Vector layout
Minimal design
Rustic design
Archives for category: Project 3
For the third style of site I wanted to give a more rustic feel. I chose a script face to compliment the softness of the product using a colour that blended subtly with the background colour and overlapping the edge of the main site to link the two areas. I put a small drop shadow behind the typeface to make it stand out a little on the page.
I downloaded some ‘torn paper’ effect brushes to Photoshop and experimented with different types and sizes until I found the effect that suited the page.
I decided to keep the information on the home page really simple, using the strap line for the site under the logo with a line of bold type describing what was being sold and one main hero image.
I decided to put the main navigation in a side bar using colours that stood out clearly from the background and reflected the different colours of the product. The type and the coloured panels all have a small drop shadow of 2 pixels size and distance to help them stand out on the page and invite the visiter to hover the mouse over the buttons. When doing so the panels open to show the secondary navigation which the visitor can click to go on to the required page. I have organised and simplified the navigation to include everything on the original site but presented in a much more user friendly way.
To give the site a more rustic feel I used an image of a basket as the body background to the site, reducing the opacity so that it did not become too overpowering.
I kept all the elements the same on the gallery page I chose to illustrate. The colours of the navigation panels that are not in use have been muted down so that the chosen one stands out. Instead of putting a ‘call to action’ button under each picture in the gallery I have put a line of text under the block of pictures inviting the visitor to click on the chosen picture for more details. This would include an enlarged picture, details of the flowers in season, the price and a ‘call to action’ button to purchase the product.
For my vector site I wanted to find a simple, graphic image that I could illustrate and use on the site to symbolise what the whole site was about. I looked for images of Alliums often used for their simple but at the same time complex shape and colour.
I drew this flower in Illustrator using the shape and pen tools. I copied the shapes I made reflecting them horizontally and vertically to build up the picture.
I used this illustration as the basis for my page design. I again wanted to keep the design clean and simple so that the visitor would know straight away where they were supposed to go for the information they wanted. I picked colours for the background that complimented the flower, were soft and restful and also reflected the subject matter of the site. I used the flower illustration as the main hero image on the page, breaking the border of the page for more visual interest.
For the main navigation I removed the head of the flower and reduced it in size to accommodate the primary categories. I used a bold simple type style for the headings, Arial Black, so that they would show up clearly against the flower background. I put a drop shadow behind the type of 4 pixels distance and size with 50% opacity to make the headings show up more. Behind the flower buttons I put drop shadows of 1 pixel size and distance with opacity of 30%.
When the visitors mouse hovers over the main navigation the secondary navigation appears as drop down menus, using the same simplified categories that I used for the minimal design layouts.
I have put bold headings for the different items sold on the site so that the viewer can see immediately what is on offer, punctuated by reduced size flower heads as bullet points. There are also bold photographs of the type of bouquets for sale using a simple uncluttered layout.
I have used a very short introductory passage under the pictures using a clear sans serif face, to sum up the personality of the company in a few sentences, as this is all many people would read, if at all.
The colour I have used for the footer contrasts with the main content area colour, reflecting the earth the flower is growing from, and it also supports the strapline of the site. The contact details, recommendations and terms and conditions and are all in the footer. I have put a slight drop shadow on all the type on the footer to help it stand out.
I have chosen the same Gallery page to show for the second page as for the minimal design.
I have kept the logo for the site, the main navigation in the header, the information in the footer and background colour all the same as the home page for continuity. I have put the secondary navigation at the side, highlighting the heading that has been clicked on, in this case ‘birthday’.
The pictures of the types of flowers available are layed out in a clear and simple way, with a ‘call to action’ button to click under each one to get more details. This would be an enlarged picture, details of the type of flowers available and the price. There would be a clear button to press to buy the item. I have used a small drop shadow on the buttons to make them stand out on the page, and a contrasting colour to the background but tying in with the heading.
I wanted the body background to the site to be neutral in contrast to the main pages. I used the graphic pen mode on the illustration I had done of the Allium and reduced the opacity to 29%. I then tiled this to use as the background.
We were asked to design a layout for a small website homepage selling one item. I have chosen a bag.
I have used an overall large image to sell the product giving a strong, clear message and conveying the stylish and exclusive nature of the product. I have used sophisticated colours and a simple layout showing different views and uses of the bag.
I have put the main navigation to other places on the site in a sidebar, using a current type style to match the feel of the product.
