Do you recall that frightful feeling when you know that you've done something wrong and you're afraid that you'll be caught and punished? The knowledge of what is good and what is bad, as well as the choices we make considering this kind of knowledge, is called ethics. We use ethics in making choices when we make the choice to be good, we can described as having made an "ethical choice."
Ethics is a result of what we are taught by our environment as well as our innate ability to distinguish what is right and what is wrong in all aspects of human life, ethics plays a major part in decision-making. Even in Desktop Publishing, where expressing one's self properly and effectively is key in reaching the public, having a sense of publishing ethics is important in choosing what to say and what to be silent about.
Intellectual property Rights
Whate ever material you publish using your personal computer is your property. You created it, so you own it, as long as you have no agreement with another party. And because you created it by using your artistry and imagination, it is called intellectual property (IP) is a creative work that is the original product of the mind. This can come in the form of inventions, book, songs, logos, design, and many others.
Intellectual properties are treated like other types of properties in that you can also buy, sell, liscene, exchange, or give them away. Any person who owns an intellectual property holds the exclusive rights to use and sell that property or to prevent others from claiming it. These are known as intellectual property rights (IPR).
Intellectual property is a creation of the mind.
Intellectual property rights are undeniably important and necessary because intellectual properties can be easily abused. It does not take much effort to burn a rented DVD containing a movie, for instance. It is the same thing with photocopying a book, or duplicating a pizza recipe, or reproducing an emblem. If you do these things, even if you returned the DVD and the book, paid for the pizza, and never got hold of the original emblem in the first place, you are still stealing. To promote fairness and encourage further innovation in the various fields of business and the arts, the rights of intellectual property holders must be protected. Imagine what will happen if anybody can use and claim as his own other people's creative works.
A free for all will result if IP rights were not guaranteed.
Claiming and granting IPR is easier said than done. Intellectual properties are not as easy to identify, unlike material possessions, because they deal with intangibles like ideas and creative output. There are many instances when it is difficult to tell what rights an IP holder really has. You cannot market your patented product if it infringes on someone else's patent. For example, you cannot sell copies of your own work if it was derived from another person's work. You still have to obtain a liscenes from the other party. If you make an improvement for a product, for example a fly swatter,you can own the IP rights for the improvement but not the IP rights for the original fly swatter. Therefore, you may only sell the improved fly swatter only with the permission of the other IP holder. In such cases, cross licensing agreements are greed upon by concerned parties for their mutual benefits.
The IP rights for an improvement of a product are different from the IP rights of the original product.
This is the difference between the right to exclusive use and the right to exclude others. In the second instance, you cannot commercialize your work, you can only prevent others from using it. Both considered an IPR because both provide exclusivity to the IP holder.
Types of Intellectual Property
Laws governing IPR may differ from one country to another. But there are also international treaties concerning IPR. Signatory states must harmonize these treaties to their respective national laws. Generally, laws classify IPR into four main groups patent, trademark, design, and copyright.
Patent - granted by the government to an inventor, which may be an individual or a company, as proof of the exclusive right to manufacture and market the invention. Patents expire after a certain number of years and must be renewed.
Trademark - the word, symbol, design, or logo that identifies a business and it's products and services. IP rights are granted to prevent the misuse of trademarks and misrepresentations. These can confuse consumers and hurt the reputation and business of companies which truly own the original trademark.
Design - the distinguishing patterns of colors, lines, shapes, and letters that mark the packaging of a product. Like the trademark, the design identifies a company and may be abused due to misrepresentations. This can affect or confuse the original company clients.
Copyright - the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and commercialize an IP. For literary and artistic works, copyrights expire 50 years after the death of the holder. From then on, they become public property.
Publishing Ethics
In anything we do, there are rules of behavior that we must follow. These rules comprise our ethical standards. Ethics is concerned with morality it marks the distinction between what is generally acceptable and unacceptable. Unfortunately, there are people who consciously choose to be unethical, especially if they stand to profit or it will make things easier for them,because they do not necessarily get punished for going against these unspoken rules. But when ethical standards fail, laws are created to regulate the actions of people.
Even in DTP, there are certain rules of behavior that you must always adhere to. These are known as publishing ethics.
Serve the interests of your readers. You are publishing your material because you are filling a demand for information. Make your material worth your readers time and money. When you have done that, you can be sure that the interests of advertisers in your publication have been served as well.
Preserve your integrity. Keep your distance from outside influences like government and advertisers. Never let financial contributions, advertising considerations, or politics affect your content. Your readers deserve nothing less than an object point of view from you, the publisher. Otherwise, make it known to all that you are publishing a propaganda material.
Be transparent. Avoid making impression that an advertisement is an editorial material by using a misleading style and format. If you must present it in such a way, then clearly mark it as a paid advertisement. Indicate who or what group paid for it.
Preserve and uphold a free press. As a publisher, however small scale the publishing activity you are engaged in is, you are a part of a community whose welfare is best advanced in a democratic environment. Do your part in safeguarding the basis rights of publishers as well as the readers.
Respect the intellectual property rights of others. Never use trademarks or violate the copyrights of others without their explicit permission. Cite your sources. Give credit where credit is due. You certainly would expect the same treatment from other publishers.
Keep your Copyrights. Unfortunately, it is not enough to expect others to respect your rights because you respect theirs. Do not be ignorant of your rights. Know what is happening around you.
Be fair in your business dealings. Charge your advertisers reasonably. Ensure that your pricing conforms to all applicable laws.
Never publish misleading content. If you are agree to publish anything advertisements include that you know to be untrue or deceptive, you allow yourself to be instrument of wrong doing. You are accountable for any harm it may cause.
Sell your publication on its own merit. If you have good material, people will read it. Do not badmouth other publications. Instead of gossiping about them, learn from your competitors mistakes and improve your own publication.
Be responsible. What you publish can influence the way your readers view the world. However, you cannot always control how they are affected by your publication. Always check your information. If something in your content cannot be verified but still needs to be printed, let the readers know.
Sometimes it happens when, because of certain circumstances, you cannot tell what is ethical anymore. In these cases, you cannot rely on your common sense alone. You have to think hard and consider many things before you do something. Even when there is no clear liability and you will not get punished, if you know harm will befall someone, then it probably is an unethical thing to do.
There are people who think it is smart to do away with ethics because it only hinders theirs opportunities to "get ahead". On the contrary, it is wise to be ethical. Your knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, and the choices you make based on this knowledge, affects not only yourself but other people as well.
-woba.