Intellectual Property

• The fifth general ethical principles of the ACM is

  Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, 
  creative works, and computing artifacts.

• In other words, don't steal intellectual property
• Intellectual property is code or documents created by a company
• These assets were created at great expense
• Unscrupulous third parties would likely pay a great deal for them
• IT professionals often have access to significant intellectual property
• Theft of intellectual property is a crime
• It is vigorously prosecuted
• In some cases the intellectual product is the product
• Like music and movies