Unit 8 · AI & the Impact of Computing · Lesson 8.9
Legal and Ethical Concerns
Everything in your music library, your slides, and your code came from somewhere. Who owns it — and what are you allowed to do with it? Three weeks before the Create PT, this one matters.
Big Idea 5 — Impact of ComputingCED 5.5 · prerequisite for Unit 9
Everything on this page is AP-TESTABLE unless it carries the CONTEXT — NOT ON THE AP EXAM label.
Impact, with rules. 7.8 said “we don’t do that.” Today gives that line its legal and ethical frame.
2
The Hook
Who owns this?
A song you stream. A photo you found online and put in your slides. A function you copied from a website into
your program. Code an AI tool wrote for you. Four different answers.
3
The Idea
Intellectual property is creative work — music, writing, images, code — owned by
its creator. Copyright protects it automatically: by default, others need permission to copy,
share, or change it. Computing makes copying effortless, which is exactly why the rules matter.
Term
What it means
Creative Commons
licenses creators attach to say in advance what others may do — e.g. share with credit, no commercial use, no changes
open source
programs whose code is freely available and may be used and modified, under the terms of its license
open access
research and other material online, free of charge and of most restrictions
plagiarism
presenting someone else’s work as your own — including code
Free to use is not the same as free of credit. Most licenses that allow reuse still require
attribution. Using material without citing it can be plagiarism even when it was legal to use.
Create PT rule — read it aloud. You may use code you didn’t write, but you
must acknowledge it in your program (a comment saying where it came from) — whether it came from a classmate,
a website, a textbook, or an AI tool. Unacknowledged borrowed code can cost you the affected rows of the score.
Your teacher will read the exact wording from the current Create PT student handout; check it, since the rules on
AI tools have been updated before.
Beyond the law: what data may be collected, what may be inferred from it, and the gap between
what is legal and what is right. Something can be legal and still unethical — collecting
location data a user technically agreed to in a 40-page policy, for example.
4
Try It — Can I Use It?
Pick a license and what you want to do. The answer comes with the conditions.
license:
I want to:
Simplified for class. Real cases (like fair use for education) can be more complicated — when in doubt, ask permission and always give credit.
5
Vocabulary
intellectual property Impact
A work or invention that is the result of creativity, to which the creator has rights.
copyright Impact
Legal protection that gives a creator rights over copying, sharing, and changing their work.
Creative Commons Impact
A set of public licenses creators use to let others share and use their work under stated conditions.
open source Impact
Programs made freely available for anyone to use and modify, under the terms of a license.
open access Impact
Online research and other material that is free of charge and of most use restrictions.
plagiarism Impact
Presenting someone else’s work, including code, as your own.
licensing Impact
The terms under which others may use a work.
6
Check
Five questions. “Which use requires attribution?” is a reliable source of easy points.
0 of 5 answered
7
Impact Check
Legal isn’t the same as right
An app’s terms say it may collect your contacts. You tapped “agree.”
Is it right for the app to message all of them? The law may say yes. Name one reason it still might not be
ethical — and who would be affected.
8
Connections
Came from 7.8 — “we don’t test systems we don’t own” — here’s the legal frame.
Came from 7.1 — PII and what may be collected about people.
Next in 8.10 — a full period of Big Idea 5 scenarios.
Required for Unit 9 — every borrowed line in your Create PT gets a citation.