ITHETHIC: Book Review
De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-
Share Alike 3.0 Philippines License.
COMPILATION
OF
BOOK REVIEWS
By: Ivy Casil
ITHETHIC: Book Review
PREFACE
Hi there!
This is a compilation of all of my book reviews for the 3 books namely as the
Cyber Ethics, Handbook of Ethics and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid for
my ITETHIC class at De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde.
This compilation includes all of my opinions and insight. I had a hard and
memorable time doing this since it made me awake all night long for a week. This
book contains Book Reviews. I as well as the others who also made the same book
as I am came up with our own unique ideas on how we see through the
deliverables.
After 14 weeks of doing this (it is not that easy to accomplish this
), I find it
refreshing that I was able to make this book and I can say that you’ll be needing a
lot of time and sacrifice to do this but it was a great experience.
I am honor to present you that this is my first ever made book and with all
due respect that we may have different opinions, I respect yours.
Enjoy reading and I hope you’d like it!
Thank You!
Ivy Rose A. Casil
ITHETHIC: Book Review
DEDICATION
I DEDICATE THIS TO MY FAMILY, FRIENDS, LOVE-ONE, PROFESSORS, AND TO
GOD.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
ETHICS AND THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION
QUOTE:
Computing Technology is the most powerful and most flexible technology ever devised. For this
reason, computing is changing everything—where and how we work, where and how we learn, shop,
eat, vote, receive medical care, spend free time, make war, make friends, make love (Rogerson &
Bynum, 1995)
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
It is further to understand the values and importance of relaying out information. It also
underlies the study of ethics in the cyberspace and the significance of understanding the effect of
computer to mankind. Furthermore, I am expecting to learn about how the information in the
cyberspace are being used.
REVIEW:
The impact of computers on our society was probably best seen when in 1982 Time
magazine picked the computer as its “Man of the Year,” actually listing it as “Machine of the Year.” It
is hard to imagine a picture of the Spirit of St. Louis or an Apollo lander on the magazine cover
under a banner “Machine of the Year.” This perhaps shows how influential the computer has
become in our society.
The computer has become helpful in managing knowledge at a time when the amount of
information is expanding exponentially. The information stored in the world’s libraries and
computers doubles every eight years. In a sense the computer age and the information age seem to
go hand in hand.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
The rapid development and deployment of computing power however has also raised some
significant social and moral questions. People in this society need to think clearly about these
issues, but often ignore them or become confused.
One key issue is computer crime. In a sense, computer fraud is merely a new field with old
problems. Computer crimes are often nothing more than fraud, larceny, and embezzlement carried
out by more sophisticated means. The crimes usually involve changing address, records, or files. In
short, they are old-fashioned crimes using high technology.
LESSON LEARNED:
have learned that the computer technologies do not constitute a safe medium of providing
relevant information that could be used by different government agencies. We must be conscious
on what information we would like to divulge about ourselves for self-preservation purposes.
Furthermore, it is necessary to read the terms of conditions of any site we would like to visit in
order to be certain on how the personal information relayed will be used.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is Cyber ethics?
2. What is the significance of understanding the concepts of ethics in the cyberspace?
3. What are the tips in order to protect relevant information about you?
4. How is information being distributed to interested parties?
5. Why is cyber ethics important?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
ETHICS ON-LINE
QUOTE:
The gap between rich and poor nations, and even between rich and poor citizens in
industrialized countries, is already disturbingly wide. As educational opportunities, business and
employment opportunities, medical services and many other necessities of life move more and more
into cyberspace, will gaps between the rich and the poor become even worse?
LESSON EXPECTATION:
I am aware that on-line communications do not only encompass communicating along with
other people. I would like to learn the laws governing on-line communications. Furthermore, to
assess the crime being committed through on-line activities.
REVIEW:
One of the biggest issues plaguing the Internet today is the theft of other people’s
intellectual property and copywritten material. In 1967, the World Intellectual Property
Organization was founded in order to establish intellectual property boundaries and rules, so that
people’s hard-fought work would remain the property of the people who created it. The
Organization decided that intellectual property refers to: “Literary and artistic works, which
includes every production in the literary, scientific, and artistic domain, whatever the mode of
expression, dramatic and dramatic-musical works, choreographic works, photographic works, and
works of applied art.” As a member of the WIPO, The United States has laws stating that only the
author of this work has the right to display, copy, perform, or distribute intellectual property.
However, with the Internet as a new method of distributing information, many of these intellectual
property laws were challenged. Very few people would photocopy and sell pages from books, for
example, but what about copying and selling computer programs? It’s very much the same thing.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Computer programs are protected exactly the same way as books, so if people distribute programs
without the author’s permission, it is illegal. This isn’t the biggest problem, however. Most people
on their home computers don’t copy programs, so this is only an issue with very knowledgeable
people, or large bootleggers; not an issue for everyday people. What is an important issue, though,
is the illegal copying of information on the Internet, such as text and images on web pages. It is even
argued that caching web sites (the way that browsers automatically store web sites on one’s
desktop for a faster load next time that page is accessed) is illegal by the WIPO laws, because the
information is copied onto one’s hard drive. Also controversial is the trading of copywritten songs
via MP3’s online. While recently the Recording Industry Association of America has succeeded in
shutting down Napster, the most widely used song trading program, there are still places and
programs that allow users to illegally download and trade music online. This is a much wider
problem than copying programs. Millions of songs are traded online each day, all without the
permission of the creator. While this may seem very harmless, it is in fact a violation of one of the
key issues of Computer Ethics.
LESSON LEARNED:
I have learned that computer is a medium for various crimes. Most of the crime being
committed is stealing private property of one another. Even the identity of these people could be
stolen as well. The government still needed to provide extensive laws to govern the internet.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is on-line ethics?
2. What are the crimes being committed when on-line?
3. What are the laws that govern on-line activities?
4. What is theft?
5. Who is Deborah Johnson?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
REASON, RELATIVITY, AND RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPUTER ETHICS
QUOTE:
We are entering a generation marked by globalization and ubiquitous computing. The second
generation of computer ethics, therefore, must be an era of “global information ethics.” The stakes are
much higher, and consequently considerations and applications of Information Ethics must be
broader, more profound and above all effective in helping to realize a democratic and empowering
technology rather than an enslaving or debilitating one. (T. Bynum, S. Rogerson, 1996)
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
Ethical responsibility begins by taking the ethical point of view. We must respect others and their
core values. If we can avoid policies that result in significant harm to others, that would be a good
beginning toward responsible ethical conduct. Some policies are so obviously harmful that they are
readily rejected by our core-value standards.
REVIEW:
The computer revolution has a life of its own. Recently, in northern California about onesixth
of the phone calls didn’t connect because of excessive use of the Internet. People are surging
to gain access to computer technology. They see it as not only a part of their daily lives but a
necessary venue for routine communication and commercial transactions.
In fact, the surge has become so great that America On Line, a prominent Internet service
provider, offered its customers refunds because the demand for connection overwhelmed the
company’s own computer technology. The widespread desire to be wired should make us reflect on
what awaits us as the computer revolution explodes around the world. The digital genie is out of
the bottle on a worldwide scale.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
The prospect of a global village in which everyone on the planet is connected to everyone
else with regard to computing power and communication is breathtaking. What is difficult to
comprehend is what impact this will have on human life. Surely, some of the effects will be quite
positive and others quite negative. The question is to what extent we can bring ethics to bear on the
computer revolution in order to guide us to a better world or at least prevent us from falling into a
worse world. With the newly acquired advantages of computer technology, few would want to put
the genie completely back into the bottle. And yet, given the nature of the revolutionary beast, I am
not sure it is possible to completely control it, though we certainly can modify its evolution. Aspects
of the computer revolution will continue to spring up in unpredictable ways – in some cases causing
us considerable grief. Therefore, it is extremely important to be alert to what is happening. Because
the computer revolution has the potential to have major effects on how we lead our lives, the
paramount issue of how we should control com- puting and the flow of information needs to be
addressed on an ongoing basis in order to shape the technology to serve us to our mutual benefit.
LESSON LEARNED:
Selling computer software which is known to malfunction in a way which is likely to result
in death is an obvious example of responsibility in computer ethics. Other policies easily meet our
standards. Building computer interfaces which facilitate use by the disabled is a clear example. And
of course, some policies for managing computer technology will be disputed. However, as I have
been emphasizing, some of the ethical policies under dispute may be subject to further rational
discussion and resolution. The major resolution technique, which I have been emphasizing, is the
empirical investigation of the actual consequences of proposed policies.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. Who is Terry Bynum?
2. What is the importance of responsibility in computer ethics?
3. Why is reason and relativity significant in the daily aspect of computer technology?
4. How is computer ethics being practice?
5. Is computer informationally enriching?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
DISCLOSIVE COMPUTER ETHICS
QUOTE:
Ethics is always and already the ‘other’ side of politics (Critchley 1999)
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
To have a viewpoint on what is disclosive ethics is all about. The essay will also provide me
of an indication of the effects of disclosive ethics to morality. More particularly, we are concerned
with the way in which the interest of some become excluded through the operation of closure as an
implicit and essential part of the design of information technology and its operation in socialtechnical
networks.
REVIEW:
Ethics is always and already the ‘other’ side of politics (Critchley 1999). When we use the
term ‘politics’ (with a small ‘p’)–as indicated above–we refer to the actual operation of power in
serving or enclosing particular interests, and not others. For politics to function as politics it seeks
closure–one could say ‘enrolment’ in the actor network theory language. Decisions (and
technologies) need to be made and programmes (and technologies) need to be implemented.
Without closure politics cannot be effective as a programme of action and change. Obviously, if the
interests of the many are included–in the enclosure as it were–then we might say that it is a ‘good’
politics (such as democracy). If the interests of only a few are included we might say it is a ‘bad’
politics (such as totalitarianism). Nevertheless, all political events of enclosing are violent as they
always include and exclude as their condition of operation.
It is the excluded–the other on the ‘outside’ as it were–that is the concern of ethics. Thus,
every political action has, always and immediately, tied to its very operation an ethical question or
ITHETHIC: Book Review
concern–it is the other side of politics. When making this claim it is clear that for us ethics (with a
small ‘e’) is not ethical theory or moral reasoning about how we ought live (Caputo 1993). It is
rather the question of the actual operation of closure in which the interests of some become
excluded as an implicit part of the material operation of power–in plans, programmes, technologies
and the like. More particularly, we are concerned with the way in which the interest of some
become excluded through the operation of closure as an implicit and essential part of the design of
information technology and its operation in social-technical networks.
LESSON LEARNED:
As those concerned with ethics, we can see the operation of this ‘closure’ or ‘enclosure’ in
many related ways. We can see it operating as already ‘closed’ from the start–where the voices (or
interests) of some are shut out from the design process and use context from the start. We can also
see it as an ongoing operation of ‘closing’–where the possibility for suggesting or requesting
alternatives is progressively excluded. We can also see it as an ongoing operation of ‘enclosing’–
where the design decisions become progressively ‘black-boxed’ so as to be inaccessible for further
scrutiny. And finally, we can see it as ‘enclosed’ in as much as the artifacts become subsumed into
larger socio-technical networks from which it becomes difficult to ‘unentangle’ or scrutinize.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is disclosive computer ethics?
