"The same technologies that provide vastly enhanced access [to the internet] also raise fundamental issues concerning intellectual property, becasue the technology that makes access so easy also greatly aids copying--both legal and illegal...Many of the intellectual property rules and practices that evolved in the world of physical artifacts do not work well in the digital environment."http://stills.nap.edu/html/digital_dilemma/preface.html

Copying information from the internet is just a simple mouse-click away, and because it is so easily accomplished, and without any degradation of the digital "original", the protection of intellectual property is one of the most vexing challenges to educators who are concerned about ethical behavior. The lack of control that authors and artists are able to have over the dissemination and use of their work is of great concern, and will be discussed in more depth below (Rappa, http://digitalenterprise.org/ip/ip.html).

Intellectual property is "any intangible asset, something of value that cannot be physically touched, such as a brand, franchise, trademark or patent that consists of human knowledge and ideas" (InvestorWords). There are essentially four components of intellectual property:

1. Copyrights: original works of authorship.

2. Patents: new, useful, and non-obvious inventions and processes.

3. Trademarks: words, names, and symbols used by manufacturers and businesses to identify their goods and services.

4. Trade secrets: valuable information not generally known that has been kept secret by its owner. (Brinson, Radcliffe)

The internet has been likened to one gigantic library full, not only of text, but of images, sounds, and video, databases, computer code and hosts of other types of information, and there is almost no technological limit to the number of people who can access information simultaneously. Given the ease of duplication in the internet environment, it is imperative that we instruct our students and make them aware of the rights that the creators of this digital information should have over their products.

 The ethical educator

• will help students define and understand the terms related to intellectual property in an age appropriate manner, and will model appropriate behavior to her students. Students must understand that material found on the internet is the work of others, and that creators of material should have a right to determine how their material is used. Permission to use information found on the internet must be sought, and proper credit must be given to those individuals and groups responsible for the creation of that material. A discussion of what constitutes "fair use" would be in order.

• will help students learn to properly cite information found on the Internet and/or computer software. To deny that an author credit for what he or she has produced is unethical. Additionally, there are those who argue that the unauthorized copying of internet material creates a disincentive for those who create that material. Educators should teach students the proper ways to document their sources, understanding that students of all ages will vary in their ability to do this.

• will monitor student use to assure that copyright and plagiarism laws are not compromised.