In the header I have placed the search button and an opportunity to view what has been placed in the basket. I have used a slight drop shadow on the type and surrounded it with white space to make it stand out.
As I chose florist sites to evaluate I decided to start off by looking for images that I thought could be used on the type of site that I had been enjoying looking at. When researching sites at the beginning of the project I was drawn to those which had used large photographs or illustrations to cover the home page. They often portrayed a strong, simple sophisticated image. I put to gether a mood board of images that I thought could be used in this way.
When researching, the sites I really loved and found the most inspirational were those with huge simple, mainly photographic backgrounds.
The first site I started to look at was the minimal style site. Although the site I have chosen didn’t give me the chance to be as minimal as the sites here that work so well.
I chose a photograph that I used over the whole background. It was subtle so that any type, navigation and pictures would show up with good contrast.
One of the problems on the site that I chose to redesign was the over complicated navigation and the amount of information on the home page. I pared down and reorganised the main navigation categories so that the choice would be clear and simple. I chose a bold simple type face that I used in different colours reflecting the variety of colours available in the flowers. I used a finer face for the secondary navigation which I intended to have as drop down menus but then decided that it was a good idea for the visitor to see what was available at a glance without clicking on anything. This would also be of benefit when looking at the site on a mobile phone, because at the moment drop down menus can not be viewed on phones. This is the sort of site that would be searched using a phone as flowers are needed often on impulse or when receiving good news.
I used colour blocks with reduced opacity to divide the header from the main content area and the hero image. I put subtle drop shadows on the navigation type to make it stand out on the page.
I kept the strapline from the original site on each page to reinforce the message that the site sold flowers in a style that was original and contemporary, but unlike the original site, in a place where it could be easily read, surrounded by ‘white space’ to make it stand out.
I took out the ‘About us’, contact details and recommendations and put them in the footer as I thought this would be information vistors to the site would need secondary to finding out what the site had to offer and choosing flowers. On the original site all this information was scattered over the home page in a disorganised way.
I chose a ‘gallery’ page for my second page as if the visitor had clicked on ‘Birthday’. For continuity I kept the site logo, main navigation, secondary navigation, strapline and contact information in the footer the same, and in the same place as on the home page. The headings other than birthday in the ‘gallery’ list I knocked back in colour to give prominance to ‘Birthday’.
I organised what was shown in this category in a straightforward way giving a brief explanation of what was on offer under the pictures.
Under each seperate picture I put a ‘call to action’ button giving the visitor the opportunity to get more details of the chosen bouquet, which would be an enlarged picture, details of flowers available that season, price and a chance to add to a basket. To make the buttons stand out and invite the visitor to click, I used a small drop shadow of 2 pixels distance and size and reduced the opacity to 50%. I also embossed the button using 50% shading.
I wanted to keep the website container or body background simple so that it did not distract from the main site. I decided to take the same photograph that I had used as the background of the main site into Illustrator and use the ‘Live Trace’ mode. This turned the photograph into a vector image, which gave a subtly different feel to the background from the rest of the site.
I drew this image using the shape and the pathfinder tools in illustrator
During this same workshop we started thinking about the site we would design using an illustrative vector style. We learnt how to change a photographic image into a vector image using the Live Trace, Make and Expand mode in Illustrator. I experimented with this technique on a photograph I was considering using for my project. I went to ‘Tracing options’ to reduce the number of colours (or increase) to change the effect. By going to ‘expand’ you have the opportunity to take away parts of the picture as desired.
We were asked to design a web page in photoshop using textured style fonts and overlays to create a site for a company called ‘Skateboard Sussex’ using different background imagery based on texture.
As I researched I found images that I thought had strong graphic shapes and described well what was on offer. I decided to use a mixture of black and white and colour pictures to create contrast. The typeface I chose for the logo has a distressed texture which fits well with the subject. I have put a subtle drop shadow on the logo to make it stand out on the pictures. I reduced the distance to 3 pixels,the size to 5 and reduced the opacity to 57%.
I used the same typeface for the main navigation but put the type onto textured skateboard shapes for the buttons with drop shadows to make them stand out.
I experimented with the layers on the main picture to make it muted enough to be able to read the text on top of it. I used the lighten mode which I liked but settled on the exclusion mode.
For the site background I looked for materials associated with the places people skateboard. I looked at concrete and wood. I thought the concrete fit better with the page and used that with reduced opacity to 70% so that it did not become too dominant.
