Grade by Grade
D. Topics in Computer Science · Topics in Computer Science: Sustainability, Ethics, Emerging Technologies and Careers

Intellectual Property: Piracy, Downloading, Licences and Plagiarism

D2.1 D2.2About 70 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explain copyright, patents, trademarks and trade secrets as they apply to software.
  • I can describe key parts of Canadian copyright law, including term, fair dealing and penalties for infringement.
  • I can compare proprietary, permissive, copyleft and Creative Commons licences and decide whether a use is allowed.
  • I can analyse piracy, downloading, plagiarism and AI-related copyright questions as ethical issues.

Words to know

intellectual property (IP)
Legal rights over creations of the mind, such as code, music, inventions and brand names.
copyright
The exclusive right to copy, publish and adapt an original work; in Canada it is automatic.
fair dealing
Canadian rules allowing limited use of copyrighted works without permission for purposes such as research, education, criticism and parody, if the use is fair.
software piracy
Copying, distributing or using software without the rights holder's permission.
licence
Permission to use a work under stated conditions.
open source
Software whose source code anyone may read, use, modify and share under its licence.
copyleft
A licence condition requiring that distributed modified versions use the same open licence.
plagiarism
Presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own.

Who owns code?

A developer spends a year writing a game. Someone copies it and uploads it free. Another person downloads it. A third person uses one function from it, without credit, in their own app. A fourth uses an AI system trained on millions of programs to generate similar code. Which of these are wrong, which are illegal, and why?

Expectation D2.1 names music and video downloading and software piracy as ethical issues, and D2.2 names plagiarism as a reason programmers need a code of ethics. All of them are about intellectual property (IP): legal rights over creations of the mind.

Four kinds of intellectual property in computingCopyrightProtects the expression: source code,games, music, images, documentation.Automatic. Canada: life + 70 years.PatentProtects a new, useful, inventiveinvention, if granted. About 20 yearsfrom filing. Must be applied for.TrademarkProtects names, logos and slogansthat identify a company or product(for example an app's name).Trade secretProtects valuable confidentialinformation (for example a searchranking method) kept secret.
Software can be protected in several ways at once: the code by copyright, the name by trademark, an invention by a patent, and unpublished methods as trade secrets.

Copyright in Canada

  • Copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. Your source code is protected; the idea of "a to-do list app" or a sorting algorithm as an idea is not.
  • It is automatic: you don't have to register or add the © symbol (though both help).
  • In Canada, copyright generally lasts for the author's life plus 70 years (extended from 50 years on December 30, 2022).
  • Fair dealing allows some uses without permission for purposes such as research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review and news reporting, if the dealing is fair (courts look at things like the amount used and its effect on the market). Criticism, review and news reporting also require crediting the source.
  • For non-commercial infringement, Canadian law caps statutory damages at $100 to $5,000 for all the works in one proceeding; commercial infringement can cost far more.
  • Internet providers must forward copyright owners' infringement notices to their customers (the notice-and-notice system).

Software piracy means copying, distributing or using software without the rights holder's permission, such as installing one licensed copy on many computers, or using "cracked" versions. Besides the legal and ethical problems, pirated software and unofficial download sites are a common source of malware.

Software licences

When you "buy" software, you usually buy a licence: permission to use it under conditions.

  • Proprietary licences (end-user licence agreements) reserve most rights to the owner. You can't copy, share or modify the program.
  • Freeware is free to use but still proprietary. Shareware lets you try before paying.
  • Open-source licences let anyone read, use, modify and share the source code, with conditions:
  • Permissive licences (MIT, BSD, Apache 2.0) mainly require you to keep the copyright and licence notice. You may use the code in closed, commercial products.
  • Copyleft licences (the GNU GPL) require that if you distribute a program that includes GPL code, you share your program's source under the GPL too.
  • Creative Commons licences are used for media and documentation: for example CC BY (credit the creator), CC BY-SA (credit and share alike), CC BY-NC (non-commercial only), and CC0 (dedicated to the public domain).

Python itself is open source, under the Python Software Foundation License, a permissive licence.

A spectrum of licences: from most restrictive to most openAll rightsreserved(most commercial apps)Copyleftopen source(GPL)Permissiveopen source(MIT, Apache 2.0)Publicdomain(CC0, expired terms)you may do lessyou may do moreCopyleft: share changes under the same licence. Permissive: keep the notice; closed and commercial use allowed.
Licences range from "all rights reserved" to the public domain. Always read the actual licence: the details matter.
Worked example

Example 1: Can I use it?

Your team is building a closed-source app to sell. Decide for each component: (a) a sorting library under the MIT licence; (b) a chart library under the GPL; (c) an icon set under CC BY-NC; (d) a code snippet from a blog with no licence stated.

  1. (a) Yes. MIT is permissive: include its copyright and licence notice in your app's documentation.
  2. (b) Not as planned. If you distribute the app with GPL code included, you must release your app's source under the GPL. Either make the app open source under the GPL, or choose a library with a different licence.
  3. (c) No. NC means non-commercial only, and you are selling the app. Ask the creator for a commercial licence or choose other icons.
  4. (d) Not safely. With no licence, copyright still applies and you have no permission. Ask the author, write your own version from your understanding of the idea, or find code with a clear licence.

(a) yes, with notice (b) only if the app becomes GPL open source (c) no, not for a commercial app (d) not without permission.

