DSE ICT | Information Literacy and Intellectual Property Lesson-Prep Guide (Tutor Edition)

DSE ICT | Information Literacy and Intellectual Property Lesson-Prep Guide (Tutor Edition) | Copyright, Entropy, Phishing

2026-11-02

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary ICT

Students write “copyright is protected by law” and “passwords must be complex”, then stop. This lesson swaps every abstraction for a number: how many years, how many bits, how many clicks.

Objectives — Students can: (1) work out the year a work leaves copyright from the author death year; (2) compute password entropy from pool size and length and compare cracking times; (3) judge a phishing email with a three-step check and name the defence.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Copyright	What copyright protects	Original expression, not ideas
Powers	Roughly what 2 to the 10 is	About 1,024
Attacks	Name two common attacks	Phishing, malware

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-8 min	Copyright term	Death year plus 50	2030
8-20 min	Exceptions	Education versus fair use	Two conditions
20-34 min	Entropy	Pools 26 and 62, length 8	37.6 and 47.6 bits
34-46 min	Phishing	Sender, link, tone	Three emails sorted
46-54 min	Students write	Advice note to a classmate	At least three measures
54-60 min	Exit check	Three quick questions	All three right

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Copyright runs for a fixed term

In Hong Kong copyright lasts the author life plus 50 years; an author who died in 1980 is protected to the end of 2030, with the work entering the public domain the following year.
Students confuse buying a book with buying the copyright: what they bought is a licence to use, not to copy and distribute.
Education is not a blanket exemption; it needs both non-commercial use and no effect on normal exploitation.

Ask students: why photocopying a whole textbook for a class is still risky (it replaces sales).

Scene 2: Password strength can be measured

Eight lowercase letters: pool 26, entropy 8 x log2 26 = 37.6 bits. Add capitals and digits and the pool is 62, giving 47.6 bits.
That is 10.0 bits more, so 2^10.0 or about 1046 times the combinations.
At a billion guesses a second, lowercase alone lasts about 0.0 years and the mixed pool about 0.00692 years; always attach the unit.

Ask students: why length beats symbols (length is the exponent; symbols only enlarge the base).

Scene 3: Phishing leaves three clues

Step one, read the sender domain (tutorzone.com.hk and tutorzone-hk.com are different worlds). Step two, hover the link and read the tail. Step three, read the tone: urgency, threats, a demand to type a password now.
Quantify it: send 100 emails and 3 get clicked, a 3% hit rate; one click is enough to lose an account.
Three defences: two-factor authentication, a password manager, regular backups; only the backup repairs damage after a hit.

Ask students: why two-factor stops a stolen password (the second factor was never leaked).

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Calculation	Expiry year	Death year plus 50, effective next year	2030
Calculation	Entropy	Length x log2(pool)	47.6 bits
Identification	Phishing check	Sender, link, tone	One piece of evidence each
Essay	IP dispute	Owner, user, society: one line each	One measure per side

Sanity check (teach this): Entropy is in bits, not “strength points”; state the unit.
Add the pools explicitly: 26 + 26 + 10 = 62.
The term runs from the year after death, so write whether you mean 2030 or 2031.
The hit rate denominator is emails sent, not emails clicked.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Death in 1980, term 50 years: expiry	2030	1980 + 50
Entropy of 8 characters from a pool of 62	47.6 bits	8 x log2 62
Hit rate: 3 clicks from 100 emails	3%	3 / 100

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Confusing licence with copyright	“I bought it, so I can copy it”	You bought use rights; copying and distribution are separate rights.
Dropping the unit	“Strength 47.6”	Write 47.6 bits or the marker cannot read your method.
Pool of 26 only	Using 26^8 after adding capitals	If you added capitals and digits, they belong in the pool.
Vague phishing answers	“It looked suspicious”	Typos are only a clue; name the domain and the link target.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Paper 1 short answers: copyright and licensing (Q6-Q7) — One statutory condition per answer
Paper 2 case study: school data leak (Q9) — Three steps from phishing to repair
All lesson-prep guides — Compare the ten-section structure

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Expiry year	2030	All three right: next chapter
Entropy of 8 mixed characters	47.6 bits	One wrong: redo log2
Hit rate of 3 from 100	3%	Two wrong: return to act three

09 Tutor FAQ

Why does length beat symbols?

Length sits in the exponent; going from 8 to 12 characters multiplies by 26^4.

May a school use copyrighted material?

For teaching demonstration yes, but not as a substitute for purchase or for public distribution.

Are password managers safe?

With a strong master password yes; they remove reuse, which is the biggest risk.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.