Websites should have some common features which make them easier to use, keep the viewer interested and on the site for as long as possible. If the main rules are not kept to, the viewer will become frustrated and leave the site.
Headers
The header is the area at the top a site which holds the company logo, strapline, information graphics and the main navigation. It is the first thing you see when opening a page so should look interesting, hold the navigation and remain the same size with constant features on every page of the site.
Primary or main navigation
When a user visits a new website, one of their primary points of focus will be the navigation bar. If that element has been well designed, the user will look to it first for help with their task. Almost every website has certain sections that are ‘expected’ by users, such as ‘About us’, ‘Services’, ‘Products,”. The links should be obvious and are very often highlighted when the visitor is near them.
Secondary navigation
When the designer has decided which parts are ‘primary’ and which parts are ‘secondary’, they can establish a visual hierarchy that enhances usability.
Primary links (e.g. ‘About’, ‘Services’, etc.) should be clearly distinguishable from secondary page links, which are usually accessible from every page and located near the primary links. The designer must clearly indicate the difference so that users understand which parts of the website have the most important information.
Sidebars
Sidebars are positioned left or right of the web page and usually hold secondary links as well as quite often the main menu. They are often used for advertising and news.
Footers
The footer on a web site usually holds links to important information such as privacy statements and terms and conditions. They can look very boring and sometimes very cluttered, but some sites have used the space very creatively and the space has become an interesting feature of the page.
Backgrounds
Backgrounds are one of the core features that determine how visually interesting a website is. There are a vast amount of possibilities when designing a website background, it holds the theme of the website, and sets the feel to what the website is about.
The body background is the most ‘distant’ background. It is usually an image, illustration, texture/pattern or other graphical element. It needs to be there mainly for viewers who have large screens so that there is interest around the web page.
The other level of the structure is the content background. This is the background of the text, images and other base data or information on the site.
Whether full photographic images or illustration are used the effect can be very powerful.
We were asked to find one website showing examples of good interface design and one website showing examples of bad interface design.
I decided to look at florists. The possibilities for clean sophisticated sites should have been quite good, but a lot of the sites were busy and very confusing.
We filled in a website evaluation form for each of our chosen websites.
Bad site
The one I chose for the bad site is called Floraline Florist. http://www.floralineflorist.co.uk/
The website did load in a reasonable time in all the main browsers, firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari, but after that things really go down hill!
The layout for the homepage is cluttered; your eyes are directed to no one thing on the page. The use of black for the background colour could have been stylish and clean to show off the colours of the flowers but because there is so much on the page to look at, it does not have this effect. Your initial reaction on the appearance of the site is negative making you want to leave immediately.
The name of the shop is very small and gets lost in the header. It doesn’t have any particular logo or style so does not stand out.
The main navigation gets totally lost in the header; the type merges into a border at the top and the bottom and doesn’t really look like navigation. There are twelve headings to choose from which don’t seem to relate in a logical way. You would be frustrated straight away if you were trying to navigate the site.
There is a lot of text on the home page which you have to scroll down to read. It is really uninviting to look at because of the type style and length of lines. If you do force yourself to read it you find it is also really badly written and some pages are out of date.
If you scroll down the home page there are a choice of six flower categories to choose from which do not cover a wide range of requirements. They are surrounded with over complicated borders.
If you click on one of these boxes you are taken to the appropriate page where there are a new set of boxes to click on. If you do click on the boxes nothing happens, you can’t enlarge them or buy the flowers!
I looked for somewhere where you could enlarge the pictures, clicked on ‘gallery’ in the main menu and a box came up where the pictures were only marginally bigger. There were over complicated instructions on how to view them and really horrible music. The pictures were pixelated, there were no prices and still nowhere to buy them.
I went back to the home page and clicked on what I thought had been an ad on the right hand side. This seems to be where you actually buy the flowers but it has a different name. If you troll through pages you discover that the place where you buy the flowers took over the shop on the home page a few years ago. There is nothing to suggest this on the main site. I’m not even sure what the point of the main site is, it would need a phone call!
One of the links on the home page leads to flowers for a new baby. This page is the only white page, presumably to feel more appropriate to the subject but it looks as if it has been only half finished.
Overall I felt that this site did not look pleasing, the navigation was frustrating to use and not logical, the content was badly organised so you could not see clearly what was on offer and you could not wait to leave.