2. Why is ethics is always the other sides of politics?
3. Who is Phillip Brey?
4. What is totalitarianism?
5. Is disclosive computer ethics selective?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
GENDER AND COMPUTER ETHICS
QUOTE:
Research on gender and ICTs has emerged as one of the major critical forces for the social
study of information technologies. Although I do not want to belabour this point here, it is worth
noting that ‘mainstream’ ICTs studies have tended to view the idea of gender as an analytical
dimension as, at best, something to be added on after the main business. Witness the way that edited
collections of ICTs studies often have just one paper on gender (e.g. Dutton, 1996).
LESSON EXPECTATION:
To be able to grasp the idea that women contribute to the growth of computer ethics in the
world. Furthermore, to become aware of how women are treated in the cyberspace. In addition,
what are the laws that are being implemented to protect the well-being of the women.
REVIEW:
Looking toward other more radical approaches to ethics throws into relief the question of
power structures in relation to our use of information technology. Gender and technology studies
have proved successful in exposing power relations in the development and use of technologies. At
the same time, major developments in feminist ethics over the last two decades, particularly in
terms of Gilligan’s (1982) ‘ethic of care’ make this an area at least as important as computer ethics
in terms of overall contribution to philosophical ethics. I claim that bringing feminist ethics to bear
on computer ethics offers a novel and fruitful alternative to current directions in computer ethics in
two major ways: firstly in revealing continuing inequalities in power and where liberal approaches
to power do not work; and secondly, in offering an alternative, collective approach to the
individualism of the traditional ethical theories encapsulated in computer ethics. Nowhere are
these issues more important than in thinking about gender and computing in a networked age. I am
ITHETHIC: Book Review
suggesting that a pressing problem for computer ethics involves formulating a position on the way
that women, and indeed other social groups such as ethnic minorities and the differently able, may
be disadvantaged or even disenfranchised with regard to information and communications
technologies. This is a well recognized phenomenon. Recognizing it is one thing; suggesting what to
do about it is quite another. But I argue that the sort of liberal, inclusive, consultative measures,
already becoming enshrined in computing bodies’ codes of ethics and other policy documents, may
not have the effect of properly involving women users in decision making about computer systems
and women in computing in general, despite the will to do so. Unfortunately liberal views, despite
holding rhetoric of equality and participation often make no challenge to the structures that are
causing that inequality in the first place.
In debates about including women in technology, we can see a very clear example of where a liberal
view has not had the effect it desired. I am referring to the various campaigns to attract more
women into science and engineering or information technology which were popular in the UK and
other Western countries in the late 1980s and later (Henwood, 1993). The idea behind these is well
known.
LESSON LEARNED:
I have learned that women are being harassed every now and then in the internet. Through
the spread of pornography, women became vulnerable to men. It is about time that the government
should implement grave laws to preserve women as they are. We must be able to implement laws
that would not discredit the people in the internet, most specially the women.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is pornography?
2. How women were harassed on-line?
3. What are the laws governing pornography?
4. What are the effects of pornography to mankind?
5. How can we preserve our well-being?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
IS THE GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE A DEMOCRATIC TECHNOLOGY?
QUOTE:
The world is slowly witnessing the development of the global information infrastructure (GII),
a seamless web of communication networks, computers, databases and consumer electronics that will
put vast amounts of information at user’s finger tips (United States. Information Infrastructure Task
Force 1994).
LESSON EXPECTATION:
To learn the impact of global information infrastructure to the humanity and to be able to
confirm users of said information. Furthermore, to be able to identify the uses of information
infrastructure. In addition, to define global information infrastructure and its effect to democracy.
REVIEW:
The world is slowly witnessing the development of the global information infrastructure
(GII), a seamless web of communication networks, computers, databases and consumer electronics
that will put vast amounts of information at user’s finger tips (United States. Information
Infrastructure Task Force 1994). Through the global information infrastructure, users around the
world will be able to access libraries, databases, educational institutions, hospitals, government
departments, and private organisations located anywhere in the world. The Internet, a global
network of computers and networks is being seen as the front runner to GII, and is providing an
opportunity and infrastructure for publishing and distributing all types of information in various
formats in the shortest possible time and at the lowest cost. With millions of people around the
world accessing the Internet and still a large number trying to do so, providing information content
on the Internet has become a major business, economic, cultural and even political activity. Both
large and small business institutions are marketing their products through the Internet. Cultural
ITHETHIC: Book Review
institutions such as music and film industries, national libraries, archives and museums are also
establishing their presence on the Net. Political parties and governments around the world are also
using the Internet to communicate their policies, programmes and ideologies.
LESSON LEARNED:
The concerns which many scholars have raised regarding the dangers that this endless flow
of information can present to the specificity of culture are not without merit. Certainly the
information which comes from Western countries has embedded within it certain ideals and beliefs
which are inherently Western. Yet the idea that the myriad and diverse cultures of the world will
simply conform and change, becoming homogenized and as monotonous as this information is a bit
ridiculous, given the many years which these cultures have thrived. One must also remember that
the nature of culture itself is changeable. It is simply not one solid or static thing. And despite the
many differences which exist from culture to culture and country to country, the globalization of
information provides opportunities for a better understanding of all of these. Therefore, despite
cultural differences, certain universal understandings of ethical concepts are possible and universal
rules can be reached to govern this new global village of sorts.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is global information infrastructure?
2. What is the effect of global information infrastructure to democracy?
3. What are the uses of global information infrastructure?
4. Are all nations benefited by global information infrastructure?
5. How is global information infrastructure being distributed?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
APPLYING ETHICAL AND MORAL CONCEPTS AND THEORIES TO IT CONTEXTS: KEY
PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES
QUOTE:
We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but
patterns that perpetuate themselves. (Wiener 1954)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
In most countries of the world, the “information revolution” has altered many aspects of life
significantly: commerce, employment, medicine, security, transportation, entertainment, and so on.
Consequently, information and communication technology (ICT) has affected — in both good ways
and bad ways — community life, family life, human relationships, education, careers, freedom, and
democracy (to name just a few examples). “Computer and information ethics”, in the broadest sense
of this phrase, can be understood as that branch of applied ethics which studies and analyzes such
social and ethical impacts of ICT. The present essay concerns this broad new field of applied ethics.
REVIEW:
When the War ended, Wiener wrote the book Cybernetics (1948) in which he described his
new branch of applied science and identified some social and ethical implications of electronic
computers. Two years later he published The Human Use of Human Beings (1950), a book in which
he explored a number of ethical issues that computer and information technology would likely
generate. The issues that he identified in those two books, plus his later book God and Golem, Inc.
(1963), included topics that are still important today: computers and security, computers and
unemployment, responsibilities of computer professionals, computers for persons with disabilities,
computers and religion, information networks and globalization, virtual communities, teleworking,
ITHETHIC: Book Review
merging of human bodies with machines, robot ethics, artificial intelligence, and a number of other
subjects. (See Bynum 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006.)
Although he coined the name “cybernetics” for his new science, Wiener apparently did not
see himself as also creating a new branch of ethics. As a result, he did not coin a name like
“computer ethics” or “information ethics”. These terms came into use decades later. (See the
discussion below.) In spite of this, Wiener’s three relevant books (1948, 1950, 1963) do lay down a
powerful foundation, and do use an effective methodology, for today’s field of computer and
information ethics. His thinking, however, was far ahead of other scholars; and, at the time, many
people considered him to be an eccentric scientist who was engaging in flights of fantasy about
ethics. Apparently, no one — not even Wiener himself — recognized the profound importance of
his ethics achievements; and nearly two decades would pass before some of the social and ethical
impacts of information technology, which Wiener had predicted in the late 1940s, would become
obvious to other scholars and to the general public.
LESSON LEARNED:
According to Wiener’s metaphysical view, everything in the universe comes into existence,
persists, and then disappears because of the continuous mixing and mingling of information and
matter-energy. Living organisms, including human beings, are actually patterns of information that
persist through an ongoing exchange of matter-energy. Thus, he says of human beings,
We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but
patterns that perpetuate themselves.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is moral ethics?
2. Who is Norbert Wiener?
3. What is cybernetics?
4. What is information revolution?
5. Who is the author of God and Golem, Inc.?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
JUST CONSEQUENTIALISM AND COMPUTING
QUOTE:
Computer ethics is a field of professional ethics concerned with issues of responsibilities and
conduct for computer professionals, Gotterbarn (1991).
LESSON EXPECTATION:
Because of the global impact of computing in recent years, and because of the merging of
computing and communications technologies that has also recently occurred, the field of computer
ethics might be perceived as one that is currently in a state of flux or transition.
REVIEW:
Computer users may be classified as either aware or unaware of security aspects. The
former group mistrusts unfamiliar agents while the latter group are not at all aware of potential
security risks associated with agent computing. A framework to analyse the security risks of agent
computing will create and raise awareness of how secure agents are.
Intuitive assessment of agent behaviour may be misleading and it can be argued that a
systematic ethical analysis will provide a more reliable basis for assessment. For example the
actions of Clippy may be considered as unethical by an expert user due to Clippy’s obtrusive
character – however the systematic ethical analysis of Clippy’s actions in section 4.2, reveals that
Clippy’s actions can at most be considered irritating, but certainly not unethical.
An a posteriori systematic analysis of the behaviour of an agent can assist developers of said
agent to improve the modelling of the secure and ethical behaviour of future versions of the agent.
Once the behaviour of a number of agents have been analysed in this systematic fashion, norms and
criteria for the design of new agents that will exhibit acceptable secure and ethical behaviour can be
ITHETHIC: Book Review
formulated and continually refined. This may lead to a simplification of the security measures
imposed on the agent.
LESSON LEARNED:
Moor (2001) summarises the theory of just consequentialism to imply that the ends,
however good, “do not justify using unjust means”. Regarding the contemplation, and in particular
the performance of some action, one would thus need to determine whether unjust means would be
required to facilitate performance of the action by the user, the agent or the host. Therefore, if it is
not possible to achieve the envisaged end (performance of the action) without utilizing unjust
means, the requirement of just consequentialism is not satisfied.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Who is James Moor?
2. What is computer ethics?
3. Why are computers malleable according to Moor?
4. Who is Deborah Johnson?
5. What are the uses of computer?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
THE INTERNET AS PUBLIC SPACE: CONCEPTS, ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS IN PUBLIC
POLICY
QUOTE:
“A typical problem in computer ethics arises because there is a policy vacuum about how
computer technology should be used” (Moor, 2000).
LESSON EXPECTATION:
It is very much important to understand ethics and its connection to internet. It is
furthermore important to consider privacy in the computer context as a delicate subject. The paper
will aim to answer the question regarding the internet as a public space
REVIEW:
To answer such a question, perhaps it would help to consider a particular computer ethics
issue, such as personal privacy and computers, vis-à-vis the Internet. Helen Nissenbaum has
recently shown how certain intrusions into the activities of online users are not currently protected
by privacy norms because information available online is often treated as information in “public
space” or what she describes as a sphere “other than the intimate.” She also notes that few
normative theories sufficiently attend to the public aspect of privacy and that philosophical work
on privacy suffers a “theoretical blind spot” when it comes to the question of protecting privacy in
public. Agreeing with Nissenbaum that activities on the Internet involving the monitoring and
recording of certain kinds of personal information can cause us to reconsider our assumptions
regarding the private vs. public character of personal information currently available online, Tavani
argues that Moor’s “control/restricted access theory” of privacy can be extended to resolve issues
involving the protection of personal privacy in the “public space” of the Internet. Despite the
challenges that the Internet has posed with respect to protecting certain kinds of personal
ITHETHIC: Book Review
information, however, there is no compelling evidence that any genuinely new privacy issues have
been introduced by that medium or that we need a new category of “Internet privacy,” as some
have suggested. Analogously, there does not appear to be a convincing argument for the claim that a
separate field of “Internet ethics” is needed, either.
