Question

One of the systems analysts on the project team thought that he did a good job of designing the company’s tech support webpage, but his supervisor isn’t so sure. His supervisor is concerned that the design is very similar to a page used by the company’s major competitor, and she asked him whether he had used any HTML code from that site in his design. Although the analyst didn’t copy any of the code, he did examine it in his web browser to see how they handled some design issues. The supervisor asked the analyst to investigate webpage copyright issues and report back to her. In his research, the analyst learned that outright copying would be a copyright violation, but merely viewing other sites to get design ideas would be permissible. What is not so clear is the gray area in the middle. The analyst asked you, as a friend, for your opinion on this question: Even if no actual copying is involved, are there ethical constraints on how far you should go in using the creative work of others? How would you answer?

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

Although the system analyst only viewed the HTML code as a major competitor not outrightly copying their code, however, since there are relatively few legal frameworks on this matter, it important to note some ethical issues or constraints that may arise:

• Copying the design pattern of the competitors' webpage may result in legal fillings by the competitors which may claim the other company stole its intellectual designs without permission.
• Such actions may result in other competitors carrying out the same strategy on the company.