does not fall under the exceptions stated under section 12(2), hence the student may not have infringed any copyright laws by making mp3 copies. However, under this act, he is only entitled to make only one single copy, for his personal use. If he has made more than one copy, he may be in breach of copyright laws.

The subsequent issue involves downloading photographs from a website and using them in a commercial piece of software. The section 6 sub-section (1) (j) covers photographic work, hence copyright law is applicable to those photographs. Since they were downloaded from a website, most probably the students did not have the authorization of the owner and did not credit the owner in their slideshow. Adopting such photographs is clearly protected under section 7(1)(a) and also this situation may not fall under the exception of “fair use” in section 11 and the exception of “personal use” in section 12. Therefore, the students may be in breach of copyright laws with respect to the downloaded photographs.

This same argument is applicable for the use of the afore-mentioned piece of music in their software. Since the software is used for a commercial purpose (to sell and obtain money), and the piece of music is a part of it, the students may be in breach of copyright law with respect to the piece of music as well.

The implementation of the algorithm in their own way, may not be an infringement of the copyright law. In general, according to the section 8(a) of the act, an idea (algorithm) is not copy writable. Since, the students developed their own software using the algorithm, they may have not violated any copyright laws.

Types of operating systems

Modern computer operating systems can be classified into three groups namely Batch
processing, Time sharing, and Real time operating systems.

· Batch processing operating system

In this environment a user submit tasks to a central unit where they are collected

into a batch, and subsequently placed on an input queue at the computer where

they will be run. In this case, the user has no interaction with the task during its

processing, and the computer’s response time is the turnaround time - the time

from submission of the job until execution is complete, and the results are ready

for return to the user.

· Time sharing operating systems

In this environment a computer provides computing services to several or many

users concurrently on-line. Here, the various users share the central processor, the

memory, and other resources of the computer system in a manner facilitated,

controlled, and monitored by the operating system. The user, in this environment,

has nearly full interaction with the program during its execution, and the

computer’s response time may be no more than a few seconds.

· Real time operating systems
These are designed to service those applications where response time is needed in
order to prevent error, misrepresentation or even disaster. Examples of real time
operating systems are those which handle airlines reservations, machine tool
control, and monitoring of a nuclear power stations. The systems, in this case, are
designed to enable interruptions; by external signals that require the immediate
attention of the computer system.

Issues with manual systems and potential ICT solutions

Problem	Better Manual Solutions	ICT Solutions	Justification
Time Consuming	1. Labeling the files in a proper manner.                         2. Arranging the files in a proper manner 3. Increasing the no. of staff 4. The books like container details and records; they can be properly divided into several sections.	1.  By using tables in MS Access, data can be used to record the data in a faster manner.  2.   By using queries data can be searched at a faster rate (less than 10 seconds)	As the computer system can acquire the needed data in less than 10 seconds, and also much time saving for typing than writing, computer system is the best method to overcome the afore-mentioned problem.
Lack of security	1. Making cupboards with proper locks. 2. Giving keys only to responsible people only. 3. proper maintenance of the standards of the cupboards.	1. Making files with      Passwords.	In the manual system, still the people can open the locks and get the files. But in computer system, it is only authorized people who can get in.
Inconsistency of data	1. Taking two or three backups of every file.	1. Creating backups and storing them as compressed files.	A backup in the computer system can be created within 10 - 20 seconds, but in the manual system it takes time same as to write the original copy. Therefore, the computer system is much convenient.
Data Duplication	1. Each section is handled by only one person.	1. It is automatically detected if there is any data duplication.	Still in the manual system, if the specific person is absent, any change done by the replaced person will not be known by the absent person. Computer system is better because there are no such inconveniences.
Too much of paper work	1.Make the entry of data is by ticking or underlining instead of writing.	1. No paper work.	In this case, the computer system is better because there is no paper work.
Repetition of work	1. take photocopies in such cases	1. Copy – paste the data	In computer system, the cost for the photocopies is avoided and the replicate is made within 5 – 10 seconds
Misleading Data	1. Employing people with clear hand writing.	1. Data is very clear as no hand writing is involved.	The manual solution is practically difficult to perform, but it can be done with ICT solution.

Virtual data rooms

                                      A virtual data room is an online storehouse of information. In other words, it is used for the storing and distribution of information. In many cases, a virtual data room is used to facilitate the due diligence process during an M&A transaction, loan syndication, or private equity and venture capital transactions. This due diligence process has traditionally used a physical data room to accomplish the disclosure of documents. For reasons of cost, efficiency and security, virtual data rooms have widely replaced the more traditional physical data room.