LESSON LEARNED:
If you take precautions (such as forcing people to log in with laborious security measures)
then I’d argue perhaps your private areas could be effected – you can’t very well argue you
stumbled inadvertently into an area that forces you to log in with a secure password). If you end up
offended… oh well :p However, if crimes are committed there, especially against children, I will
support law enforcement in stringing up your sorry tuck us – online or not.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is internet?
2. What is internet ethics?
3. What must we realize about internet being a public space?
4. What is computer ethics?
5. What are the laws implemented to safeguard privacy in the computer world?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
THE LAWS OF CYBERSPACE
QUOTE:
“The telecoms is too large, too heterogeneous, too turbulent, too creatively chaotic to be
governed wholesale, from the top down,” (Huber)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
It is problematic in our global information society to assert that the grounds for ethics, in
particular information ethics, lies in this Western tradition. If we are trying to create a genuine
dialog about ethical values and ethical reasons in the multicultural internet world, we cannot be
bound solely to this tradition, because, for example, Chinese and Indians have engaged in ethical
thought and ethical reasoning and the grounds for the resolution of their ethical dilemmas may or
may not be the same as those offered in Western society.
REVIEW
The FCC does a poor job of regulating telecommunications and that it may someday face
termination. But can common law courts do any better? Huber convincingly argues that they can.
“The telecoms is too large, too heterogeneous, too turbulent, too creatively chaotic to be governed
wholesale, from the top down,” he explains. “In a place like that, nothing except common law can
keep up”. Huber is not alone in touting the common [p. 1750/p. 1751] law’s unique ability to
grapple with cutting-edge legal issues. He does, however, evince an unusual appreciation of the
common law as a spontaneous order.
Huber understands that common law originates not in the holdings of any court or courts,
but rather in the actual practices of those who have to live with the law. “Rules evolve
spontaneously in the marketplace and are mostly accepted by common consent. Common-law
ITHETHIC: Book Review
courts just keep things tidy at the edges” (p. 8). Even when practical rules face litigation, the
common law continues to grow and develop “out of rulings handed down by many different judges
in many different courtrooms.” Looping back to the real world, judicial rules then once more face
the acid test of experience. “The good rules gain acceptance by the community at large, as people
conform their conduct to rulings that make practical sense” (p. 8). Like the telecosm itself, the
common law represents a complex, decentralized, and interlinked spontaneous order.
By attributing only modest powers to courts, Huber’s account contrasts with that of
Lawrence Lessig, another prominent advocate of applying judicial procedures to new and puzzling
legal issues. Lessig claims of the Internet “that we are, vis-à-vis the laws of nature in this new space,
gods; and that the problem with being gods is that we must choose. These choices . . . will be made,
by a Court . To the contrary, like the market place, the English language, or the common law, the
Internet arose out of human action but not human design. No one person or institution can create
or predict such spontaneous orders. Lessig’s claim that officers of the court enjoy god-like power
over the Internet thus smacks of hubris. Huber’s account of the modest powers of common law
courts at least avoids that tragedy.
LESSON LEARNED:
Law and Disorder in Cyberspace presents a thesis revolutionary in the truest sense of the
word: it argues for overthrowing the existing corrupt order by returning to earlier, better, more
fundamental values. So defiant a book naturally reads, to quote its dust jacket, as a “polemic.” Yet
Law and Disorder in Cyberspace merits serious attention from scholars and policy wonks. Huber
makes a strong case for abolishing the FCC and relying on common law to rule the telecosm. The
flaws of Law and Disorder in Cyberspace make it not irrelevant, but all the more interesting.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What are the laws of cyberspace?
2. Who is Kellogg Huber?
3. What are the means of implementing the laws of cyberspace?
4. What is information ethics?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
5. What is cyberethics?
CYBER ETHICS
OF BLACK HOLES AND DECENTRALIZED LAW-MAKING IN CYBERSPACE
QUOTE:
Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we
know there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known
unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown
unknowns–the ones we don’t know we don’t know. (Rumsfeld, 2002)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
This study seeks to identify significant philosophical implications of the free, open source
option as it has emerged in global software development communities. A three part approach
inspired by the Carl Mitcham’s philosophy of technology has been employed. Each section has
touched on some ideas whose elucidation are in no way complete
REVIEW:
James Moor suggested that “conceptual muddles” and “policy vacuums” exist where there
are problems lacking a philosophical framework to address them, and this is particularly true of
computer technology (Moor, 1985). Likewise, Walter Maner proposed that innovations in computer
technology create unique, new ethical problems (Maner, 1995). For years, this conceptual vacuum
has been filling with the musings of self-proclaimed accidental revolutionaries like Richard
Stallman, Eric Raymond, and Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, as well as industry
leaders like Bill Gates and Tim O’Reilly. While subject area experts have arisen in the field of
computer ethics and the philosophy of computing and information, articulation of the ethical
implications of trends favoring free, open source software are only beginning to be featured in
ITHETHIC: Book Review
academic publications and conferences. An excellent example is the 2007 North American meeting
of IACAP, which keynoted free software and open access. The argumentative approach I have
selected is borrowed from the philosophy of technology, in particular the work of Carl Mitcham and
Andrew Feenberg, to present practical and moral advantages of the FOS option. Finally, I will offer a
third approach based on its potential epistemological advantages.
In Thinking through Technology: the Path between Engineering and Philosophy, Carl
Mitcham introduced the Engineering Philosophy of Technology (EPT) as the field of study focused
on determining the best way to conduct engineering and technological endeavors (Mitcham, 1994).
This work is from the insider’s perspective, and the obvious starting point to transfer insights from
the technical arena to the academic study of FOSS. There is a ready set of commonly cited practical
benefits supported by empirical research as well as the methodologies used to evaluate, organize,
and execute such projects (Lerner and Tirole, 2005). Practical ethics have to do with making
everyday choices and judging which are appropriate based on their anticipated outcome. In this
respect, technologists engage ethics in the early stages of project management when they evaluate
options. A fundamental differentiation of options to be considered has always been between inhouse
versus third party, or build versus buy (Weinstock and Hissam, 2005). Other ‘practical ethics’
employed by technology decision makers include minimizing the total cost of ownership (TCO),
using the best tool for the job, standardizing on a particular technology tool set, and outsourcing
where there is no competitive advantage, which is to leave the decision to a third party. One ought
to add, “utilizing free, open source options where feasible.”
LESSON LEARNED:
Software piracy is very tempting due to the relatively high cost of commercial applications,
the easy transfer of digital information, and the lack of a perception of doing harm. Software piracy
is especially common among curious academics and hobbyists
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. Why not avoid the moral dilemma by selecting FOSS?
2. What is the FOS option?
3. Who is Walter Maner?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
4. Who is James Moor?
5. Who is Deborah Johnson?
CYBER ETHICS
FAHRENHEIT 451.2: IS CYBERSPACE BURNING?
QUOTE:
Any content-based regulation of the Internet, no matter how benign the purpose, could burn
the global village to roast the pig.” U.S. Supreme Court majority decision, Reno v. ACLU (June 26,
1997)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
This paper examines the free speech implications of the various proposals for Internet
blocking and rating. Individually, each of the proposals poses some threat to open and robust
speech on the Internet; some pose a considerably greater threat than others.
REVIEW:
The ashes of the CDA were barely smoldering when the White House called a summit
meeting to encourage Internet users to self-rate their speech and to urge industry leaders to
develop and deploy the tools for blocking “inappropriate” speech. The meeting was “voluntary,” of
course: the White House claimed it wasn’t holding anyone’s feet to the fire.
The ACLU and others in the cyber-liberties community were genuinely alarmed by the tenor
of the White House summit and the unabashed enthusiasm for technological fixes that will make it
easier to block or render invisible controversial speech. (Note: see appendix for detailed
explanations of the various technologies.)
Industry leaders responded to the White House call with a barrage of announcements:
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Netscape announced plans to join Microsoft together the two giants have 90% or more of
the web browser market in adopting PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) the rating
standard that establishes a consistent way to rate and block online content;
IBM announced it was making a $100,000 grant to RSAC (Recreational Software Advisory
Council) to encourage the use of its RSACi rating system. Microsoft Explorer already employs the
RSACi ratings system, Compuserve encourages its use and it is fast becoming the de facto industry
standard rating system;
Four of the major search engines the services which allow users to conduct searches of the
Internet for relevant sites announced a plan to cooperate in the promotion of “self-regulation” of
the Internet. The president of one, Lycos, was quoted in a news account as having “thrown down
the gauntlet” to the other three, challenging them to agree to exclude unrated sites from search
results;
Following announcement of proposed legislation by Sen. Patty Murray (D Wash.), which
would impose civil and ultimately criminal penalties on those who mis-rate a site, the makers of the
blocking program Safe Surf proposed similar legislation, the “Online Cooperative Publishing Act.”
But it was not any one proposal or announcement that caused our alarm; rather, it was the
failure to examine the longer-term implications for the Internet of rating and blocking schemes.
What may be the result? The Internet will become bland and homogenized. The major
commercial sites will still be readily available they will have the resources and inclination to selfrate,
and third-party rating services will be inclined to give them acceptable ratings. People who
disseminate quirky and idiosyncratic speech, create individual home pages, or post to controversial
news groups, will be among the first Internet users blocked by filters and made invisible by the
search engines. Controversial speech will still exist, but will only be visible to those with the tools
and know-how to penetrate the dense smokescreen of industry “self-regulation.”
LESSON LEARNED:
People from all corners of the globe people who might otherwise never connect because of
their vast geographical differences can now communicate on the Internet both easily and cheaply.
One of the most dangerous aspects of ratings systems is their potential to build borders around
ITHETHIC: Book Review
American- and foreign-created speech. It is important to remember that today; nearly half of all
Internet speech originates from outside the United States.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What are the six reasons why self-rating schemes are wrong for the Internet?
2. What is self- rating Schemes?
3. Internet Ratings Systems How Do They Work
4. Who is Ray Bradbury?
5. Is cyberspace burning?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
FILTERING INTERNET IN THE USA: IS FREE SPEECH DENIED?
QUOTE:
To give up the fight, without exhausting our defenses, could cost the surrender of our “soul”.
(Leo Tolstoy)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
Perhaps you are now aware how the internet has empowered us to access vast body of
information so easily. However, that same ease in accessing information is a “double-edged sword”
– it enabled others also to invade our privacy just as easily. Nothing seems to be inviolable
anymore.
REVIEW:
While many have seen the danger of such invasion of privacy from the government, we fail
to recognize or prefer to ignore a greater source of intrusion to our privacy — private companies
and institutions (many we do not suspect), including “non-profit” organizations, medical
institutions, etc. The New York Times has published articles of how political candidates gather
information about you when you visit their website.
Before the crash of the “dot.com” industry, some of the business “policy makers” [sic]
considered archived personal data, as a commercial commodity that could be gathered and traded
at will by the “dot.coms”, even without the person’s consent. “Cookies” are left in computers or
other diabolical codes are integrated surreptitiously in formatted internet page, advertisements,
etc. All these were meant to track your internet viewing habits.
