Tuesday, August 16, 2016

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.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Insurance

The Insurance Manager

Post Description

                                    To stay competitive and to protect the interests of their employees and the business, companies try to make sure that they have minimized the risk of financial loss. This includes keeping an eye on insurance packages of all kinds and related benefits or programs such as flexible spending accounts. Management hires insurance managers to handle the duties related to this objective.

Skills/Abilities
                                                The Bureau of Labor Statistics emphasizes that insurance managers need excellent interpersonal skills because they are team leaders. They also recommend that insurance managers have a broad understanding of the company as a whole so that they have a better idea of what insurance needs the company has, as well as knowledge of international finance. 

Work Activities
                                                An insurance Manager communicates with business partners inside and outside a company, indicates Onet Online. He also makes decisions and solves problems.

Responsibilities
                                                An insurance Manager supports the implementation of new procedures and manages corporate agency data requirements, indicates a job announcement on CareerBuilder. He also provides support to staff, if required. 

Duties
                                                According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the primary duty of an insurance manager is to obtain and oversee company insurance or related funds that management uses to cover costs such as disability benefits or lawsuits. The Commonwealth of Virginia describes the responsibilities of insurance managers further, stating that they handle claims, direct information for claimants, supervise claims investigations, review insurance policies, develop insurance procedures and manage insurance data for carriers' reports. 


Sunday, February 22, 2015

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.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Some information about sub atomic particles


Electron
Proton
Neutron
Symbol of the particle
e
p
n
Mass of the particle (in kg)
9.107´10-31
1.6725´10-27
1.6742´10-27
Relative mass
1
1840
1840
Charge of the particle (in C)
1.602´10-19
1.602´10-19
0
Relative charge
-1
+1
0

Ohmmm.....