Copyright Compliance Policy

Assumptions

It can be assumed that the NGO Academics for Academics is working for the welfare of the small public and private colleges and universities. They get their funding from the public donation. They also recruit such members who are interested in giving voluntary services. As they are a new organization so they might need to look into their information security system as it is not well developed (Chauhan and Garg 2015).

1. Statement of purpose

A statement of purpose is one of the most important parts in an application that gives details to the admission committee. It tells the committee about who the organization is; what has been influential in their career path; what are the professional interests and what is the planning for future.  It does not only contain some plain facts but several anecdotes and questions are addressed through the statement. A statement of purpose can also include stories or some description of a character. To make a successful statement of purpose, it should be properly written in a subtle way (Ifinedo 2014). It is the only part in the application which is in total control of the owner. The records related to academic and extra- curricular activities are related to the past. It is also important to choose the writers of recommendation letters very wisely but it is not under the control of the owner that the selected writer will give the best recommendation. The statement of purpose gives an opportunity to talk directly to the admissions committee; make a separate stand point among others; to make the committee realize about the potential of an individual; the quest for knowledge could be an added value (Van Rooij et al. 2014). The statement of purpose in the given scenario of Academics for Academics is to help the small private and public colleges and universities in Australia and Southeast Asia. They help those universities and colleges who are interested in receiving their services to register and become a member. This NGO gets funding from public donation for completing their projects and activities. They have a team of 10 out of which 6 members work in Sydney office and 4 members are in Singapore (Bhattacharya 2014).

2. Authorized uses

There are certain set guidelines for applying in an NGO. Any voluntary organization or individual, association of disabled person or association of disabled person working with cerebral palsy, autism, multiple disability and mental retardation can apply for working in an NGO (Safa, Von Solms and Furnell 2016). To apply for NGO registration the concerned person must file an application for resolution and authorization along with Memorandum of Association and annual report of the previous year. If the registration of the NGOs which are registered from before expires then they are given a grace period of 6 months to renew their registration. The NGO Academics for Academics help the small private and public colleges and universities in Southeast Asia and Australia. It helps those colleges and universities which are interested in getting the services of Academics for Academics and become their member. The academics and experienced expert and professionals who are interested in offering voluntary services like teach any subject, supervise a research project, or develop curriculum for another member institution are allowed  to register with this NGO (Sommestad et al. 2014). When the process of recruitment is done, the particular individual can become a member of Academics for Academics. After the process of recruitment, the individuals are assigned to short term task at the member organizations. The recruited members at A4A are provided with food, accommodation, travel and medical expenses.

3. Prohibited uses

NGOs are prohibited from functioning when the home ministry review the audit flow and see that the income is not returned properly (Larsson 2016). Many NGOs have lost their registration as they did not submit documents of annual return for a long time. Government cancels the registration of NGOs when they do not file annual return on their foreign donations. It is a serious issue of consideration when the annual returns are not submitted for 3- 4 years. The NGOs, against which there were complaints of submitting adverse reports, were suspended and their bank accounts were frozen. The scrutiny over the NGOs is increasing from time to time. There are some renowned NGOs which were alleged to work against the nation’s interest and their activities had caused a percentage of GDP for the country (Egels-Zandén 2014). Government also has the right to prohibit a member of such disputed NGO to fly abroad. In the given situation of Academics for Academics, the recruited members who will work at the institution should maintain the privacy of their workplace. Any information produced by the recruited member, except the mails, exams and the marked assignments of the students will remain in the custody of the NGO and the member only. All those information will be stored and preserved by the NGO’s information system and the location of the member where he works will not be taken into account. A guarantee is needed by the NGO Academics for Academics that all the information and data in the information system are totally secured. If the organization is established just recently, then it will not have a developed information system and it should take the required time to develop their system (Di Crescenzo et al. 2014).

4. Systems management

The different policies are freed for any non- profit organization for downloading and using as long as it is not used for any commercial purpose. Also the organization must not be paying any consultant to carry out their work. The following works are subject to copyright according to the Australian Copyright Act- literary, musical, dramatic, artistic, sound recordings, cinematograph film, internet material and published editions of works (Sudtachat, Mayorga and Mclay 2016). Apart from using for any individual purpose or educational purpose, as allowed by the Copyright act and the statutory licenses, anything found online must not be used for any other purpose without an authentic permission from the owner. This particular NGO is a signatory to the three license agreements between the Australian universities and other agencies which collect copyright on behalf of the owners of the copyright works. Under the given agreements, the organizations have to pay yearly fees so that the staff can make a use of copyright materials for helping the students with course materials without seeking permission from the copyright owner. The license collected by the agency requires the institution to regularly report on the usage of copyright materials either through online surveys or through hardcopy (Vance, Lowry and Eggett 2013).  The NGO Academics for Academics was established recently so the information system has not been managed properly. They are now trying to develop the process with a comprehensive set of information security policies for its information system (Chin 2017).

5. Violations of policy

The NGO Academics for Academics has to abide by certain policies which cannot be violated. They must operate according to the contract and legislation, guidelines and policies which are relevant to the funding of the program. There are agreements which keep a record of the contractual arrangements for the funded agencies (Rijsdijk and Tinga 2014). Violation of policy can be the basis for terminating the behavior relation. There are many factors which depend on the situation when the policy is violated in an organization. Whether the policy is violated or not depends on its nature or nature of the business. The brighter side of violation is that it shows the members that the particular violation is the one which is taken by the organization seriously. By communicating the proper reason of violation of policy, the staffs are warned about the inappropriateness of their action. But on the other side, violation of policy can reflect the loophole in an organization (Njenga 2017). There can be arrival of such kind of situation which might act as a catalyst for the harm of the company. If the policy is violated by an employee after he is caught for taking cash I can be referred to as the violation of cash handling policy. In this way, the scenario is made clear to the staff of the workplace and its importance is restated. The violation of a policy can lead to legal action taken by the organization. It s very common that one out of all the employees are bound to violate the company policy and it becomes difficult for the supervisor to make an employment decision.

