P5_

SONY Make. Believe

Madiha Ahmed

This project is about the legal

and ethical issues in Sony

Corporation. The laws includes;

Computer Misuse Act 1990, Data

Protection Act 1998 and

Freedom of Information Act

2000. The ethical issues that will

be discussed in this leaflet

includes; the use of e-mail,

whistle-blowing and the use of

internet. It is also about the way

Sony obey these laws.

SONY Make. Believe

Data Protection Act 1998

Freedom of Information Act

2000

Computer Misuse Act 1990

Human Right Act 1998 –

common law duty of confi-

dence

Privacy Act 1974

Madiha Ahmed

Data may only be used for the specific purposes for

which it was collected.

Data must not be disclosed to other parties without the

consent of the individual whom it is about, unless there is

legislation or other overriding legitimate reason to share

the information (for example, the prevention or detection

of crime). It is an offence for Other Parties to obtain this

personal data without authorisation.

Individuals have a right of access to the information held

about them, subject to certain exceptions (for example,

information held for the prevention or detection of crime).

Data Protect ion Act 1998

Data protection act 1998 simply means that individuals and

Sony’s data are not to be shared or sold without prompt

permission. Data should be obtained fairly and lawfully. It also

means that the data should only be used for the specific reason it

was given. It aims at protecting personal information, such as,

address, date of birth, e-mail, telephone number and other

personal details.

“ In January 2013, the Information

Commissioner's Office ("ICO") issued a

£250,000 fine to Sony Computer

Entertainment Europe Limited ("Sony")

following the hacking of the Sony

PlayStation network platform in April

2011 in which the personal information

of millions of customers, including their

names, addresses, dates of birth,

account passwords and payment card

details, was compromised.“

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Freedom of information act 2000 is that law makes it legal

for individuals or companies to ask the government or

public authorities for the release of information.

The Freedom of Information Act

2000 (FOIA) gives a

general right of public access

to all types of 'recorded'

information held by public

authorities, sets out

exemptions from that general

right, and places a number of

obligations on public

authorities.

“LulzSec, which has previously taken responsibility for

hacking Sony BMG’s Japanese website, has promised

more attacks against Sony soon. “Phase 1 will begin

within the next day,” the LulzSec twitter feed read just

before announcing the PBS hack, following up on

its warning from Friday: “We’re working on another

Sony operation…it’s the beginning of the end for Sony.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/05/30/pbs-hacked-

after-critical-wikileaks-show/

Madiha Ahmed

Computer Misuse Act 1990

unauthorised access to computer material, punishable

by 6 months' imprisonment or a fine

unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate

commission of further offences, punishable by 6

months/maximum fine

unauthorised modification of computer

material, subject to the same sentences as section 2

Computer misuse act 1990 simply means it is illegal and

punishable by law for any individual or company to hack into

any computer system and steal information. It came into

effect in 1990. It also makes it illegal for anyone to help

unauthorised people with private information. Sony prevents

the computer misuse act by creating some laws to guide the

use of their computers and websites by their employees. They

also have their codes and policies that guide the use of

computer by their employees.

“On 11 January 2013 Leicester

Crown Court sentenced two men

to 100 hours of community service

and 6 months imprisonment

(suspended for a year) for stealing

music files from Sony Music after

the pair pleaded guilty to access-

ing computer material without

consent under the Computer Mis-

use Act 1990. “

http://blogs.dlapiper.com/mediaandsport/2013/01/17/legal-director/

Human Right Act 1998 – common

law duty of confidence

The Human Rights Act 1998 (also known as the Act

or the HRA) came into force in the United Kingdom

in October 2000. It is composed of a series of sec-

tions that have the effect of codifying the protec-

tions in the European Convention on Human Rights

into UK law.

Human Rights Act 1998—common law duty of

confidence are the basic rights and freedoms that

belong to every person in the world. This act includes

data Protection Act, freedom of Information Act,

Computer Misuse Act, Privacy Act, education, work,

freedom of express, etc.

“Sony is committed to maintaining a dynamic workplace

where human rights are respected and equal employ-

ment opportunities allow individuals to make the most of

their capabilities. In light of the increasing diversity of

human rights issues facing corporations, Sony believes

a common awareness among employees is crucial to

ensuring such issues are addressed appropriately.”

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/employees/diversity/index2.html

Madiha Ahmed

Use of email

Use of Internet

Whistle– blowing

Use of E-mail

It means employees are not allowed to misuse their

companies e-mails and the companies that have their

e-mails are not supposed to trade it with the permis-

sion of the organisation or without individual’s per-

mission. It also entails that e-mails are not to be used

to swindle an individual or a company of their money

or details.

