Social, Ethical, Legal and Economic Aspects of Computing
Social, Ethical, Legal and Economic Aspects of Computing tests whether you can classify a licence, apply data-protection rules and reason about the consequences of technology.
Core rules
- GPL is copyleft: distributing a derivative work means the whole must be GPL and the source made available. MIT, BSD and Apache are permissive: keep the notice, closed derivatives allowed. Proprietary software is governed by an EULA; public domain and CC0 waive rights; Creative Commons licences cover content, not code.
- GDPR: personal data is any information about an identifiable person. Principles include lawfulness, purpose limitation, data minimisation and storage limitation. Rights include access, rectification, erasure and portability; breaches go to the supervisory authority within 72 hours; fines reach €20 million or 4% of global turnover.
- Cybercrime: unauthorised access, data interference, fraud, phishing, ransomware, denial of service.
- Digital divide: access, affordability, skills. Environmental cost: e-waste and data-centre energy.
Worked example
A startup links a GPL library into its closed product and ships binaries. Because it distributes a derivative work, it must release the corresponding source under GPL and cannot add restrictions. Selling the software is allowed - “GPL forbids commercial use” is a common false claim. If the code only ran as a hosted service and was never distributed, plain GPL would not trigger, but AGPL would.
Traps
- Equating freeware with open source: freeware may be closed and forbid redistribution.
- Believing open source means no copyright and no warranty obligations.
- Thinking GDPR covers only EU companies - it protects data subjects in the EU wherever the company sits.
- Treating pseudonymised data as anonymous; it is still personal data.
- Assuming a public-domain work carries no other constraints, such as trademarks.