12. Legal, Moral, Cultural and Ethical Issues GapFill

There are various dimensions of computer science that explore the role of computers in wider society.  These are  environmentalculturalethicallegal (pertaining to whether something is right or wrong),  culturalethicalmorallegal (meaning acts permitted or prohibited by acts of Parliament),  moralethicalenvironmentalcultural (relating to how a society behaves in general) and  ethicalenvironmentalmorallegal, an example of which would be the consequences of performing more mineral extraction or power generation than is necessary.

It's possible to break several laws using nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection.  The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act protects, in general,  ideas in any formanything that can be writtenanything that can be inventedintellectual property.  If you use too much of someone's registered invention, you've breached a  patenttrademarkregistered trademarkcopyright.  If you use code, without permission, that has been created by someone else, you risk breaching  registered trademarkdesigntrademarkcopyright.  Then there's the  Computer Misuse ActData Protection ActPrivacy ActElectronic Communications Act, which prohibits unauthorised accessing of computer systems.

The  Data Privacy ActPersonal Data ActData Protection ActComputer Misuse Act, along with GDPR (  General Data Protection RegulationGlobal Data Protection RegulationGlobal Data Protection RegistrationGeneral Data Protection Registration), protects personal data relating to  any resident of the UK or Irelandany UK residentany living individualany English resident ('personal' meaning able to identify the individual).