The moment you get into a commercial website in the internet, most likely data is gathered
about your internet activities — what sites you have visited, how often, when and what you are
ITHETHIC: Book Review
looking for, to mention just a few that can be accessed readily about your activity. While you may be
able to employ some diabolical subterfuge (e.g., using a different internet name) to hide your
identity, many software programs have been developed to thwart your efforts so that they will be
able to identify even your location or name. Many savvy websites can even access the code of your
computer by planting “cookies” in your computer. Armed with other information that can be
bought readily from other sellers of personal information, these sites have the power to identify
you more specifically — social security number, address, financial and medical records, debt history,
etc. — if they have interest to do so.
Tracking the behavior of individuals and groups has been a preoccupation of social
scientists, poll takers, the advertising industry and all companies that have something to sell.
However, previous studies or “ratings” usually just involved a small “statistical sample” of a
population. With the coming of the internet and increasing power of computers in terms of speed,
automation and storage capacity, it is now theoretically possible to monitor the behavior of every
individual connected to the internet.
LESSON LEARNED:
Many people decry this state of the internet — invasion of privacy, over commercialization
and monopolistic trends in the building of the infrastructure of the internet — where we as
individuals are viewed merely as “consumers”.
If all of us who care about these issues can band together, we may be able to shape the
future of the internet so that we can create an internet community that would be more respecting of
our privacy and humanity. This is almost a quixotic goal and many of my friends have dissuaded me
from embarking on such path.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is freedom of speech?
2. Who is Leo Tolstoy?
3. What is Internet?
4. What is privacy?
5. How internets do invades our privacy?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
CENSORSHIP: THE INTERNET AND THE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LAW OF 1996: A CRITIQUE
QUOTE:
If Pornography offends the moral standards of a community, then the community can regulate
pornography to defend its moral character (Easton 1998, 614).
LESSON EXPECTATION:
In this case it may be instructive to look at the legal definitions of obscene or pornography
for ways of incorporating sexual obscenity in to the term more closely. Therefore, courts, when
examining whether material is obscene, consider whether the material tends to “deprave or
corrupt” people who are likely to use the material. The focus on the consumer of the material has
been criticized on the grounds that it fails to acknowledge harms to the non-consumers of the
material like women.
REVIEW:
Raymond Gastil argues that pornography should be subject to censorship and regulation
because the majority has the right to regulate non-political, public speech that is harmful or
offensive to the majority. His argument starts with the assertion that a distinction between the
public and private spheres of life are valid, and that the majority has a right to regulate the public
space in some way (Gastil 1997, 190). He uses the example of nudists, who must where clothes in
public, but in private camps or homes can dress or not dress as they please, to illustrate the
majority’s right to an inoffensive public space and a minority’s right to a private moral space (Gastil
1997, 190). He then goes on to argue that only the free speech which bears on the consideration of
voters choices and the public interest is protected by the First Amendment, not private speech in
the private interest (Gastil 1997, 191). He argues that freedom of speech should “be protected by a
more absolute but less all inclusive principle that refers to rational political discourse as an
ITHETHIC: Book Review
ineluctable requirement of political democracy.” (Gastil 1997, 191). From these arguments he
concludes that the regulations on privately interested speech in the public space can be subjected to
censorship if it is deemed harmful. He then concludes that pornography is harmful because 1) it
diminishes the specialness and dignity of human life and 2) it reduces the creativity of artists and
society by diverting public resources to activities that are wholly uncreative and of little redeeming
value. Based on these broad harms, and the legitimate right of the majority to regulate public
spaces, pornography can legitimately be censured.
Leo Groarke argues that Mill allowed for censorship based on forms of indirect harm. His
argument starts with the assertion that Mill implied that a restriction on freedom of expression was
acceptable to prevent the promotion of harm to others (Groarke 1997, 201). He cites examples such
as defamation, conspiracy, threats, intimidation and similar offenses as examples where the
promotion of harm is justification for limits on freedom of expression. On these grounds, Groarke
suggests much of the current pornography promotes harm by condoning kidnapping, rape, torture
and other violent acts as legitimate means of achieving sexual satisfaction (Groarke 1997, 201). He
rejects Gastil’s approach of appealing to some sort of community or majority sensibility because it
is an “arbitrary infringement on the freedom of expression”, while regulations justified by
pornography’s promotion of harm are more respectful of the freedom of expression and still allow
for the prohibition and control of the most offensive pornography (Groarke 1997, 203). He
summarizes his position by stating that “the key to such censorship is the principle that the
promotion of harm to others should not be tolerated, a principle that can be used to justify the
changes to obscenity law that prohibit such material, though not the changes that allow a broader
censorship.” (Groarke 1997, 205). In sum, Groarke feels that justifications for censorship that are
based on a community standard, like Gastil’s, are too broad in applicability, while a justification of
censorship that applies harm, as Mill more or less intended, is sufficient to protect society from
obscene material while still protecting freedom of expression broadly.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
LESSON LEARNED:
Child pornography is a special case in United States. For example, as a result of New York v.
Ferber, the Miller obscenity standard does not apply because the Supreme Court ruled that child
pornography is by definition obscene (Akdeniz 1996). The court took this stand for a number of
reasons. First, the production of such pornography with children as subjects is harmful to them;
second, the value of the material is negligible at best; and third, the distribution of child
pornography is inseparable from its role in the abuse of children (Akdeniz 1996).
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is Pornography?
2. Who is Raymond Gastil?
3. Who is Leo Groarke?
4. Who is Loren Clark?
5. What is Communication Decency Act?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
PICS: INTERNET ACCESS CONTROLS WITHOUT CENSORSHIP
QUOTE:
Restricting inappropriate materials at their source is not well suited to the international
nature of the Internet, where an information source may be in a different legal jurisdiction than the
recipient. Moreover, materials may be legal and appropriate for some recipients but not others, so that
any decision about whether to block at the source will be incorrect for some audiences. (Paul Resnick)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
When
PICS was announced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
in September
1995, it was widely hailed as a stroke of genius. The developers, a group of computer scientists and
software manufacturers, promoted PICS as “Internet Access Controls without Censorship”. PICS
publicity emphasized a
multiplicity of rating systems
, voluntary self-rating and labeling by content
providers and blocking software installed on home computers.
REVIEW:
In general, PICS specifies only those technical issues that affect interoperability. It does not
specify how selection software or rating services work, just how they work together.
PICS-compatible software can implement selective blocking in various ways. One possibility is to
build it into the browser on each computer, as announced by Microsoft and Netscape. A second
method-one used in products such as CyberPatrol and SurfWatch-is to perform this operation as
part of each computer’s network protocol stack. A third possibility is to perform the operation
somewhere in the network, for example at a proxy server used in combination with a firewall. Each
alternative affects efficiency, ease of use, and security. For example, a browser could include nice
interface features such as graying out blocked links, but it would be fairly easy for a child to install a
ITHETHIC: Book Review
different browser and bypass the selective blocking. The network implementation may be the most
secure, but could create a performance bottleneck if not implemented carefully.
PICS does not specify how parents or other supervisors set configuration rules. Even that
amount of configuration may be too complex, however. Another possibility is for organizations and
on-line services to provide preconfigured sets of selection rules. For example, an on-line service
might team up with UNICEF to offer “Internet for kids” and “Internet for teens” packages,
containing not only preconfigured selection rules, but also a default home page provided by
UNICEF.
Labels can be retrieved in various ways. Some clients might choose to request labels each
time a user tries to access a document. Others might cache frequently requested labels or download
a large set from a label bureau and keep a local database, to minimize delays while labels are
retrieved.
LESSON LEARNED:
Some people
allege that opposition to PICS results from ignorance and fear. Others regard
that as the pot calling the kettle black. PICS was, after all, developed by people fearful of
government censorship and who were apparently ignorant of the repressiveness of some
governments.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is PICS?
2. What is Metadata?
3. Who is Paul Resnick?
4. What is Multiplicity Rating Systems?
5. What is Labeling?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS AND DEFAMATION: NEW STANDARD OF LIABILITY
QUOTE:
“It is not reasonable to expect editors, producers and journalists to know and apply eight
separate defamation laws in publishing newspapers and magazines circulating throughout Australia
and in selecting material for transmission on national broadcasting and television programs.”
Australian Law Reform Commission, 1979
LESSON EXPECTATION:
Several factors make ISPs attractive defendants in defamation claims, many of which relate
to the costs associated with litigation. For example, the author of a defamatory statement will often
reside outside the jurisdiction of the plaintiff, whereas the ISP that carried the statement does
business in the plaintiff’s jurisdiction. It might be difficult, time-consuming, or even impossible, to
determine the actual author of the message. And even if the author can be identified, he or she may
be judgment proof, whereas the ISP likely has ‘deeper pockets’.
REVIEW:
The liability of ISPs for defamation in the United States and Britain has been addressed by
both the courts and legislatures in the respective countries. Early American decisions focused on
distinguishing between ISPs that acted as publishers or distributors. Subsequent legislation in both
jurisdictions has resulted in marked differences in the potential for legal liability of ISPs in America
and Britain that supposedly reflect the inherent government policies of each country. These policies
reflect a balancing of such interests as freedom of speech, personal reputation, and the promotion
of electronic communication and commerce. The author argues that a liberal judicial interpretation
of the relevant provisions of the U.S. Communications Decency Act of 1996 has exceeded the scope
ITHETHIC: Book Review
of government policy, whereas the U.K. Defamation Act 1996 does little to recognize the Internet as
a unique communications medium.
The advent of the Internet has resulted in legislatures and courts around the world reevaluating
laws and policies on issues as diverse as taxation, privacy, and contract formation. The
liability of the Internet Service Provider (ISP), the company that is the vehicle for the user’s access
to the Internet, and which brings information to the user from around the world, is potentially
staggering if one applies to it long-established legal principles for issues such as distribution of
pornography, breach of copyright, or misrepresentation. Defamation of character over the Internet
is illustrative of the problem. ISP liability must reflect the need for law makers to balance the
interests of its citizens who may be libeled because of postings accessed around the world, with the
interests of society generally that use ISPs as conduits to this largely unfettered global
communication medium.
LESSON LEARNED:
The liability of intermediaries for defamation has a long history in the common law.
‘Publishers’, such as newspapers, which traditionally exerted editorial control over content, are
generally liable for the defamatory statements that they publish. ‘Distributors’, such as bookstores
or newsstands, exert very little if any editorial control, and have the benefit of the ‘innocent
disseminator’ defense. Innocent disseminators are protected from liability for defamation if they
did not know of the libelous statement, there were no circumstances that ought to have led them to
suppose it contained a libel, and they were not negligent in being ignorant of the libel.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is Internet Services Provider?
2. What is defamatory publication?
3. What is libel?
4. What is pornography?
5. What is Defamation Act of 1996?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT
QUOTE:
The DMCA is anti-competitive. It gives copyright holders — and the technology companies that
distribute their content — the legal power to create
closed technology
platforms and exclude
competitors from interoperating with them. Worst of all, DRM technologies are clumsy and ineffective;
they inconvenience legitimate users but do little to stop
pirates
. Timothy B. Lee
LESSON EXPECTATION:
This article will further expand the meaning of Digital Millennium Copyrights Act. It will
also highlight the importance of DMCA for the mankind. Likewise, it will also enumerate the
disadvantages of the said act.