Advantages of virtual data rooms

1. Increased speed of transactions

2. Information cannot be downloaded and taken away in a true Virtual Data Room - only viewed by a user with the correct permissions

3. Enhanced information secures more deals at higher prices

                                                                                                      Adopted from wikipedia

Sniffers

1. In the context of computer networks, what is a Sniffer?

              Sniffers monitor network data. A sniffer can be a self-contained software program or a hardware device with the appropriate software or firmware programming. They examine network traffic, making a copy of the data without redirecting or altering it. Some sniffers work only with TCP/IP packets, but the more sophisticated tools can work with many other protocols and at lower levels including Ethernet frames.

2. List three parties who are doing network packet sniffing as a part of their day-to-day work.

                  (i) Network Engineers

                  (ii) Network Managers

                  (iii) System Administrators

3. How does a sniffer work?

                Packet sniffers capture "binary" data passing through the network, most if not all decent sniffers "decode" this data into a human readable form. To make it even easier (for humans) another step occurs known as "protocol analysis". There is a varying degree of the analysis that takes place, some are simple, just breaking down the "packet" information. Others are more complex giving "detailed" information about what it sees on the packet.

                In other words, The sniffer program tells a computer, specifically its Network Interface Card (NIC), to stop ignoring all the traffic headed to other computers and pay attention to them. It does this by placing the NIC in a state known as promiscuous mode. Once a NIC is promiscuous, a status that requires administrative or root privileges, a machine can see all the data transmitted on its segment. The program then begins a constant read of all information entering the PC via the network card. As pointed out in A Beginner's Guide to the Internet, data traveling along the network comes as frames, or packets, bursts of bits formatted to specific protocols. Because of this strict formatting, a sniffer can peel away the layers of encapsulation and decode the relevant information stored within: source computer, destination computer, targeted port number, payload, in short - every piece of information exchanged between two computers.

4. Why should users be concerned on sniffers?

                  A packet sniffer, sometimes referred to as a network monitor or network analyzer, can be used legitimately by a network or system administrator to monitor and troubleshoot network traffic. Using the information captured by the packet sniffer an administrator can identify erroneous packets and use the data to pinpoint bottlenecks and help maintain efficient network data transmission.

                    In its simple form a packet sniffer simply captures all of the packets of data that pass through a given network interface. Typically, the packet sniffer would only capture packets that were intended for the machine in question. However, if placed into promiscuous mode, the packet sniffer is also capable of capturing ALL packets traversing the network regardless of destination.

                     By placing a packet sniffer on a network in promiscuous mode, a malicious intruder can capture and analyze all of the network traffic. Within a given network, username and password information is generally transmitted in clear text which means that the information would be view able by analyzing the packets being transmitted.

                     A packet sniffer can only capture packet information within a given subnet. So, it’s not possible for a malicious attacker to place a packet sniffer on their home ISP network and capture network traffic from inside your corporate network (although there are ways that exist to more or less "hijack" services running on your internal network to effectively perform packet sniffing from a remote location). In order to do so, the packet sniffer needs to be running on a computer that is inside the corporate network as well. However, if one machine on the internal network becomes compromised through a Trojan or other security breach, the intruder could run a packet sniffer from that machine and use the captured username and password information to compromise other machines on the network.

                      Detecting rogue packet sniffers on your network is not an easy task. By its very nature the packet sniffer is passive. It simply captures the packets that are traveling to the network interface it is monitoring. That means there is generally no signature or erroneous traffic to look for that would identify a machine running a packet sniffer. There are ways to identify network interfaces on your network that are running in promiscuous mode though and this might be used as a means for locating rogue packet sniffers.

Data Communication Media

There are various media used for data communication now-a-days. We can identify two main types of data communication media,

                                                1. Guided media

                                                2. Unguided media (Radiated media)

Guided media

If a particular physical medium is used for data communication, it is called guide media. The data communication is guided through wires and cables. There are several types of guided media,

1. Twisted wire pair - the normal wires used for daily activities

2. Co-axial Cables - consist of a copper net woven around a copper wire

3. Fiber optics - a fast, reliable and a popular communication medium

Unguided (Radiated) media

No physical medium is used here to build the relationship. Communicating data using media which are not physical is simple and common today.

1. Radio transmission - Radio transmission, which is very familiar to our normal lives, communicating through radio waves.

2. Infra-red - Infra-red, which possesses a very low frequency, can also be used for data communication. These are largely used for data communication when cable less keyboards, Mice and printers are used.

3. Microwaves - Microwaves are used to communicate data to a long distance and short signals which contain higher frequency are used here

4. Communication satellites - Data can be communicated using satellites which are placed high in the sky.

Information about some popular processors by Intel

The role of "Database administrators" in a DBMS.