“Sony Corp. (6758) has been rocked in recent weeks by a

pair of high profile system intrusions. One intrusion

caused the outage of the company's Qriocity streaming

media and PlayStation Network (PSN) services, along

with the loss of 77 million customer records. A second

intrusion at Sony Online Entertainment lost 24 million

additional customer records. Together the intrusions

may have lost over 10 million customers credit and debit

cards, though Sony is still being unclear about whether

or not this valuable information was taken.”

http:www.dailytech.comSony+Hit+With+First+Lawsuit+After+Losing+101+Millio

n+Customer+Records/article21540.htm

Madiha Ahmed

Use of Internet

Our employees are supposed to use the internet for the

specific purpose why it was made; thing like researching,

evaluating and general building of one’s knowledge.

Practices such as; stealing copyright, intercepting one’s

private e-mail, deliberate public misinformation, misuse of

research material, unauthorised commercial/personal use

of network, stealing credit information from financial

institutions or people, are considered illegal.

“The pair had hacked into Sony’s servers from their home

computers and, according to the Serious Organised Crime

Agency (SOCA), had downloaded over 7,000 files. These

included unreleased songs by the late Michael Jackson

which SOCA alleged were specifically targeted by the

hackers who were aware of the seven-year Sony deal with

his estate to posthumously sell his unreleased material.”

http://blogs.dlapiper.com/mediaandsport/2013/01/17/legal-director/

Whistle– blowing

A whistle blower is a person who tells the general public or

someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal

activities taking place in a government department, a public

or private organization, or a company. Whistle blowing is

illegal and is punishable by the law.

“The man who blew the whistle on the controversial Prism

surveillance program has revealed himself as a 29-year-old

former CIA employee, in a fascinating interview with The

Guardian.” Snowden, who is now holed-up in Hong Kong,

says he expects to 'never see home again,' but claimed he

doesn't wish to live in a place where everything the public

says or does is recorded by the government. He said:

"With this capability, the vast majority of human communi-

cations are automatically ingested without targeting. If I

wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have

to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords,

phone records, credit cards.”

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/prism-whistleblower-outs-himself-

claims-nsa-are-ingesting-everything--1157530

Madiha Ahmed

Organisational policies

Organisational polices are the methods of action, which

are taken usually by organisations to guide and determine

present and future decision and also the positions on

public matters. Some organisation policies are

Compensation policies, Employment status policies,

Private policies and the International hiring policies.

In May 2013, our company has started to adopt the Sony

Group of Conduct, which is the basic of internal standards

to be observed by all directors, officers and employees of

the Sony Group, in order to highlight and further

strengthen corporate governance, business ethics and

compliance systems throughout the Sony Group.

Furthermore, to legal and compliance standards, the Code

of Conduct sets out the Sony Group's basic policies

concerning ethical business practices and activities on

such topics as respect for human rights, safety of products

and services, environmental conservation and information

disclosure.

Sony is committed to ethical business practic-

es and they hold their suppliers to the same

high standards. It is Sony Group policy to

comply with all applicable laws and

regulations of the countries and regions in

which we operate and to conduct their busi-

ness activities in an honest and

ethical manner. The Sony Group Code of Con-

duct declares that Sony Group expects its

suppliers to uphold the policies of Sony

Group concerning compliance with all applica-

ble law, respect for human rights, environ-

mental conservation and the safety of prod-

ucts and services.

The way Sony Corporation deals

with ethical issues by means of

policies and code of practice.

Madiha Ahmed

Bibliography: This leaflet was gathered from various of

sites; http://www.forbes.com/sites/

andygreenberg/2011/05/30/pbs-hacked-after-critical-

wikileaks-show/, http://blogs.dlapiper.com/

mediaandsport/2013/01/17/legal-director/, http://

www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/employees/diversity/

index2.html,

http:www.dailytech.comSony+Hit+With+First+Lawsuit+Af

ter+Losing+101+Million+Customer+Records/

article21540.htm, http://blogs.dlapiper.com/

mediaandsport/2013/01/17/legal-director/, http://

www.techradar.com/news/internet/prism-whistleblower-

outs-himself-claims-nsa-are-ingesting-everything--

1157530 and www.sony.co.uk. Moreover I have used Nik-

ki’s PowerPoint, Btec Level 3 Business book to complete

my leaflet.