REVIEW:
The DMCA has had an impact on the worldwide
cryptography
research community, since an
argument can be made that any cryptanalytic research violates, or might violate, the DMCA. The
arrest of Russian programmer
Dmitry Sklyarov
in 2001, for alleged infringement of the DMCA, was
a highly publicized example of the law’s use to prevent or penalize development of anti-DRM
measures. While working for
Elcomsoft
in Russia, he developed The Advanced eBook Processor, a
software application allowing users to strip usage restriction information from restricted
e-books
,
an activity legal in both Russia and the United States. Paradoxically, under the DMCA, it is not legal
in the United States to provide such a tool. Sklyarov was arrested in the United States after
presenting a speech at
DEF CON
and subsequently spent nearly a month in jail. The DMCA has
also been cited as
chilling to legitimate users, such as students of cryptanalysis
(including, in a
well-known instance, Professor
Edward Felten and students at Princeton
), and security consultants
ITHETHIC: Book Review
such as
Niels Ferguson
, who has declined to publish information about vulnerabilities he
discovered in an
Intel
secure-computing scheme because of his concern about being arrested under
the DMCA when he travels to the US.
LESSON LEARNED:
The DMCA has been criticized for making it too easy for copyright owners to encourage
website owners to take down allegedly infringing content and links which may in fact not be
infringing. When website owners receive a takedown notice it is in their interest not to challenge it,
even if it is not clear if infringement is taking place, because if the potentially infringing content is
taken down the website will not be held liable.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is DMCA?
2. What is copyright?
3. What is cryptography?
4. What are the provisions of DMCA?
5. What are the advantages of DMCA?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
NOTE ON THE DECSS TRIAL
QUOTE:
“Our main goal,” said Gross, “is to build a strong, solid record to take to the appeals court,
where civil liberties are taken more seriously.”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
Linux came to the forefront of the ongoing DeCSS trial late last week. That’s because, in a
very real way, Linux started the uproar that has resulted in eight movie studios suing Eric Corley.
The trial could ultimately affect the way consumers use products they purchase and the way
researchers advance technology.
Journalist Eric Corley — better known as Emmanuel Goldstein, a nom de plume borrowed
from Orwell’s
1984
– posted the code for DeCSS (so called because it decrypts the Content
Scrambling System that encrypts DVDs) as a part of a story he wrote in November for the wellknown
hacker journal 2600. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claims that Corley
defied anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by posting the
offending code for anyone to download from his Website.
REVIEW:
The whole affair began when teenager Jon Johansen wrote DeCSS in order to view DVDs on
a Linux machine. The MPAA has since brought suit against him in his native Norway as well.
Johansen testified on Thursday that he announced the successful reverse engineering of a DVD on
the mailing list of the Linux Video and DVD Project (LiViD), a user resource center for video- and
DVD-related work for Linux. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization based in
San Francisco which supports civil liberties in digital arenas, is providing a legal defense that cites,
ITHETHIC: Book Review
among other issues, fair use. After all, the EFF argues, if you buy a DVD, why can’t you play it on any
machine you want?
LESSONS LEARNED:
The judge in the case, the honorable Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court in southern New
York, issued a preliminary injunction against posting DeCSS. Corley duly took down the code, but
did not help his defense by defiantly linking to myriad sites which post DeCSS.
By taking his stand, Corley has brought key issues of the digital age to trial. Among them is the right
to experiment and to share knowledge, he said. The case also points to the DMCA’s broad
protections, which for the first time not only give copyright to creative work but also to the
software — or any other technology — that protects it.
Still open is the question of whether the injunction against Corley, or the fight against DeCSS
itself, is not a vain struggle in the face of inevitable change. Judge Kaplan, whom the defense
requested recuse himself based on conflict of interest, said last Thursday to Mikhail Reider, the
MPAA’s chief of Internet antipiracy, “You are asking me to issue an injunction against the guy who
unlocked this barn, [telling him] not to unlock it again — even though there is no horse in it.” “It’s
good to see that [the judge] is realizing the futile nature of dealing with these issues this way,” said
Robin Gross, an EFF attorney and a member of the defense team.
Though the MPAA may not be able to stop DeCSS, there are other issues at stake that are
unrelated to digital piracy.
Copyright is not the issue to supporters of the defense in this trial. “I think that anyone who
holds First Amendment rights dear, in addition to Linux users at large, are interested in satisfying
the copyright of entertainment properties, as long as fair use and freedom of speech is not
inhibited,” said Jim Gleason, president of the New York Linux Users Group, which plans further
protests should Corley lose the case.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is DeCSS?
2. What is Trial ?
3. What is the copyright issue of the defense trial?
4. Who is the Judge?
5. What is the plans ?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
A POLITICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: ENVIRONMENTALISM FOR THE NET
QUOTE:
Without that balance, there is a danger of absolutizing the claims to ownership and control to
the detriment of other interested parties, something we have noted in recent legislative proposals.
Samuelson, 1997)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
The question is, how much protection is required, and when and to what extent should it
apply?
This paper addresses that question. First it presents some cases that illustrate the range of
possible intellectual property rights. Next it examines the traditional justifications for such rights. It
then critiques those justifications, not to refute them, but to show their limits. Finally it proposes a
different way of looking at the problem, using traditional natural law ethics.
REVIEW:
Intellectual property is an odd notion, almost an oxymoron. Property usually refers to
tangible assets over which someone has or claims control. Originally it meant land. Now it could
also refer to a car, a milling machine, a jacket or a toothbrush. In all these cases the property claim
is of control of the physical entity. If I claim a plot of land as my property, I am saying I can control
who has access to that land and what they do there. I can build a fence around it, rent it out, or drill
for oil on it. If a car is my property, I get the keys to it. I can exclude others from using it and use it
myself for whatever I want, as long as I do not threaten the lives or property of others. Intellectual
property is different because its object is something intangible, although it usually has tangible
expression. The intellectual property in a book is not the physical paper and ink, but the
ITHETHIC: Book Review
arrangement of words that the ink marks on the paper represent. The ink marks can be translated
into regions of magnetic polarization on a computer disk, and the intellectual property, and
whatever claims there are to that property, will be the same. The owner of a song claims control,
not of the CD on which the song is recorded, but of the song itself, of where when and how it can be
performed and recorded. But how can you build a fence around a song? What does it mean to “own”
an idea? Where are the locks that keep other people from “driving” it?
Intellectual property has always been closely tied to technology. Technology arises from
intellectual property in the form of new inventions. But technology also supports intellectual
property by providing new, more powerful and more efficient ways of creating and disseminating
writing, musical composition, visual art, and so on. In fact it was the technology of the printing
press that originally gave rise to intellectual property as a legal and moral issue. Before, when it
took almost as much of an effort to reproduce a document as it took to create it, there was little
need to impose limits on copying. It was only when inexpensive reproductions became feasible that
it was seen as necessary to give authors more control over how their works were used by creating
copyrights.
LESSON LEARNED:
Computer technology has created a new revolution in how intellectual property is created,
stored, reproduced and disseminated; and with that has come new challenges to our understanding
of intellectual property and how to protect it. Of course computers have given rise to a whole new
category of intellectual property, namely computer software. A major commercial program can take
a team of one hundred or more highly skilled and highly paid programmers years to create and can
sell for hundreds, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars per copy. Yet someone with access to
such a program can make a copy in moments at practically no cost.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is intellectual property?
2. What is information?
3. What is copyright?
4. What is plagiarism?
5. What is computer technology?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY , INFORMATION, AND THE COMMON GOOD
QUOTE:
“With air pollution there was, for example, a desire of the people living in Denver to see the
mountains again. William Ruckelshaus
LESSON EXPECTATION:
Everyone says that we are moving to an information age. Everyone says that the ownership
and control of information is one of the most important forms of power in contemporary society.
This article will tend to review the importance of politics of intellectual property.
REVIEW:
The most succinct encapsulation of the problem comes from an article co-written by the
current head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, who in a former life was one of the
most distinguished scholars of information economics. “There is a fundamental conflict between
the efficiency with which markets spread information and the incentives to acquire information.”
This problem is often, though not always “solved” by ignoring it. A pre-theoretical classification is
made, conventionally ascribing a certain problem to one or other realm and the discussion then
continues on that basis. Thus for example, we tend to look at the field of intellectual property with a
finely honed sensitivity to “public goods” problems that might lead to under production, while
underestimating or failing to mention the efficiency costs and other losses generated by the very
rights we are granting. Some conventional ascriptions visibly switch over time. The contemporary
proponents of legalizing insider trading use the idea of the efficient capital market to minimize or
defend the practice. The first generation of analyses saw the insider trade as the entrepreneur’s
incentive and reward for Faustian recombination of the factors of production. An alternative
method for smoothing over the tensions in the policy analysis is for the analyst to acknowledge the
ITHETHIC: Book Review
tension between efficiency and incentives, point out that there are some limitations imposed on
intellectual property rights, to conclude that there are both efficiency-promoting and incentive
promoting aspects to intellectual property law, and then to imply that an optimal balance has been
struck. (This is rather like saying that because fishermen throw some fish back, we can assume
over-fishing is not occurring.)
LESSON LEARNED:
In general, then, I would claim there is a tendency to think that intellectual property is a
place to apply our “public goods/incentives theory” rather than our “anti-monopoly/free-flow of
information” theory. All by itself, this might push rhetoric and analysis towards more expansive
property rights. The tendency is compounded, however, by two others.
First, courts are traditionally much less sensitive to First Amendment, free speech and other
“free flow of information arguments” when the context is seen as private rather than public,
property rather than censorship. Second, intellectual property rights are given only for “original”
creation.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is intellectual property?
2. What is politics?
3. What is environmentalism?
4. Who is James Boyle?
5. What is public’s good theory?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
IS COPYRIGHT ETHICAL
QUOTE:
A property right is the relationship between individuals in reference to things. Cohen (1935)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
This paper examines the relationship between intellectual property rights and ethics,
focusing for the most part on copyright. The focus is on two key questions: 1) what is the
relationship between ethics and copyright law and practice in the United States; and, 2) is the
concept of private ownership of intellectual property inherently ethical? These questions are
important because access to an overwhelming number of the elements of daily life is now
controlled by intellectual property law. Is non-conformance with these laws a calculated risk
against being caught, equivalent to parking at a meter beyond the specified time period, or is it a
matter of ethics?
REVIEW:
The ethics of copyright can be approached in two ways: (1) If, as Hettinger suggests, every
creator stands on the shoulders of giants what is the essential morality in allowing the last
contributor to reap the full reward or to have the right to prevent others from building on her
contribution; and (2) If, as postulated by Locke, an individual is entitled to what he or she creates,
what are the ethics of limiting a creators rights in regards to his or her creation? Theoretically
copyright law in the United States takes the first view, stating that authors have no natural right in
their creation but only the rights that the state has conferred by reason of policy to encourage the
creation of new works (H.R. REP. No. 2222). This approach assumes that the content of products of
mind (not the objects in which they are embedded) belong to society as a whole, but that society
would benefit more if more such products were available, and that in order to encourage
ITHETHIC: Book Review
production the creator of such products should be given rights that will allow him or her to reap
some economic benefits from the creation. As Branscomb (1984) observed this is encouraging
access by legislating scarcity.
