licensing and bonding requirements;

 permits;

 health, workplace or environmental regulations;

 special regulations covering your industry or profession;

 insurance coverage;

 trademarks, copyrights or patents (pending, existing or purchased).

Liability

The question of liability arises for information consultancy services, as it does for any professional practice. Normally these services have a standard set of ‘terms and conditions’ which indicate to the client the extent of the research that will be undertaken (e.g. published and publicly available material), the time limits that will be met, any guarantees that the service can offer and any disclaimers that may be necessary. It is prudent for both private and public sector fee-based information services to maintain professional indemnity insurance.

Other consultants doing the kind of assignments you plan to perform are the best source of advice. If your work does not encompass elements likely to damage property or cause personal injury, you probably do not need insurance. Contract language to minimise the likelihood of litigation is always a good idea, as long as it does not signal a risk to the client.

If, on the other hand, there have been precedents where clients have sued consultants doing work similar to what you want to do, you should investigate professional liability coverage. Such insurance tends to be expensive, so the best bet is to seek out legal advice on the matter. Also, check to see if your professional association has made an arrangement that gets a better rate for members.

Intellectual property and copyright

Copyright is a clearly defined legal area which has a direct impact on the activities of an information consultant. The issues at stake must be clearly recognised by all staff at all times. It is not an area that can be fudged and ignorance of the law is no defence. The codes of ethical practice often include paragraphs referring to copyright issues. The Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) has a separate one: Statement of Policy Concerning Intellectual Property Rights.¹ It is a requirement that all staff should be aware of the law and respect the effect it will have on their work.

The information consultant has the duty to accept the regulations of copyright and is also responsible for informing their client to do so. It is a responsibility to inform clients about potentially applicable provisions of international copyright laws regarding the reproduction and photocopying of protected materials.

Staff should realise that today’s copyright laws extend beyond the printed word. There is special legislation covering electronic copying from databases and other media. The limitations expressed in the legislation may be overcome by a special contract between the suppliers and the users which may allow for a definition of rights and duties in a way that is not possible through a special legislation.

Creative commons (CC) is a special marking of documents. It provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use these documents as it is marked under the CC sign: copyright terms from ‘All Rights Reserved’ to ‘Some Rights Reserved.’

Employers own the tangible expressions of the work you were paid to do. Hence files, lists and documentation produced while you were employed are not yours to take. You may, however, keep copies of ‘public’ information available broadly to those outside the employer organisation, such as a presentation given at a conference or an article written for publication.

Ethics and quality

Business ethics has been defined as the application of principles about right and wrong to the range of activities (institutions, technology, transactions, dealings and processes) defined as ‘business’. The application of ethical principles to the realities of business life can lead to a tension between the ideals of fairness in human transactions and the imperatives of competition and profit-making.

Your starting point should be, when it comes to ethics, the code of practice emanating from professional bodies: for example, the code of practice drawn up by the AIIP, ‘Code of Ethical Business Practice’,² or the ‘Code of Ethics for CI Professionals’ from the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).³ Business ethics and the morality of trading still lead to conflicts within the information profession. However, for those who take the business plunge in this sector, there is practical evidence that ‘good ethics is good business’.

The codes address such issues as:

It further addresses standards of professional behaviour in respect of:

The reason for creating these codes of practice is to allow the users of the services of information consultants to feel confident that there exists a framework of professional ethics which governs provision of these services. However, the value of such statements becomes clearer when the question of industrial espionage is addressed. An ethical information broker will not concern themselves with industrial espionage, however good or relevant their skills are in this area. There have been a handful of legal cases in this area in several countries, which means unwelcome publicity for the legitimate information broker who operates inside the law and to a professional standard. It does emphasise the importance of the codes of conduct to the legitimate operator.

Code of Professional Conduct for the Information Consultant

These rules are based on the international ethical norms and professional practices which have been adopted by the FEACO (European Federation of Management Consultancies Associations) and ICMCI (International Council of Management Consulting Institutes) members. This code is consistent with the EU directives, the purpose of which is to assure the benefits of the client.

Chapter 5 checklist