                                                Database administrators are the people making the strategic and policy decisions regarding the data of the enterprise, and providing the necessary support for implementing these decisions. In other words, they are responsible for the overall control of the system. Let’s see what are the major functions of the Database administrators.

        Defining the conceptual schema

This includes identifying what are the entities, what are the information to be stored in each of the entity and so on, according to the company requirements. Here, the database is designed logically.

        Defining the internal schema

In here, the database administrators have to create the physical database design. Afterwards,  they should create the corresponding storage structure and must define the associated mapping between internal and conceptual schema.

        Linking with the users

This explains that the database administrators should check whether the data needed by the users are available in the database.

        Defining Security and integrity rules

The database administrators should define and facilitate security features and integrity rules to make sure that the database is secured properly.

        Defining backup and recovery procedures

It is the responsibility of the database administrators to define and implement proper backup and recovery plan in order to minimize the data 

Four important factors that can be used to indicate better quality for monitors

There are some factors affecting the quality of the computer monitors. In here, we will be discussing four of them. They are,

1. Resolution

2. Size

3. Refresh rate

4. Power consumption

Resolution

                                                The resolution of the monitor refers to the number of pixels that can be displayed in the monitor. Higher the number of pixels displayed, higher the resolution of the monitor. More number of pixels results in a very clear image, and the image will not be blurred once it is magnified. So, we can say that the image quality is high in a monitor with higher resolution. Therefore, it is a factor that indicates the quality of a monitor.

Size

                                               The size of the monitor is another factor which affects the quality of the images displayed. When the monitor size is high, the image is displayed in a larger area, so that it is clearly visible for even some distance away. But, here the resolution should increase with the size as well. Otherwise, it can affect the picture quality.

Refresh Rate

                                     The refresh rate of a monitor is the number of times in a second that it draws the data from the source. Refresh rate is measured by Hertz. Increasing the refresh rate decreases the flickering of the monitor, thereby reducing the eye strain of the user. So, higher the refresh rate, higher the user – friendliness of the monitor. But, we should keep on mind that not to increase the refresh rate beyond the highest value provided by the monitor, since it can damage the monitor. However, the refresh rate is an important factor which determines the quality of a monitor.

  

Power Consumption

                                                Power consumption is a very important aspect which affects the quality of a monitor. Though the monitor is performing well, if it consumes lot of power, then that monitor is not good to be used. Therefore we should always go for a monitor with maximum power saving options, thus consuming lesser amount of power. Otherwise, it can affect the increment in the electricity bill as well. So, what we can see is that power consumption is an aspect that we must consider when buying a monitor. 

How are keys pressed on a keyboard interpreted correctly by the computer? (How does a keyboard communicate with the CPU?)

                                           Keyboard is the main and the most commonly used input device of the computer. Keyboard came into use, after the decline of punch cards. Since then, it has been identified as an essential feature of the computer. Generally, a keyboard is a board with an arrangement of buttons or keys acting as electronic switches. Now, let’s see how the Keyboard works.

                                              Typical QWERTY keyboard can consist of 80 - 110 keys. The keyboard is working like a small computer. Inside the keyboard, there is a metal plate, circuit board (key matrix) and processor, which are responsible for transferring information from the keyboard to the computer. The keyboard's processor contains the key matrix. The key matrix is a grid of circuits. These circuits are individually placed under each key. When a key is pushed, it works as an electric switch causing an electrical current to pass through the circuit, hence activating the circuit.

                                                However, depending on the working principle, there are two main types of keys. They are,

1.   Capacitive keys – Under each capacitive key, a metal plunger is fixed, which helps in activating the circuit flow. When a capacitive key is pressed, the metal plunger applies a gentle pressure to the circuit board. The pressure is identified by the computer and the circuit flow is initiated.

2. Hard contact keys - A hard contact key is attached with a metallic plate that helps in connecting the  circuit board. When the hard contact key is pressed, it pushes a metallic plate, which in turn touches  the metallic portion of the circuit plate. This overall process of completing a circuit results in a circuit  flow.  

                                                The circuit is closed when a key is pressed. Thus, the closing of the circuit signals the processor to read the keymap stored within it. The processor uses the keymap, to find the key that is closed off on the board. By using this keymap, the processor in the keyboard can tell which letter is being pushed and if it should be a capital or lowercase letter depending on if the shift key is being pressed.

                                                The keyboard connects to the computer using a PS/2 port most of the time. Both the Keyboard and the computer can send information to each other, through this connection. The processor of the keyboard sends information to the computer which key was pressed, and hence the computer can take necessary actions based on it. 

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