Earlier United States copyright law was better aligned with the encouragement theory and
the ethical position that creative works belonged to society as a whole. Only the exact copying of a
work was prohibited, not new works based on a previous work. Subsequent authors were free to
adapt novels to the stage, abridge scholarly works for the masses, and translate works into other
languages without paying a license fee to the creator or to whom ever the creator had transferred
his or her copyright. However as copyright law has expanded to grant creators more rights the law
has all but abandoned the concept of allowing, let alone encouraging, transformative or productive
use. Copyright no longer has a consistent theory, let alone an ethical position. It has become what is
often called an equitable rule of reason, which attempts to balance the rights of authors with the
rights of users. It is often not clear whether this balance is to be obtained by granting rights via law
or by recognizing the intrinsic rights of each. However, if copyright is indeed only a matter of law
there should be no rights other than those granted by the law. What both creators and users then
have are expectations, but, as Cohen (1985) observed, the law finds value in protecting legitimate
expectations.
LESSON LEARNED:
Ethics are often raised as well in regard to copying software. The Software Publisher’s
Association (SPA), which merged with the Information Industry Association (IIA) in January of
1999 to form the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), offers a guide on Software
Use and the Law (SPA 1997) which states it is intended to provide “a basic understanding of the
issues involved in ethical software use.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is property right?
2. What is copyright?
3. Is copyright unethical?
4. What is Software Publishers’ Association?
5. What is intellectual property?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
ON THE WEB, PLAGIARISM MATTERS MORE THAN COPYRIGHT PIRACY
QUOTE:
Plagiarism epidemic is mainly a result of a simple fact that the web has made plagiarism much
easier than it used to be in the print environment. Cronin (2003)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
Plagiarism and academic honesty have become controversial and widely debated issues.
There are worrisome trends in the behaviour and attitudes of students towards plagiarism and
cheating in their academic work. A new term ”cyber-plagiarism” has since been introduced to
describe the process by which students copy ideas and information from the Internet without
giving attribution, or downloading research papers in whole or in part, and submit the paper as
their own work.
REVIEW:
Plagiarism can be briefly defined as the expropriation of another author’s text, and its
presentation as one’s own. This includes using others’ ideas, information without giving credit and
acknowledgement. It is clear that piracy is the infringement of copyright, and plagiarism is the
failure to give credit to the author. However, many people easily get confused between those two
terms, and one may usually commit both offences. It would be plagiarism but not piracy for us to
take the works of an obscure 18th century poet and try to use them as our own. Since the copyright
will have expired on such works, this is not piracy.
But it still remains plagiarism, because we have used the author’s words and ideas without
accrediting the authorship properly (Snapper, 1999).
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Most people are aware that taking the exact texts or words of another person without
attribution is plagiarism, but they then believe that paraphrasing the original work is acceptable.
Yet taking someone else’s idea and changing the words is like stealing a car and changing its colour.
However, literary works that are stolen differ in many ways from physical properties that are the
targets of ordinary theft. Ideas are less tangible and identifiable than physical objects. Objects that
are stolen remain stolen even if they are taken apart and recombined, but not for ideas. Building
new ideas from old ones, using existing information and combining them, might be called creativity,
not plagiarism.
There is hardly a clear way to determine which idea counts as a brand new and which
requires acknowledgment as a variation on old ideas. In areas such as computer programming and
musical composition, what counts as plagiarism is usually highly ambiguous and debatable.
Snapper (1999) indicated that cyber-plagiarism was growing rapidly and raising many concerns
over its impacts. [9]He also stated that in a period of a few years, students have been able to buy
papers on a various subjects from the Internet. As students can gain access to these papers without
much effort, the issues have become really important and raised serious concerns.
LESSON LEARNED:
Unlike physical objects those belong to, and are in possession of someone else alone, we can
pick up ideas somewhere and treat them as our own. We may remember ideas without
remembering where they come from because without careful notations, recalling a source is much
more difficult than recalling the idea itself. Therefore it is not easy to totally avoid unintentional
plagiarism. However, beside the careless paraphrasing or accidental misleading citations, there are
other harmful plagiarism acts that are negatively influencing the scholarly communities.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is plagiarism?
2. What is piracy?
3. What is copyright?
4. Which is more grave: plagiarism or copyright?
5. What is cyber-plagiarism?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
AN ETHICAL EVALUATION OF WEB SITE LINKING
QUOTE:
“It is important to our company that you know our exact process we take for the education
and understanding on how is the ethical evaluation on web site Linking”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
Web Site linking we use this SEO strategy to navigate people to other pages within the
website for the relevant information they are looking for. This improves navigation and link back
popularity as well. This procedure is not a huge factor in our search engine optimization services
but we have found it very functional for the end user getting them where they want to be in a site
for information they may be looking for and possibly get the website owner the sale or lead in that
specific area. In case people do not understand me on this an interior link can be spotted as a
underlined or highlighted keyword on a specific page that moves you to another URL on that
website.
REVIEW:
For the most part we consult with the person or team of people for that company on the
most important keywords they would like to rank high for. Nine out of ten times we find that the
keywords the companies like to see are not their only main or lateral phrases for keyword
placement and top search engine rankings. In fact I have had keywords come across to me that
really have no relevancy to their web sites goals for success. Scam and Spam search engine
optimization companies eat this up because they realize that some words have no competition to
them and can be achieved with very little effort, and if you’re locked into their contract, you will
sometimes have to shell out more money because they claim they have much more to do. Which
ITHETHIC: Book Review
from an ethical stand point Keyword Performance has a problem with that especially because they
are not looking at your company with ethical standards just their bottom lines.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Each category will be built for a unique area targeting links that compliment the website
services as well as other high Google page ranking directories. The Directory is developed to
increase traffic and search engine popularity by targeting other websites to point back to your
website. This will also help to improve traffic by other audiences finding your website through
another site on the World Wide Web. This is a very important factor in driving your website to the
top for your relevant keyword terms.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is ethical evaluation?
2. What is Web Site Linking?
3. What is the Strategy of Web Site Linking?
4. Why Ethical Evaluation is important?
5. What are the different kinds of Web Site Linking?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
THE CATHEDRAL AND THE BAZAAR
QUOTE:
“Given enough eyeballs, all
bugs
are shallow”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
The Cathedral and the Bazaar (abbreviated CatB) is an essay by
Eric S. Raymond
on
software engineering
methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel
development process
and his experiences managing an
open source project, fetch mail
. It was first presented by the author
at the
Linux Kongress on May 27, 1997
and was published as part of a book of the same name in
1999
REVIEW:
Raymond’s standard talk begins with references to himself as an ordinary but experienced
IT guy of sorts who, without any sort of formal training in sociology, psychology, marketing,
business, or the like, has become the chronicler of the “gnu generation” (not his quote, just a
common one) and predictor of open source things to be. Then, he drones on for an hour or two
about sociology, psychology, marketing, business, and the like. I’ve seen him give this talk in front of
academics. Thankfully, he has little shame, or he’d have dropped dead long ago from the subtle
looks and snickers that inevitably result from his bombast.
It’s rather to warn you, the lay reader–this guy may have attained some sort of status in the
open source community which needs such figures, but it doesn’t mean that what he has to say is
any good or even true. In his works (including “Cathedral”), Eric makes a very one-sided analysis of
software engineering methodologies. It’s a complete ra-ra piece which fails to seriously address the
very many shortcomings of open-source development, including, most critically, the inability to
ITHETHIC: Book Review
scale timewise as well as commercial software (while not under the GNU licence, two years ago
Raymond was predicting the success of the open-source Mozilla browser initiative, which is at this
point a complete fiasco). Instead, he talks about obscure supporting sociological constructs such as
that of “gift cultures” that would only convince the already converted.
LESSONS LEARNED:
What people should be getting out of this book (or a book like this) is a balanced, informed
view of open source vs commercial software, undertaken with sound research on various
cost/effectiveness metrics and some case studies. What we have here is a bible for a community
that desperately needs one, because, as Eric’s whole thrust implies, it is largely ego driven.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is Cathedral and the Bazaar?
2. What is the cathedral model?
3. What is
Linux Kernel?
4. Who is Raymond?
5. Why is this book worth reading?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
TOWARDS A THEORY OF PRIVACY FOR THE INFORMATION AGE
QUOTE:
Few students enter college fully understanding the relationship between plagiarism and the
rules about quoting, paraphrasing and documenting material” (Wilhoit, 1994).
LESSON EXPECTATION:
As scholars are more exposed to the web environment, and use more online resources for
research, the need for protections against plagiarism increases. Because of the volatility
characteristic of the web environment, it is usually difficult to establish or preserve the provenance.
Another concern is that an author may modify the archived primary sources without much effort.
REVIEW:
It may be foolish to consider Eric Raymond’s recent collection of essays, The Cathedral and
the Bazaar, the most important computer programming thinking to follow the Internet revolution.
But it would be more unfortunate to overlook the implications and long-term benefits of his
fastidious description of open-source software development considering the growing dependence
businesses and economies have on emerging computer technologies.
LESSON LEARNED:
The Internet has greatly reduced the efforts to plagiarise among students and scholars. The
integrity of the Internet and academic communities is severely damaged. The main reason why
students get away with internet plagiarism is that we lack of resources to monitor cheating, and the
examiners have to mark too many papers thus cannot give enough attention to each submitted
work. Tools that provide automatic detection of plagiarised works can greatly improve the
ITHETHIC: Book Review
situation. Therefore, computer professionals can provide great help. Firstly, they can implement
new algorithm and create new effective software to identify plagiarised papers. Softwares which
can detect plagiarism in students’ works have proved to be effective.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. Why do students plagiarized?
2. What are the harmful effects of plagiarism?
3. How to combat plagiarism?
4. What are the laws implemented to prevent plagiarism?
5. What is cyber-plagiarism?
6. Why do students plagiarise?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
THE STRUCTURE OF RIGHTS IN DIRECTIVE 95/46/EC ON THE PROTECTION OF THE
INDIVIDUALS WITH REGARD TO THE PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA AND THE FREE
MOVEMENT OF SUCH DATA
QUOTE:
Ethics is always and already the ‘other’ side of politics (Critchley 1999)
LESSON EXPECTATION:
To understand the importance of personal data protection. To establish the directive a
necessary medium in protecting individual data. And furthermore, to importance of implementing
personal data protection.
REVIEW:
The principles of personal data protection established in the Directive 95/46/EC were
implemented into the Polish legal order by the Act of 29 August 1997 on the Protection of Personal
Data (unified text: Journal of Laws of 2002 No. 101, item 926 with amendments). The Act on
Personal Data Protection introduced detailed rules on personal data protection in Poland, and up to
1 May 2004, i.e. up to Poland’s accession to the European Union, included in the Polish legal order
all principles specified in the Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.
The provisions of the Act have been in force since 30 April 1998.
Implementation of the provisions on personal data protection into the Polish legal system
allowed Poland to sign in April 1999 and to ratify in May 2002 the Convention No. 108 of the
Council of Europe. Those activities reflected increasing democratisation of public life in Poland as
well as concern for the protection of privacy of its every citizen.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
The Act on Personal Data Protection determined a legal framework of personal data
handling, as well as the principles to be used in the processing of personal data. It also specified the
rights and obligations of authorities, institutions and persons keeping personal data filing systems,
as well as the right of the data subjects, so as to guarantee maximum protection of the rights and
freedoms to each natural person and respect for his/her private life.
LESSON LEARNED:
The Act on Personal Data Protection while realizing the requirements of the Community specified
the constitutional right to decide on the fact to whom, in what scope and for what purpose we give
our personal data, and gave statutory guarantees of compliance with this right by providing the
data subjects with measures used for exercise of this right and competent authorities and services –
with the legal remedies which guarantee compliance with this right. The main premise of the Act is
granting every individual the right to have his/her data protected.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is directive 95/46/ec?
