These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. All people, products and licences are fictional. They teach the ideas the course expects, not legal advice, and laws differ between countries. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Answers should be balanced and non-political. No calculator is needed.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
A student copies several paragraphs from a website into an essay without permission or credit and hands it in as their own work. This is
- (A) plagiarism
- (B) crowdsourcing
- (C) open access
- (D) an example of fault tolerance
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A).
- (B), (C) and (D) do not describe presenting someone’s work as one’s own.
Question 2 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which best describes open-source software?
- (A) Programs made freely available that may be redistributed and modified
- (B) Programs that nobody may copy
- (C) Research articles free of restrictions
- (D) A password that anyone may use
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A).
- (B) is the opposite.
- (C) describes open access.
- (D) is unrelated.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
A photographer releases a picture under a licence that lets others reuse it as long as the photographer is credited. A student uses the picture in a presentation and credits the photographer. Which statement is correct?
- (A) The student is following the licence by crediting the creator.
- (B) The student has committed plagiarism.
- (C) The student must delete the picture.
- (D) The licence is not valid because the picture is digital.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The creator allowed reuse with credit and the student met the condition.
- (B) plagiarism requires use without permission and presenting as one’s own.
- (C) and (D) are unsupported.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Why does easy digital copying raise intellectual-property concerns?
- (A) Digital information can be copied and distributed widely at little cost, which raises questions about ownership, value and use.
- (B) Digital information cannot be copied.
- (C) Copies of digital information are always lower in quality.
- (D) Computers cannot store creative work.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A).
- (B) and (C) are false.
- (D) computers can store creative work.
Question 5 (multiple choice, select two · core)
Which two are legal ways to use material created by someone else?
- (A) Using a work under a Creative Commons licence and following its conditions
- (B) Using a protected work after getting the owner’s permission
- (C) Copying a protected work and claiming it as your own
- (D) Removing the creator’s name from a work found online
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A) and (B).
- (C) and (D) disregard permission and credit.
Question 6 (multiple choice · core)
A fictional company’s software allows people to download films without the creators receiving any payment. Which concern is most directly raised?
- (A) Intellectual-property and ethical concerns about creators’ rights
- (B) The software will run too slowly
- (C) The films will become lossless
- (D) The Internet will not use packets
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A).
- (B), (C) and (D) are unrelated to ownership.
Question 7 (multiple choice · stretch)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
“A town installs ‘SafeStreet’, a camera network that records faces and uses software to guess people’s moods. The town says the software helps spot fights early. Some residents say it makes the streets safer; others worry about being recorded all the time and about mistakes in the software.”
Which statement is best supported?
- (A) SafeStreet raises legal and ethical concerns, including privacy and accuracy, and has possible benefits for safety.
- (B) SafeStreet is definitely harmful.
- (C) SafeStreet is definitely beneficial.
- (D) SafeStreet raises no concerns because it is legal.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The passage presents both a possible benefit and concerns.
- (B) and (C) take a side that the passage does not support.
- (D) legal does not mean free of ethical concerns.
Question 8 (constructed response · core)
A student writes a program for a school competition. Their program uses a sorting routine copied from an online forum, written by a user named Mei, who says it may be reused.
(a) Explain what the student should do to acknowledge the routine. (2 points)
(b) Explain why presenting the whole program as entirely their own would be a problem. (2 points)
Answer and explanation
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | says to name the origin (the forum and user Mei) in the program documentation |
| 2 | says to describe which routine was used |
| 3 | says that part of the work was created by someone else |
| 4 | says presenting it as entirely their own would be plagiarism, which can have consequences |
Sample response. (a) Add a comment saying the sorting routine came from the user Mei on the forum. (b) The routine was created by someone else, so saying all the program is theirs would present Mei’s work as their own, which is plagiarism.
Question 9 (constructed response · core)
Explain the difference between Creative Commons, open source and open access, giving one example use of each. (6 points)
Answer and explanation
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (6 points: 2 per term).
| Point | Award when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1, 3, 5 | gives a correct description of each (CC: public copyright licence allowing sharing and building on a work; open source: programs freely available that may be redistributed and modified; open access: online research output free of restrictions on access and many on use) |
| 2, 4, 6 | gives a suitable example use for each (reusing a CC photo with credit; modifying an open-source program; reading and citing a research article free of charge) |
Sample response. Creative Commons is a licence by which a creator lets others share and build on a work under stated conditions, such as using a photo with credit. Open source describes programs that are freely available and can be modified and redistributed, such as adding a feature to a shared program. Open access means research articles that anyone can read without payment, such as quoting one in a report with credit.
Question 10 (constructed response · stretch)
A fictional company launches “BrightDesk”, a classroom camera that records students’ faces to measure attention and sends the scores to a company server.
(a) Identify two stakeholders and one benefit for each. (2 points)
(b) Identify two legal or ethical concerns. (2 points)
(c) Suggest one safeguard. (1 point)
Answer and explanation
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points).
| Point | Award when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | gives a stakeholder and a benefit (teachers: see who may need help) |
| 2 | gives a second stakeholder and a benefit (students: may get support sooner; the company: improves its product) |
| 3 | gives a first concern (privacy: faces are sensitive personal information; data stored on a company server) |
| 4 | gives a second concern (accuracy and bias: scores may be wrong for some students; consent: families may not be able to refuse) |
| 5 | gives a safeguard (collect only what is needed, delete data after a set time, ask for agreement from families, check accuracy by group) |
Sample response. (a) Teachers could see who might need help; students might receive support sooner. (b) Face data are sensitive personal data held by a company, and the attention scores could be wrong for some students. (c) The school could delete the recordings after the score is produced and tell families what is collected.
How did you do?
Questions 1 to 7 are multiple choice; 8 to 10 are written. If you lost marks in a written question, check that you separated permission from credit and gave both a benefit and a concern. Re-read “A balanced method for a scenario” in the study guide if needed, then use the checklist.