ABSTRACT
The responsibility of software companies towards society has not been high on the agenda of the corporate social responsibility community, perhaps because the environmental and social impacts of production appear to be very low, while the value added to society appears pretty high. In January 2005, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) announced the establishment of a group to develop a global standard on social responsibility. The ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility had its first meeting in March 2005 in Salvador, Brazil, establishing a workplan culminating in the issue of standardised guiding principles for the field of social responsibility. Professions can therefore play a role in perpetuating class divisions, which could become a key issue for professionalisation in area of business–society relations. The issue of patenting of software is just one of the intellectual property issues facing the information and communications technology sector that have implications for public benefit, and thus can be considered in the context of corporate responsibility.
