Information, ethics and rights

A name such as “Mariam” points to many girls. But name, class and birthday together point to one person, so together they are personal data. A data-protection law says that people may ask what is kept about them, ask for mistakes to be corrected, and that facts should be collected and used with consent. Related rights are privacy, the right to keep some things to yourself, and image rights, the right to decide who may photograph and use your face. Creators have rights too, called intellectual property. Industrial property protects inventions, designs and trademarks, and usually must be registered. Copyright protects creative works such as a song, a drawing, a story, a photo or a program. It starts the moment the work is made, even by a child, and needs no registration. To use someone else’s work, ask permission, or use quotation: take only what you need, put it between quotation marks, name the source and keep your own words as the main text. Copying for study is allowed only within limits (fair use). A Creative Commons licence tells you in advance what is allowed: credit the creator, no commercial use, no changes, or share your version on the same terms.