LICENCES = {
"MIT": {"commercial": True, "share_source": False},
"Apache-2.0": {"commercial": True, "share_source": False},
"GPL-3.0": {"commercial": True, "share_source": True},
"CC-BY-NC": {"commercial": False, "share_source": False},
}
def check(components, selling, closed_source):
for name, lic in components:
rules = LICENCES.get(lic)
if rules is None:
print(f"{name}: unknown licence - get permission first")
elif selling and not rules["commercial"]:
print(f"{name}: not allowed in a product you sell")
elif closed_source and rules["share_source"]:
print(f"{name}: would require sharing your source")
else:
print(f"{name}: OK - keep the {lic} notice and give credit")
check([("sorter", "MIT"), ("charts", "GPL-3.0"), ("icons", "CC-BY-NC"),
("blog snippet", None)], selling=True, closed_source=True)

A simplified licence checker using a dictionary of rules. Real licences have more conditions, so treat this as a first check, not legal advice.

sorter: OK - keep the MIT notice and give credit
charts: would require sharing your source
icons: not allowed in a product you sell
blog snippet: unknown licence - get permission first

Output of the program above (what Python prints).

Downloading music and video

Legal ways to get music, films and shows include paid and ad-supported streaming services, buying downloads, and public libraries' free streaming and lending services. Downloading from sites that share files without permission deprives creators of payment and often exposes your device to malware. The ethical question is partly about consequences (are creators harmed?) and partly about duties (respecting creators' choice about how their work is shared), which you can analyse with the lenses from Analysing Ethical Issues in Computing.

Plagiarism in programming

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own. In programming it includes copying a classmate's solution, pasting code from the web without credit, or submitting AI-generated code as your own when that isn't allowed. Good practice: follow your course's rules about AI tools and collaboration, and credit sources in comments, for example # Adapted from: <source>, licence MIT.

Artificial intelligence and copyright (as of October 2026)

Two questions are being argued in courts and governments around the world:

  1. Training: is it legal to train an AI system on copyrighted books, images, music and code without permission? Many lawsuits have been filed by authors, artists and publishers, and different countries are taking different approaches.
  2. Authorship: who, if anyone, owns AI-generated output? In the United States, courts have held that copyright requires a human author. In Thaler v. Perlmutter, a federal appeals court refused copyright for an image said to be created entirely by an AI system (March 2025), and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in March 2026. In Canada the question has not been clearly settled by the courts or by Parliament.

Because the law is still developing, check current sources before relying on any rule about AI and copyright.

Just for fun

The Python language is named after the British comedy group Monty Python, not the snake. Its creator, Guido van Rossum, was reading their scripts at the time.

So the language comes with built-in attribution: it credited its inspiration in its own name.

Hands-on activity

Licence detective

You need: a computer with internet access.

  1. Pick three programs, libraries or apps you use (for example Python, a browser, a game, a Python library you've installed).
  2. Find each one's licence (look for "License", "About" or a LICENSE file in its source repository).
  3. For each, record: the licence name, whether it is proprietary, permissive or copyleft, and what you may and may not do (copy, modify, sell, must share source, must give credit).
  4. Find one image you could legally use in a school project, and record its licence and the credit line you would write.
  5. Add each licence to the LICENCES dictionary in the program if it isn't there, and test it.

What to look for: licences correctly classified, permissions stated accurately, and a properly formatted credit line (title, creator, source, licence).

Your turn

1

Name the four kinds of intellectual property and what each protects.

2

Does copyright protect the idea of a game where you match three gems? Explain.

3

How long does copyright generally last in Canada?

4

What is the main difference between a permissive and a copyleft open-source licence?

5

What does the check program print for the blog snippet, and why?

6

Give two risks of downloading pirated software.

7

How should you credit code you adapted from a website in your program?

More practice: warm-up

1

Is copyright automatic in Canada?

2

What does CC BY require?

3

What does NC mean in a Creative Commons licence?

4

Name one legal way to watch films or listen to music.

5

Is Python proprietary or open source?

More practice: on your own

1

Add "CC0": {"commercial": True, "share_source": False} to the dictionary. What would check([("photo", "CC0")], True, True) print? Is the message's advice about credit actually required for CC0?

2

A student uses 30 seconds of a song in a video review criticizing the song, and credits the artist. Which part of Canadian copyright law might allow this? What would a court consider?

3

Why might a company choose the GPL for its library instead of MIT?

4

Is it plagiarism to use code from the course's own examples in an assignment? Explain how to handle it.

5

In the United States, what did courts decide about AI-generated works in Thaler v. Perlmutter, and what happened in March 2026?

Challenge

1

Extend check so it also warns when a component's licence requires credit by printing a credit line. Assume every licence in the dictionary except CC0 requires a notice. Describe the change.

2

Analyse with at least two ethical lenses: an AI company trains a code-generation model on public open-source repositories, including GPL code, without asking the authors.

3

Your friend says, "Piracy isn't stealing because the owner still has their copy." Give the strongest version of this argument and a response.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

What does copyright protect in software?

2.

You want to use a library in a closed-source app you will sell. Which licence is the best fit?

3.

How long does copyright generally last in Canada, as of 2026?

4.

Which is an example of plagiarism in a programming course?

5.

What does a copyleft licence such as the GPL require?

6.

Which statement about AI and copyright is accurate as of October 2026?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: D2.1 names downloading and software piracy as ethical issues, and D2.2 names plagiarism as a reason programmers need a code of ethics. Students learn the legal basics, how licences work, and how to credit sources properly.

How to help: Do the licence detective activity together using software or media your family actually uses. Talk about how your family gets music and films legally, and why. If your teen's course allows AI tools, ask how they credit or disclose them.

Common difficulties:

  • Thinking copyright needs registration or the © symbol (it doesn't in Canada).
  • Thinking "free to download" means "free to reuse": a missing licence means no permission.
  • Mixing up permissive and copyleft licences.
  • Treating the lesson's licence checker as legal advice; it is a simplified model.
  • AI and copyright law is changing quickly; the facts here are current as of October 2026.