2. What is personal data protection?
3. What is privacy?
4. When was the directive was established?
5. What is the act on personal data protection?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
PRIVACY, INDIVIDUALITY, CONTROL OF INFORMATION, AND PRIVACY –ENHANCING
TECHNOLOGIES
QUOTE:
“Privacy” is used frequently in ordinary language as well as in philosophical, political and legal
discussions, yet there is no single definition or analysis or meaning of the term.
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
The concept of privacy has broad historical roots in sociological and anthropological
discussions about how extensively it is valued and preserved in various cultures. Moreover, the
concept has historical origins in well known philosophical discussions, most notably Aristotle’s
distinction between the public sphere of political activity and the private sphere associated with
family and domestic life. Yet historical use of the term is not uniform, and there remains confusion
over the meaning, value and scope of the concept of privacy.
REVIEW:
There are several skeptical and critical accounts of privacy. According to one well known
argument there is no right to privacy and there is nothing special about privacy, because any
interest protected as private can be equally well explained and protected by other interests or
rights, most notably rights to property and bodily security (Thomson, 1975). Other critiques argue
that privacy interests are not distinctive because the personal interests they protect are
economically inefficient (Posner, 1981) or that they are not grounded in any adequate legal
doctrine (Bork, 1990). Finally, there is the feminist critique of privacy, that granting special status
to privacy is detrimental to women and others because it is used as a shield to dominate and
control them, silence them, and cover up abuse (MacKinnon, 1989).
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Other commentators defend privacy as necessary for the development of varied and
meaningful interpersonal relationships (Fried, 1970, Rachels, 1975), or as the value that accords us
the ability to control the access others have to us (Gavison, 1980; Allen, 1988; Moore, 2003), or as a
set of norms necessary not only to control access but also to enhance personal expression and
choice (Schoeman, 1992), or some combination of these (DeCew, 1997). Discussion of the concept is
complicated by the fact that privacy appears to be something we value to provide a sphere within
which we can be free from interference by others, and yet it also appears to function negatively, as
the cloak under which one can hide domination, degradation, or physical harm to women and
others.
LESSONS LEARNED:
There is no single version of the feminist critique of privacy, yet it can be said in general that
many feminists worry about the darker side of privacy, and the use of privacy as a shield to cover
up domination, degradation and abuse of women and others. If distinguishing public and private
realms leaves the private domain free from any scrutiny, then these feminists such as Catharine
MacKinnon (1989) are correct that privacy can be dangerous for women when it is used to cover up
repression and physical harm to them by perpetuating the subjection of women in the domestic
sphere and encouraging nonintervention by the state. Jean Bethke Elshtain (1981, 1995) and others
suggest that it appears feminists such as MacKinnon are for this reason rejecting the public/private
split, and are, moreover, recommending that feminists and others jettison or abandon privacy
altogether. But, Elshtain points out, this alternative seems too extreme.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is informational privacy?
2. What is the constitutional right to privacy?
3. What are the Privacy and Control over Information?
4. What is the privacy and Intimacy?
5. Is privacy relative?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
TOWARD AND APPROACH TO PRIVACY IN PUBLIC: CHALLENGES OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
QUOTE:
Privacy provides the necessary context for relationships which we would hardly be human if
we had to do without-the relationships of love, friendship and trust. Charles Fried
LESSON EXPECTATION:
The articles discuss the importance of privacy in public. It also highlights philosophical
views that necessitate the importance of privacy in public. Further more, it also discusses the lack
of privacy in the computer technology.
REVIEW:
Prominent among contemporary philosophical works on privacy is Charles Fried’s. Fried
(1984) argued that privacy is important because it renders possible important human
relationships. Although Fried conceived of privacy as control over all information about oneself, he
defended a moral and legal right to privacy that extends only over the far more limited domain of
intimate, or personal, information. He accepted this narrowing of scope because even a limited
domain of intimate or personal information provides sufficient “currency” for people to
differentiate relationships of varying degrees of intimacy. The danger of extending control over too
broad a spectrum of information is that privacy may then interfere with other social and legal
values. Fried wrote, “The important thing is that there is some information which is protected” ,
namely, information about the personal and intimate aspects of life. According to Fried, the precise
content of the class of protected information will be determined largely by social and cultural
convention. Prevailing social order “designates certain areas, intrinsically no more private that
other areas, as symbolic of the whole institution of privacy, and thus deserving of protection
ITHETHIC: Book Review
beyond their particular importance”. Other philosophers also have focused on the interdependence
between privacy and a personal or intimate realm. Robert Gerstein (1984), for example, contended
that “intimacy simply could not exist unless people had the opportunity for privacy.
Privacy’s purpose, he wrote, is to insulate “individual objectives from social scrutiny. Social
scrutiny can generally be expected to move individuals in the direction of the socially useful.
Privacy insulates people from this kind of accountability and thereby protects the realm of
the personal”. Schoeman, unlike Fried (1984) however, holds that there are domains of life that are
essentially private and not merely determined to be so by social convention.
LESSON LEARNED:
The views of Schoeman, Fried, and Gerstein, though differing in detail, rest on a common
core. Each held that properly functioning, psychically healthy individuals need privacy. Privacy
assures these people a space in which they are free of public scrutiny, judgment, and accountability,
and in which they may unselfconsciously develop intimate relationships with others.
A person’s right to privacy restricts access by others to this sphere of personal,
undocumented information unless, in any given case, there are other moral rights that clearly
outweigh privacy. Although many other writers who have highlighted the connection between
privacy and the personal realm have not attended merely to the status of the “non-personal” realm.
If information is not personal information or if it is documented, then action taken with respect to it
simply does not bear on privacy.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. Who is Helen Nissembaum?
2. What is privacy in public?
3. What is the importance of privacy?
4. Who is Charles Fried?
5. What are the laws governing privacy?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
KDD, PRIVACY, INDIVIDUALITY, AND FAIRNESS
QUOTE:
“The rights and requirements make no sense regarding anonymous data and group profiles.”
LESSON EXPECTATION:
To be able to define KDD and its impact to the society. In addition to be able to understand
its importance and its effect to individuals. And lastly, to understand the importance of privacy.
REVIEW:
The Directive’s definitions and principles themselves certainly reflect ideas about
informational privacy currently held amongst legal and ethical theorists. Sometimes, these
theoretical views on informational privacy are not much more than implicit assumptions. However,
things are different and more articulate where theorists define informational privacy as being in
control over (the accessibility of) personal information, or where they indicate some kind of
personal freedom, such as the preference-freedom in the vein of John Stuart Mill’s individuality, as
the ultimate point and key value behind privacy (see, for instance Parent, 1983 and Johnson.
1989).These theorists consider privacy to be mainly concerned with information relating to
designating individuals. They also tend to advocate protective measures in terms of safeguarding an
individual’s control and consent regarding disclosure of personal information.
Applying the narrow definition of personal data and the protective measures connected to
that definition to the KDD process is not without difficulties. Of course, as long as the process
involves personal data in the strict sense of data relating to an identified or identifiable individual,
the principles apply without reservation.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
However, as soon as the data has ceased to be personal data in the strict sense, it is not at all
clear how the principles should be applied. For instance, the right of rectification applies to the
personal data in the strict sense itself; it does not apply» information derived from this data. The
same goes for the requirement of consent
Once the data has become anonymous, or has been processed and generalized, a1l
individual cannot exert any influence on the processing of the data at all.
LESSON LEARNED:
It should be observed that group profiles may occasionally be incompatible with respect to
individual privacy and laws and regulations regarding the protection of personal data, as it is
commonly conceived of. For instance, distributive profiles may sometimes be rightfully thought of
as infringements of (individual) privacy when the individuals involved can easily be identified
through a combination with other information available to the recipient or through spontaneous
recognition.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
What is KDD?
What is privacy?
What is individuality?
What is fairness?
What is a distributive profile?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
DATA MINING AND PRIVACY
QUOTE:
The reason data warehousing is closely connected with data mining is that when data about
the organization’s processes becomes readily available, it becomes easy and therefore economical to
mine it for new and profitable relationships. Thus data warehousing introduces greater efficiencies to
the data mining exercise. Ann Cavoukian ,1988
LESSON EXPECTATION:
This paper is aimed at answering the following questions: Can data privacy and data mining
coexist? This paper began with an attempt to define the concept of data mining and privacy. And it
goes on to explore how exactly data mining can be a threat to privacy, and especially how the
Internet is currently associated with the tension between data mining and data privacy.
REVIEW:
Data can be one of the most important assets of companies for their marketing plan. Thus,
businesses became interested in collecting and managing consumer’s data. Data mining is a
valuable tool for business. Before we discuss its relation to privacy, it will be helpful to cover what
is data mining.
Though the term data mining is relatively new, data mining attracts tremendous interest in
commercial market place. Lots of businesses pay attention to data mining recently. Why are data
mining and data warehousing mushrooming so greatly now?
According to Cavoukian (1998), data mining is usually used for four main purposes: (1) to
improve customer acquisition and retention; (2) to reduce fraud; (3) to identify internal
inefficiencies and then revamp operations, and (4) to map the unexplored terrain of the
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Internet. Generally, data mining seems a survival strategy for companies in these days.
Indeed, Erick Brethenoux, research director for advanced technologies at the Gartner
Group, calls data mining as “necessary for survival.” He says, “If you don’t use it to predict a
trend before your competitors, you’re dead” (Ennor, 1998)
LESSON LEARNED:
Today we consciously or unconsciously diffuse our data somewhere. Whenever we shop,
use credit card, rent a movie, withdraw money from ATM, write a check and log on the Internet, our
data go somewhere. Virtually, every aspect of our life discloses information about us. With the
development of computing and communication technology, now data can be captured, recorded,
exchanged, and manipulated easier than before. By one estimate, the amount of information in the
world doubles every 20 months, and that means the size of databases also does, even faster.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is data mining?
2. What is privacy?
3. What is data mining relation to privacy?
4. What are the purposes of data mining?
5. Can data privacy and data mining coexist?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
WORKPLACE SURVEILLANCE, PRIVACY AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
QUOTE:
“Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a
similar liberty for others.”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
The court held that the employee had no reasonable expectation of privacy: “unlike urinalysis and
personal property searches, we do not find a reasonable expectation of privacy in email
communications voluntarily made by an employee to his supervisor over the company e-mail
systems notwithstanding any assurances that such communications would not be intercepted by
management. Once plaintiff communicated the alleged unprofessional comments to a second
person (his supervisor) over an email system which was apparently utilized by the entire company,
any reasonable expectation of privacy was lost” (670).