I found the ‘Sort site’ web page where you can check any errors on a particular site. When putting in ‘Floraline’ it showed that 90% of the pages on the site had some sort of issues. The graph shows where Floraline’ sits against an average of other sites with issues. As you can see it has many more.
The usability score is really low, 7 out of 10 pages have issues. Accessability has problems on 9 out of 10 pages, most receiving a red dot which means, ‘Priority A – disabled users will find it impossible to use some pages’.
Good site
The good website I chose is McQueens, http://www.mcqueens.co.uk
The load times of this site on all the main browsers was very good. The first impression of the site was clean and stylish. The homepage is very simple and clear. Everything is where you expect it to be. When I filled in the evaluation questionnaire all the boxes were ticked. It doesn’t really look very exciting on first impressions but it is extremely easy to navigate and the flowers are beautiful. The photographs show what is on offer really clearly. The background colour is muted, stylish and compliments the subject matter perfectly. The company heading is set apart so is very obvious.
Two type faces are used and the colours are all kept to a similar palette.
The main navigation is very simple and categorised in a very logical way. It is very clear what you will find on each page. The hero image uses a changing series of images which show the sort of things you will find on the site.
Each page sets out in a clear concise way all the information you need.
To buy from this site is very straight forward. The choices are simple and set out in an ordered way, with simple drop down menus.
The gallery section covers everything on the site in a simple organised way. Each picture can be blown up to view and the images can be scrolled through easily.
There are two simple tabs at the top of the page to find out more about the company which has an interview and picture of the owner, giving a friendly personal feel and a link to contact the company.
I wanted to stay on this site and find out what they had to offer, it felt comfortable and I didn’t feel I was missing something by going on any complicated routes, I felt what was on offer was of a high standard and if I did decide to buy something it would arrive and be of a high quality.
The first site I looked at did not instill any confidence in me about it’s products. I didn’t feel I knew the range they were offering properly as everything seemed very disjointed. I couldn’t wait to leave the site and find something of higher quality.
I also loaded the Mcqueens site onto the ‘Sort site’ page. The results were very different. ‘Mcqueens’ would be able to use the quality bagde on the site. The site is in the top 10% of sites by quality rank.
Although there are some issues on the site, overall it scores very well.
The Internet and the World Wide Web have grown rapidly from a research project into something that involves millions of people worldwide. Much of the Internet’s usefulness comes from the fact that it is shared by users, service providers, and others, in the sense that each depends on the other and needs to support the other. Hopefully, that sort of sharing and respect will continue. Our behavior, expectations for others, and activities will make the difference. The Web is what we make it.
To help make it secure, safe and easy to use there are many guidelines and ways of protecting yourself and your work which have been put into place. Just as the web is ever expanding and changing, so all these measures have to be continually reviewed and updated
WAI Guidelines
Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.
For example, when a site is coded with semantically meaningful HTML, with textual equivalents provided for images and with links named meaningfully, this helps blind users using text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware.
When text and images are large and/or enlargable, it is easier for users with poor sight to read and understand the content.
When links are underlined (or otherwise differentiated) as well as coloured, this ensures that colour blind users will be able to notice them.
When clickable links and areas are large, this helps users who cannot control a mouse with precision.
When pages are coded so that users can navigate by means of the keyboard alone, or a single switch access device alone, this helps users who cannot use a mouse or even a standard keyboard.
When videos are closed captioned or a sign language version is available, deaf and hard of hearing users can understand the video.
When flashing effects are avoided or made optional, users prone to seizures caused by these effects are not put at risk.
And when content is written in plain language and illustrated with instructional diagrams and animations, users with dyslexia
and learning difficulties are better able to understand the content. When sites are correctly built and maintained, all of these users can be accommodated while not impacting on the usability of the site for non-disabled users.
The needs that Web accessibility aims to address include:
- Visual: Visual impairments including blindness, various common types of low vision and poor eyesight, various types of color blindness;
- Motor/Mobility: e.g. difficulty or inability to use the hands, including tremors, muscle slowness, loss of fine muscle control, etc., due to conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, stroke;
- Auditory: Deafness or hearing impairments, including individuals who are hard of hearing;
- Seizures: Photoepileptic seizures caused by visual strobe or flashing effects.
