IT Ethics: Heading Off Legal Challenges by Doing the Right Thing

by William M. Ulrich

You are a software engineer working on a software product, and you are not sure of how a customer wants a new change request implemented. You try to get clarification, but the customer cannot articulate the request. To shortcut the process, your customer provides you with a copy of a user manual from another software product. It turns out that your customer has a license for a product that performs a similar function to the one that he wants you to implement. You review the manual, assess the specifics of the requested function, implement it into your product, and everyone is happy. Unfortunately, you and your customer may have stepped over the line regarding certain confidentiality, trade secret, and copyright laws.

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IT Ethics: Heading Off Legal Challenges by Doing the Right Thing September 2000