6. Policy review and modification

It is not appropriate for the organizations and NGOs like Academics for Academics to rely on the sample policies and procedures only. They can be devised only as a starting point but gradually the A4A need to devise their own needs and structures. Most of the existing sample policies are inclusive of both policies and procedures (Mandelker 2014). These policies provide a guideline to maintain the standards of organization while the procedures outline the instructions on the implementation of the standards for the organizations. It is recommended that the policies should be adopted at a wider level, but the procedures must be developed and signed off by the head of the organization. There are specific terms used in the policies and whatever the term is, it has final authority in the organization. There are obligations for the organizations to maintain good records of its activities for the efficiency of legal purpose. The records are one of the important assets that give support to the operations and enable in accessing information that is required to preserve (Chin 2017). Reviewing and modification of policy will enable the NGO A4A to operate efficiently and meet with accountability in compliance with the requirements. Keeping track of the records is a good practice for well- management of an organization. The management of records provides an opportunity to broaden the vision for the organization’s record management program.

7. Limitations of liability

There are certain terms and conditions set for binding agreement. The set limitations of liability are- use of key words and phrases in the entire agreement; rights and responsibilities of users; expected and proper usage; accountability for online behavior, actions and conduct; payment details including membership or subscription fees; procedure for account termination; exclusion which clarify legal liability and how the upcoming changes are notified (Phillips and Goodwin 2014). Limitations of liability are something that is acceptable by the court but exclusion clauses are not. In many jurisdictions, courts observe carefully at these clauses and thus it becomes significant that reasonable and correct drafting is ensured or else they might be invalid. An exclusion of liability clause excludes or omits all the liability for certain events or consequences. It can be anticipated that there will be breach of contract and thus it excludes all the liabilities for that breach (Njenga 2017). On the contrary to exclusion of liability clause, a limitation of liability clause only limits the liability for certain breaches but clearly states in detail the amount that the liability is limited to. For example, an organization will not be liable for more than a certain amount of breach or a company will not be responsible for more than a specific time of the annual subscription fee. There are some basic requirements for having exclusion or limitation clauses upheld if the contract leads to the court. The general principle of freedom of contract must be balanced against the public policy concerns of the NGO Academics for Academics and that the party who undertakes a contractual obligation must not be free to discharge from its duty to be performed (Mandelker 2014).   

Justification

In the given scenario, it can be justified that the NGO Academics for Academics works for the small public and private colleges and universities. They are working for the welfare of these institutions and also recruiting such members who are willing to give voluntary service. In this way, the registered colleges and universities which are a registered member under the NGO get the services. It is also justified that the NGO will abide by the legal policies and procedures and will not breach any contract.

References

Bhattacharya, S., 2014. Market and Welfare Effects of Renewable Portfolio Standard in the US Compliance and Voluntary Green Power Markets.

Chauhan, B.P. and Garg, S., 2015. JGU Copyright Compliance Policy.

Chin, G.J., 2017. Policy, Preemption, and Pot: Extraterritorial Citizen Jurisdiction. BCL Rev., 58, p.929.

Di Crescenzo, G., Feigenbaum, J., Gupta, D., Panagos, E., Perry, J. and Wright, R.N., 2014, March. Practical and privacy-preserving policy compliance for outsourced data. In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (pp. 181-194). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Egels-Zandén, N., 2014. Revisiting supplier compliance with MNC codes of conduct: Recoupling policy and practice at Chinese toy suppliers. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(1), pp.59-75.

Ifinedo, P., 2014. Information systems security policy compliance: An empirical study of the effects of socialisation, influence, and cognition. Information & Management, 51(1), pp.69-79.

Larsson, S., 2016. Larsson, Svensson: Compliance or obscurity? Online anonymity as a consequence of fighting illegal file sharing. Policy, 2014, p.2012.

Mandelker, D.R., 2014. Land use law. LexisNexis.

Njenga, K., 2017. UNDERSTANDING INTERNAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECURITY POLICY VIOLATIONS AS PARADOXES. Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge & Management, 12.

Phillips, R. and Goodwin, S., 2014. Third sector social policy research in Australia: New actors, new politics. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 25(3), pp.565-584.

Rijsdijk, C. and Tinga, T., 2014. The effect of maintenance policy violations.

Safa, N.S., Von Solms, R. and Furnell, S., 2016. Information security policy compliance model in organizations. computers & security, 56, pp.70-82.

Sommestad, T., Hallberg, J., Lundholm, K. and Bengtsson, J., 2014. Variables influencing information security policy compliance: a systematic review of quantitative studies. Information Management & Computer Security, 22(1), pp.42-75.

Sudtachat, K., Mayorga, M.E. and Mclay, L.A., 2016. A nested-compliance table policy for emergency medical service systems under relocation. Omega, 58, pp.154-168.

Van Rooij, B., Fine, A.D., Zhang, Y. and Wu, Y., 2014. Piracy by Approval: Social Norms, Deterrence, and Copyright Compliance in China Compared to the United States.

Vance, A., Lowry, P.B. and Eggett, D., 2013. Using accountability to reduce access policy violations in information systems. Journal of Management Information Systems, 29(4), pp.263-290.