- Cognitive/Intellectual: Developmental disabilities, learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.), and cognitive disabilities of various origins, affecting memory, attention, developmental ‘maturity’, problem-solving and logic skills, etc.;
In 1999 the Web Accessibility Initiative, a project by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 1.0. In recent years, these have been widely accepted as the definitive guidelines on how to create accessible websites.
On 11 December 2008, the WAI released the WCAG 2.0 as a Recommendation. WCAG 2.0 aims to be up to date and more technology neutral.
Copyright law
updated in August 2008.
The skill, creative effort, time and money invested in producing material may be wasted if it is open to other parties to use or exploit that material without paying the creator.
Copyright gives the author of certain types of material rights to control the use or commercial exploitation of the work that he or she has created. This includes rights to authorise or prohibit the copying, issuing of copies, renting or lending, performing, showing, playing, broadcasting or adaptation of the copyright material.
What is protected by copyright?
The sorts of material which benefit from copyright protection are set out by statute, and are broken down into three categories:
- Original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, including computer programs and some databases;
- Sound recordings, films or broadcasts; and
- Typographical arrangements of published editions.
The same rules apply on the internet as with other mediums.
Ideas are not protected by copyright. Copyright will only protect the textual or literary expression of ideas rather than the ideas themselves. Names, titles and internet domain names also do not attract copyright. These can however be protected in other ways, for example by a registered trade mark or a common law action to prevent passing-off. Logos may be protected under copyright as artistic works.
Material on the internet
Material sent over the internet or stored on web servers is generally protected in the same way as material in other media. Once material is posted on the internet it is not public property. Anyone placing copyright material on the internet, or distributing or downloading material that others have placed on the internet, must therefore ensure that they have the permission of the copyright owner unless the use of the material falls within an exception. Locating the copyright owner can sometimes be difficult but failure to get permission may result in legal action against you. A copyright notice on a website will set out what you can and can’t do with the material on that site.
Copyright material may have been put on the internet in other countries without infringing copyright there, but could still be illegal to use without permission in the UK, particularly if the website is aimed at users based in the UK.
Registering copyright
You do not need to register copyright in the UK. Provided that the work in question is one that qualifies for copyright protection, copyright will arise automatically as soon as the work is created without any need for registration.
A copyright owner may mark copyright material when it is published with the international copyright symbol © followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication. This is not essential in the UK, but may assist a copyright owner in the event of infringement proceedings. It will also be necessary if a copyright owner wishes to enforce his or her copyright in certain foreign countries. An example would be:
Copyright © 1990, John W. Smith, All Rights Reserved.
The copyright to the expression of an idea begins immediately when the expression is fixed in some medium. For example, a software program that has been developed on a monitor becomes copyrightable from the moment it becomes saved to a disk or hard drive since it then becomes fixed in a medium.
Infringing copyright
Copyright allows the owner, and the owner alone, to copy, issue copies, rent or lend, perform, show, play, communicate or adapt the copyright work. Copyright is infringed by a third party who performs
any of the actions these actions without the permission of the copyright owner, unless the act carried out falls within an exception.
The duration of copyright protection depends on the nature of the protected work. For typographical arrangements, copyright expires 25 years after the end of the calendar year in which the edition was first published.
Essentially, the 1988 Act and amendment establishes that copyright in most works lasts until 70 years after the death of the creator if known, otherwise 70 years after the work was created or published (fifty years for computer-generated works).
Copyright is a property right which, like rights in physical property, can be bought or sold, inherited or otherwise transferred, either wholly or in part. Copyright may therefore subsequently belong to someone other than the author of the protected work.
Attribution means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work – and derivative works based upon it – but only if they give you credit.
Non commercial means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work – and derivative works based upon it – but for noncommercial purposes only.
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.
Share Alike means:
You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.
With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify.
The legal rights given by copyright ownership are:
- right to reproduce the work
- right to make derivative works
- right to distribute copies for resale, lease, or retail
- right to publicly perform relevant works (e.g. a piece of music)
- right to publicly display certain works
Fair Use Rule
The Fair Use rule allows copyrighted material to be used, without a license or payment of royalty to the owner, if the purpose of the use is criticism, news reporting, scholarship, research, or teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use). This does not mean unrestricted use, however. Fair use is determined by several factors:
- whether the use is of a commercial nature or whether it is for nonprofit educational purposes
- the nature of the copyrighted work itself
- the proportion of the copyrighted work that is being reproduced. If a substantial proportion is reproduced, it is unlikely to be considered fair use. (e.g. If one article out of a book with fifteen articles in it, is copied and used in a class it is likely to be fair use. However, copying eight to ten articles may not be considered fair use).
