Chapter:6

Legal, Ethical and Cultural Issues

• Technical communicators must be
aware about the laws that apply
to their profession
• There are rules which are either
imposed by the state or by global
authorities or institutions.
• Ethics is self-imposed informal
measure of control, means of self
regulatory principles
Culture: learned and shared human
patterns or models for living; day- to-
day living patterns. These patterns and
models pervade all aspects of human
social interaction. Culture is mankind's
primary adaptive mechanism
Legal issues:
1. Intellectual property law
2. Consumer rights law
• intellectual property has this threefold aspect:
• The moral right of the author to protect the arrangement or
form of his work and to be identified as its creator.
• The commercial right of the copyright-holder to reproduce
and distribute the work.
• The right of those who have paid the copyright-holder for
permission to enjoy the work in private, or the special right
of those who have paid for permission use the work in
public performances.
• Intellectual property rights
are intended to protect
innovation, reward human
endeavor and individual
creativity and promote
business
• Intellectual property exists
in the form of (1) patents,
(2) copyright, and (3)
trademarks and industrial
designs.
A patent is a set of exclusive rights
granted by a sovereign state to an
inventor or assignee for a limited
period of time in exchange for detailed
public disclosure of an invention. An
invention is a solution to a specific
technological problem and is a
product or a process or method of
doing something
• Patents are a form of intellectual property.
• A patent does not give a right to make or use or sell
an invention. Rather, a patent provides, from a legal
standpoint, the right to exclude other from making,
using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the
patented invention for the term of the patent, which
is usually 20 years from the filing data subject to the
payment of maintenance fees
Copy Rights Law
• Fundamentally, copyright is a law that gives you
ownership over the things you create. Be it a painting, a
photograph, a poem or a novel, if you created it, you own
it and it’s the copyright law itself that assures that
ownership.
• The ownership that copyright law grants comes with
several rights that you, as the owner, have exclusively.
Those rights include:
• The right to reproduce the work
• to prepare derivative (copied) works
• to distribute copies
• to perform the work
• and to display the work publicly
• The right to claim authorship of the
work
• The right to object to any distortion,
mutilation or modification of the work
• The right to object to any derogatory
action that may damage the authors
honor or reputation
• Copyright is a legal right created by the law
of a country that grants the creator of an
original work exclusive rights to its use and
distribution, usually for a limited time. The
exclusive rights are not absolute; they are
limited by limitations and exceptions to
copyright law, including fair use.
• Copyright is a form of intellectual property,
applicable to any expressed representation
of a creative work. It is often shared among
multiple authors, each of whom holds a set
of rights to use or license the work, and
who are commonly referred to as rights
holders. These rights frequently include
reproduction, control over derivative works,
distribution, public performance, and
"moral rights" such as attribution
A trade mark
• A trade mark is a sign that you can use
to distinguish your business’ goods or
services from those of other traders.
• A trade mark can be represented
graphically in the form of your
company’s logo or a signature.
• Through a registered trade mark, you
can protect your brand (or “mark”) by
restricting other people from using its
name or logo
Trade mark of coca-cola
• To be registered a product must meet
certain national and international
standards such as the ISO 9000
Industrial Design
• Industrial design is a process of design
applied to products that are to be
manufactured through techniques of
mass production
• It is the original shape, configuration,
pattern or ornamentation applied to
manufactured goods or articles.
• Protection of industrial designs helps
enhance the marketability of a product,
prevents products from unauthorized
copying.
Industrial Design includes:
a. Geographic indication: it is most commonly
denoted by the name of the place where the
product originated. For example: Palpali
Dhaka topi
b. Trade Secrets: it is a piece of confidential
information that would give business or
company an superiority over its competitors
c. It can be a formula, process, practice, design
pattern etc.
d. For example the formula of coca-cola has
been kept a secret
2. Consumer rights laws
• A group of laws that protect the rights of
consumers or ordinary citizens who use the
goods and services
• The laws are designed to protect
consumers from fraud, tricks, unfair
practices, false claims and deceptions
• The products of companies may be
defective but the rights of consumer should
be protected
• The responsibility of technical
communicator is to produce the
documents and content about a
company’s product or services
whether services meet the legal
standards
• Technical communicator must
know the legal boundaries.
Ethics:
• Ethics is self-imposed informal measure of
control, means of self regulatory principles
• At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral
principles. They affect how people make
decisions and lead their lives.
• Ethics is concerned with what is good for
individuals and society and is also described
as moral philosophy.
• Ethics is not only about the morality of
particular courses of action, but it's also
about the goodness of individuals and what
it means to live a good life.
As technical communicators, we
observe the following ethical principles:
1. legality: laws and regulations of the
profession
2. Honesty: seek to promote the public
good.
3. Confidentiality: we respect the
confidentiality (secrecy) of our
clients
4. Quality: endeavor to produce
excellent in communication products
5. Fairness: we avoid conflicts
of interest in fulfilling our
professional responsibilities
6. professionalism: we assist
other persons in our
profession through mentoring,
networking and instruction
 Major ethical considerations (concerns):
1. objectivity: the technical communicator
should not be guided by subjective ideas
• The objects should be presented in
accurate way
• The name of author, the editor, the
publisher, time line of publication should
be clear
2. Plagiarism: If a technical communicator
copies someone’s text and presents as if they
are his/her, it becomes intellectual theft.
The writer has to mention clear source of
information
• Plagiarism could be intentional and
unintentional
3. Manipulation: A technical
communicator may manipulate or
fabricate the data to mislead the
competitor
• Using descriptive and persuasive
language can be used to manipulate
users
• Television commercials show the
pictures of happy children who eat junk
food.
• When the technical communicator wants to
earn more profit, he/she omits, suppresses or
downplays the truth
• Manipulation takes place through
exaggeration. For example : College Brochure.
4. Conflict of interest:
• A conflict of interest is a situation in
which the private or hidden interests of
an individual or an organization clash
with his/her official responsibility
• A technical communicator may like to do
favors for certain organizations at the
expanse of others
• The technical communicator overcomes
from the conflict of parties through
objectivity, fairness, impartiality
5. Theft of property information:
• The information of a company has been protected
under property law,
• If such information includes company records,
customer lists, market research plans, product
formula's, test and experiment result, research plans
are theft, it becomes not only illegal but also
unethical and unprofessional.
6. Privacy:
• People have their right to keep their privacy
• The law provides protection of their personal
information which are related to their profession
and habits.
• The cases of cyber hacking, identity theft,
• Technical communicator may have access
to people’s personal information, but
he/she has to treat them with care.
7. Moderation in Language:
• Language of technical communicator is
direct, he/she should try to avoid loaded
words
• Avoid generalization and abstractions
8. Experimental Subjects:
• Technical communicator may involve in experiments
and interviews to get the objective truth.
9. Respect to others:
• Technical communicator might try to be professional
while communicating with others
• Avoid misrepresenting, and stereotype
Factors affecting ethical practices:
• Bad judgment
• Lack of awareness of ethics
• Lack of critical reasoning
• Lack of motivation
Ethical Decision making:
The following is the nine- step decision
making model suggested by ethicist
Ruthworth M Kidder:
1. Recognize there is a moral issue
2. Determine the actor
3. Gather the relevant facts
4. Test for right vs test for wrong
5. Test for right vs right paradigms
6. Apply the resolution principles: a. ends-
based b. rules –based c. care- based
7. Look for the third way
8. Make the decision
9. Revisit and reflect on the decision
Cultural issues