The first time I heard the term “digital footprint” was in high school. Everyone was getting cellphones, webcams, and digital cameras. We were moving from MySpace to Facebook and MSN Messenger to Skype. I remember a few teachers warning us to be careful about what we post online because of “predators”. As we got older (and more familiar with social media) the fear of the predator subsided and the fear of the potential employer took over. It was becoming common practice for employers to look you up online before hiring you. In high school this was not a big concern but in university it certainly was. I had a lot of friends change their screenname so they would not come up in a Google search. I personally, do not use my last name on my social media accounts (with the exception of LinkedIn). I think this is very common practice now but is still an important message to relay to students.
Intellectual Property and Privacy are not new concepts to me. I actually feel like I have a slight advantage in these areas simply because I work at a law firm with a large Intellectual Property practice and Privacy speciality group. Needless to say we have to ensure we are upholding IP and privacy regulations in order to represent our clients. The law is a hard thing to “copy”, after all it is absolute and written by a governing body. You cannot really claim that the regulations are your own and the information is publically accessible. It is common place to reference case law or statues in our programs. In our case, sharing knowledge is more so sharing precedent documents or best practices – all of which are owned by the Firm so no firm member is violating copyright by using them. Where you can get in trouble is trying to use these resources once you have left the firm.
I do not think every culture has the same views on intellectual property – I don’t even think the same cultures have the same views on intellectual property. For example many people would see no issue with playing music (that you purchased) at an event or conference. However, legally you are supposed to obtain a SOCAN license if you are playing music for business purposes. Buying the music only allows you to play it for private use. It would be very easy for someone unfamiliar with copyright law to violate this regulation regardless of their cultural background. Where does the onus fall to educate people on copyright? I’m not sure I have the answer. I would think it would be industry specific, so perhaps in college, university, or workplace onboarding.