- The effect of the use on the potential market or value of the copyrighted work (i.e. Is the owner going to be financially hurt by this use?). This point is an important one in determining fair use.
The Electronic Theft (NET) Act, signed in December, 1997, makes it criminal for individuals to reproduce or distribute copies of copyrighted works. In order to provide for fair use, the Act allows copies to be made “if copying does not hurt the interests of the author.” Under
this guideline, if a copyrighted work were to be put on the Internet as part of a distance education program, it is not likely to be considered to be fair use since the work could be accessed by anyone on the Internet and this is likely to hurt the author’s interests by bringing down its market value. On the other hand, it is more likely to be considered fair use if access to the work on the web was restricted to those enrolled in the distance learning program, perhaps by using a password.
Copyright Law and Internet Service Providers
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide Internet access services for a fee (Bitlaw, 2000). They also sometimes store data for their customers’ use, as in the case of a Usenet newsgroup server or a world wide web server. As a general rule, as long as the ISP is not aware of any illegal activity carried out by its users, the provider cannot be held liable. However, if the provider does become aware of any illegal activity, or ought to have become aware of such activity if it had exercised the normal degree of oversight in such circumstances, then the courts are likely to hold the provider liable for the customers activity. This rule also applies to service providers who do not connect directly to the Internet, such as bulletin board operators and proprietary information providers.
Even if an ISP does not directly take part in the copying or distribution of a copyrighted work, it can still be liable for copyright infringement under the concept of ” contributory infringement “. This concept applies when “a party causes or contributes to the infringing conduct of another with knowledge of the other party’s infringing activities.”
A second basis for infringement is “vicarious liability” under which a person may be liable for the infringing actions of another person, if the person has the right and ability to control the infringer’s acts and receives a direct financial benefit from the infringement. Vicarious liability can exist even if the defendant had no knowledge of the infringer’s activity.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed by the House in 1998, makes illegal most attempts to get around anticopying technology. Only when it is necessary to make software or hardware compatible with other products, to conduct encryption research, or to prevent cookies from spreading personal information is it legal to bypass anticopying technology. This act also legislates against excessive copying of databases, even when the databases contain information already existing in the public domain (Turban, et al. p. 355).
A good guideline for ISPs to follow is stated by Turban, et al., “Internet access providers must act responsibly and make efforts to police piracy; not necessarily because of threats of legislation
but because it is in their best long-term interests to do so.” (Turban et al., 2000; p.355)
Copyright Issues Involving Domain Names
A domain name is the name or address used to link to a particular computer on the Internet. Disputes have arisen over domain names because some companies have used names similar to those of brick-and-mortar companies or copyrighted names or materials, in order to attract web traffic to their site. Some individuals have also registered large numbers of such names, not for their use, but with the intention of selling these names to the highest bidder. As a result, sometimes a company with a well known brand name has applied to establish a web address and found that the name has already been registered by someone else who now asks for substantial payment for purchase of the domain name.
Privacy and crime on the internet
Internet Security
When you use a computer system connected to the Internet, you’re able to reach a rich variety of sites and information. By the same token, any system connected to the Internet can be reached in some manner by any of the other computer systems connected to the Internet. Partaking of the material on the Internet also means that you have to be concerned about the security of your computer system and other systems.
You don’t want unauthorized persons accessing your information or information belonging to others who share your system-you want to protect your system from malicious or unintentional actions that could destroy stored information or halt your system. You don’t want others masquerading as you. You need to be concerned about the security of other systems so you can have some faith in the information you retrieve from those systems, and so you can conduct business transactions.
A lack of security results in damage, theft, and a lack of confidence or trust.
Hyperlinks to sites that have information about computer and Internet security
- The CERT Coordination Center was formed in 1988 to serve as a focal point for the computer security concerns of Internet users.
- Computer Security Information , developed by Jessica Kelley as part of the offering of the Center for Information Technology at National Institutes of Health
- Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST)
- FIRST Security Papers
- There Be Dragons .. MLD’s Unix System Security Page by Matthew Deter
If you access the Internet by logging into a computer system, your primary defense against intrusion is your password. You need to choose a password that will be difficult to guess. This means choosing a password that’s at least six characters long. You’ll also want to use a password contain upper- and lowercase letters and some nonalphabetic characters. Additionally, the password shouldn’t represent a word, and it shouldn’t be something that’s easy to identify with you such as a phone number, room number, birthdate, or license number.
Because connecting a network to the Internet allows access to that network, system administrators and other persons concerned with network security are very concerned about making that connection. One device or part of a network that can help enhance security is called a firewall. A firewall is a part of a computer system or network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications. It is a device or set of devices that is configured to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and other criteria.
Firewalls can be implemented in either hardware or software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which inspects each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.
One type of program that causes problems for Internet users is called a virus. This doesn’t necessarily copy your data or attempt to use your system. However, it can make it difficult or impossible to use your system. A virus is a piece of code or instructions that attaches itself to existing programs. Just like a biological virus, a computer virus can’t run or exist on its own, but must be part of an executing program. When these programs are run, the added instructions are also executed.
Internet security is very important. We need to make sure that messages are private and that monetary transactions and data sources are secure.
When we use the internet we leave a trail, such as information about which web sites we have clicked on , for how long and when. Each server keeps log file, also the computer you use will also be keeping file in the cache and history list. Cookies are also passed from the web browser program to a web server.
The Internet allows consumers, businesses, and industry to do many new things in unique and efficient ways. The technology around which it is built is also changing and advancing rapidly. A source of concern is that the legal and ethical developments regarding the Internet are not able to keep up with the fast pace of technological change.
Protection of Intellectual Property
The major legal and ethical problems that arise in terms of the Internet and electronic media, deal with intellectual property issues. There are well developed laws that govern physical property. Physical property, also known as tangible property, is property that we can touch and feel. Intellectual property, on the other hand, deals with the ownership of ideas or the expression of ideas. Since ideas cannot be touched or felt, but they do belong to the person who developed (or authored) them, they are known as intangible property.
There are several forms of legal protection available for intellectual property. These are:
- trade secret protection
- copyright protection
- trademark protection
- patents.
Trade Secret Protection: This method of protecting ownership of an idea is to ensure that the idea is kept a secret. Trade secrets can only exist if the basis for the idea can be kept a secret. This may not be possible in the world of computer technology and programming.
Copyright Protection
Copyright protection is available for an original expression of an idea that is fixed in any physical medium, such as paper, electronic tapes, floppy discs, CD ROMs, etc. It is important to note that the ‘right’ or protection is given to how the idea is expressed, not to the idea itself.
without a license or payment of royalties. However, one major exception to this statement is the ‘Fair Use’ rule.
Legal Issues Involving Trademarks
A trademark is a logo or phrase that identifies the source of goods or services. Trademark rights do not stop others from copying a product, but they do prevent them from calling or labeling their product by a name or phrase that is confusingly similar to the trademark.
Internet Service Providers and Trademark Liability
ISPs must, of course, ensure that they are not creating confusion in customers’ minds regarding their product or company, because their logo, domain name or anything else in their literature or website is similar to that of another company. They can, however, have logos of other companies on their website if permission is given for doing so.
In addition, ISPs may be liable if one of their customers infringes the trademark of someone else, especially if the ISP knows, or should have known in the course of regular oversight, that such infringement was occurring. The ISP may be liable for contributory trademark infringement where it knowingly causes or contributes to the infringing conduct of another. For example, if an ISP is informed by someone that one of its customers is misusing a trademark and provides details, but the ISP does nothing about it, for fear of losing the customer, it may be liable for contributory trademark infringement.
Meta Tags: Some areas of trademark violation are unique to the Internet. One example is the use of keyword meta tags. Search engines on the web look for sites by looking for HTML meta tags that are labeled as keywords. Programmers have deliberately used well known trademarked words as meta tags in their web sites in order to draw viewers to their site. For example, some web sites have used “Playboy” as a meta tag. Such use is likely to be viewed as an infringement of a trademark.
Other potential areas of dispute related to links on the Internet are (Greenstein, 2000, p. 80):
- Retrieving and displaying information from a website without proper reference (similar to plagiarism);
- Retrieving and displaying information from a linked commercial site that has advertising frames, without displaying the site’s advertisements along with the retrieved document.
- Linking to illegal files. For example, Lycos developed a database of music and video available on the web. However, since many of the sites in the database had bootlegged copies, Lycos was taken to court for providing links to these sites. The case has not yet been resolved.
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