REVIEW:
It has been traditionally accepted that employers have a right to engage in such activities. At the
foundation of this view is a conception of the employment relationship as involving a voluntary
exchange of property. The employer agrees to exchange property in the form of a wage or salary
for the employee’s labor. Conceived as a free exchange, the employment relationship, in the
absence of some express contractual duration requirement, can be terminated at will by either
party for nearly any reason. Exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine include firing someone
for serving on jury duty, for reporting violations of certain federal regulations, or for impermissible
race, sex, or age discrimination on the employer’s part. Accordingly, the terms and conditions of
employment are largely up to the parties to decide.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
LESSONS LEARNED:
Rawls argues that fair terms of cooperation are most likely to be chosen from behind a veil of
ignorance, which he describes as follows: “no one knows his place in society, his class position or
social status, nor does any one know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities,
his intelligence, strength, and the like. Nor again does anyone know his conception of the good, the
particulars of his rational plan of life, or even the special features of his psychology such as his
aversion to risk or liability to optimism or pessimism. More than this, I assume that the parties do
not know the particular circumstances of their own society. That is, they do not know its economic
or political situation, or the level of civilization and culture it has been able to achieve. The persons
in the original position have no information as to which generation they belong. In order to carry
through the idea of the original position, the parties must not know the contingencies that set them
in opposition. They must choose principles the consequences of which they are prepared to live
with whatever generation they turn out to belong to.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
How does this bear on the issue of workplace surveillance?
What’s the point of the veil of ignorance?
How much privacy protection, if any, would these actually provide?
Can you think of a likely situation in these?
What are the principles require employers to refrain from collecting data?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
PRIVACY AND VARIETIES OF INFORMATIONAL WRONGDOING
QUOTE:
“It is not non-exclusion that makes retaliation impossible (for there may be other ways of
punishing the free-rider than by excluding him), but anonymity of the free-rider. Clearly in a small
group it is easier to spot the free rider and sanction him in one of many possible ways once he is
identified than in a large group, where he can hide in the crowd”. De Jasay
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
I expect awareness of informational wrongdoing. It will also define different varieties of
informational wrongdoing. It will also define privacy.
REVIEW:
The privacy issue lies at the heart of an ongoing debate in nearly all Western democracies
between liberalists and communitarians over the question how to balance individual rights and
collective goods. The privacy issue is concerned more specifically with the question how to balance
the claims of those who want to limit the availability of personal information in order to protect
individuals and the claims of those who want to make information about individuals available in
order to benefit the community. This essential tension emerges in many privacy discussions, e.g.
undercover actions by the police on the internet, use of Closed Circuit Television in public places,
making medical files available for health insurance purposes or epidemiological research, linking
and matching of databases to detect fraud in social security, soliciting information about on-line
behavior of internet users from access providers in criminal justice cases.
Communitarians typically argue that the community benefits significantly from having
knowledge about its members available. According to communitarians modern Western
ITHETHIC: Book Review
democracies are in a deplorable condition and our unquenchable thirst for privacy serves as its
epitome. Who could object to having his or her data accessed if honorable community causes are
served? Communitarians also point out that modern societies exhibit high degrees of mobility,
complexity and anonymity. As they are quick to point out, crime, free riding, and the erosion of trust
are rampant under these conditions. Political philosopher Michael Walzer observes that
“Liberalism is plagued by free-rider problems, by people who continue to enjoy the benefits of
membership and identity while no longer participating in the activities that produce these benefits.
Communitarianism, by contrast, is the dream of a perfect free-riderlessness”.
The modern Nation States with their complex public administrations need a steady input of
personal information to function well or to function at all. In post-industrial societies ‘participation
in producing the benefits’ often takes the form of making information about one-self available.
Those who are responsible for managing the public goods therefore insist on removing constraints
on access to personal information and tend to relativize the importance of privacy of the individual.
LESSON LEARNED:
Both in the private as well as in the public sector IT is seen as the ultimate technology to resolve the
problem of anonymity. Information and communication technology therefore presents itself as the
technology of the logistics of exclusion and access-management to public goods and goods involved
in private contracts. Whether IT really delivers the goods is not important for understanding the
dynamics of the use of personal data. The fact that it is widely believed to be effective in this respect
is I think sufficient to explain its widespread use for these purposes. The game-theoretical structure
and the calculability of community gains make the arguments in favor of overriding privacy seem
clear, straightforward and convincing.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What are the different varieties of informational wrongdoing?
2. What is informational injustice?
3. What is informational inequality?
4. What are panoptic technologies?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
5. Define privacy.
CYBER ETHICS
DEFINING THE BOUNDARIES OF COMPUTER CRIME
QUOTE:
Businesses and individuals rely on law enforcement crime statistics when making important
decisions about their safety. Many citizens contact a local police station prior to the purchase of a
home in a particular neighborhood to inquire about the number of burglaries and violent crimes in the
area. Just as these data provide important information for communities in the “real world,” the same is
true in cyberspace.
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
For individuals and organizations to intelligently assess their level of risk, agencies must
provide accurate data about criminal threats. Access to reliable and timely computer crime
statistics allows individuals to determine their own probability of victimization and the threat level
they face and helps them begin to estimate probable recovery costs. Law enforcement
organizations traditionally have taken a leading role in providing crime data and crime prevention
education to the public, which now should be updated to include duties in cyberspace.
REVIEW:
Crime statistics facilitate benchmarking and analysis of crime trends. Crime analysts use
criminal statistics to spot emerging trends and unique modi operandi. Patrol officers and detectives
use this data to prevent future crimes and to apprehend offenders. Therefore, to count computer
crime, a general agreement on what constitutes a computer crime must exist.
In many police departments, detectives often compile and report crime data. Thus,
homicide detectives count the number of murders, sexual assault investigators examine the number
ITHETHIC: Book Review
of rapes, and auto detectives count car thefts. Computer crime, on the other hand, comprises such
an ill-defined list of offenses that various units within a police department usually keep the related
data separately, if they keep them at all. For example, the child abuse unit likely would maintain
child pornography arrest data and identify the crime as the sexual exploitation of a minor. A police
department’s economic crimes unit might recap an Internet fraud scam as a simple fraud, and an
agency’s assault unit might count an on-line stalking case as a criminal threat. Because most police
organizations do not have a cohesive entity that measures offenses where criminals either
criminally target a computer or use one to perpetrate a crime, accurate statistics remain difficult to
obtain.
LESSON LEARNED:
Generally, crime statistics can provide approximations for criminal activity. Usually, people
accurately report serious crimes, such as homicide, armed robbery, vehicle theft, and major
assaults. Many other criminal offenses, however, remain significantly underreported. Police always
have dealt with some underreporting of crime. But, new evidence suggests that computer crime
may be the most underreported form of criminal behavior because the victim of a computer crime
often remains unaware that an offense has even taken place. Sophisticated technologies, the
immense size and storage capacities of computer networks, and the often global distribution of an
organization’s information assets increase the difficulty of detecting computer crime. Thus, the vast
majority of individuals and organizations do not realize when they have suffered a computer
intrusion or related loss at the hands of a criminal hacker.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is computer crime?
2. What are the boundaries of computer crime?
3. What is a crime in general?
4. What are the precautions being offered to combat computer crime?
5. What are the punishments for computer crime?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
TERRORISM OR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: TOWARD A HACKTIVIST ETHIC
QUOTE:
Recently, a number of writers, such as Manion and Goodrum (2000), have begun to argue that
attacks on government and corporate sites can be justified as a form of political activism – that is, as a
form of “hacktivism.” The argument is roughly as follows. Since civil disobedience is morally
justifiable as a protest against injustice, it is sometimes justifiable to commit digital intrusions as a
means of protesting injustice. Insofar as it is permissible to stage a sit-in in a commercial or
governmental building to protest, say, laws that violate human rights, it is permissible to intrude upon
commercial or government networks to protest such laws. Thus, digital attacks that might otherwise
be morally objectionable are morally permissible if they are politically-motivated acts of digital civil
disobedience or hacktivism.
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
In this essay, I argue that this increasingly influential line of reasoning is problematic. First,
I argue that it wrongly presupposes that committing civil disobedience is morally permissible as a
general matter of moral principle; in an otherwise legitimate state, civil disobedience is morally
justified or excusable only in certain circumstances. Second, I attempt to identify a reliable
framework for evaluating civil disobedience that weighs the social and moral values against the
social and moral disvalues. Third, I apply this framework to acts of electronic civil disobedience. I
argue that such acts typically result in significant harms to innocent third-parties that are not
morally justified as an expression of free speech – and especially not as the expression of a view
that is deeply contested in society.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
REVIEW:
It is true, of course, that most civil disobedience has effects on third-parties, but digital civil
disobedience can potentially do much more damage to the interests of far more people than
ordinary non-digital civil disobedience. The effect of the protest in Washington was that many
persons might have been late to work – losses that are easily made up. An attack that shuts down a
busy commercial or public website for a few hours can easily affect hundreds of thousands of
people. If the website’s activity is vital to the economy, this can translate into morally significant
losses of revenue, which will usually be shifted to employees and consumers.
LESSON LEARNED:
One should say much more by way of justification for hacking 300 sites than just a vague
slogan like this. The victims of such an attack, as well as third-parties, have a right to know exactly
what position is motivating the attack and why anyone should think it is a plausible position.The
willingness to impose morally significant costs on other people to advance fringe positions that are
neither clearly articulated nor backed with some sort of plausible justification is clearly
problematic from a moral point of view. It seems clear that such behavior amounts, at least in most
cases, to the kind of arrogance that is problematic on ordinary judgments. Indeed, it is exactly the
sort of arrogance that hacktivists believe they are responding to in their intended victims.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. Why might companies who try to privatize the internet be intimidated by hacktivism?
2. What is the difference between a hacktivist and a cyberterrorist?
3. Should the laws regarding hacktivism be loosened? Explain your answer.
4. How does M&G’s notion of hacktivism fare under the various ethical frameworks we
studied in Chapter 1, in particular: Johnson’s “three rules” (Ethics On-Line), Moor’s “reason
within relative frameworks”, his Just Consequentialism…, Brey’s Disclosive Computer
Ethics, and Adam’s “feminist ethics” (Gender and…) ?
5. Define hacking.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
WEB SECURITY AND PRIVACY: AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
QUOTE:
Ethical theory explains why moral rules are desirable. It can draw on a rich history of
justificatory ideas ranging from duty (deontology) to utility (teleology) to the individual character
(virtue ethics). It is not the purpose of this paper to engage in the ethical discourses surrounding
privacy and security but only to demonstrate their relevance by explicating some of the more
frequently used arguments.
LESSON EXPECTATION:
The main argument of this paper is that there are discourses concerning privacy and
security that focus on the ethical quality of the concepts and that the resulting ethical connotation
of the terms is used to promote particular interests. In order to support this claim, I will briefly
review the literature on privacy and security, emphasizing the ethical angle of the arguments.
REVIEW:
Privacy and Security are concepts that have a strong moral connotation. We value privacy as
well as security because they represent moral values which can be defended using ethical
arguments. This paper suggests that the moral bases of privacy and security render them open to
misuse for the promotion of particular interests and ideologies. In order to support this argument,
the paper discusses the ethical underpinnings of privacy and security. It will then introduce the
critical approach to information systems research and explain the role of ideology in critical
research. Based on this understanding of the centrality of ideology, the paper will discuss the
methodology of critical discourse analysis which allows the identification of instances of ideology.
This will then lead to the discussion of an ideology critique based on Jürgen Habermas’s theory of
communicative action, which will be applied to the websites of Microsoft Vista and Trustworthy
Computing. The results of this discourse analysis support the contention that privacy and security
ITHETHIC: Book Review
can be used for ideological purposes. The paper will conclude by discussing possible avenues to
address this problem.
LESSON LEARNED:
In this paper I have argued that privacy and security are concepts with important moral
connotations. I then suggested that these moral qualities render the concepts open to be used to
promote certain ideologies. In the final step, I have attempted a brief critical discourse analysis on
Haberma’s Theory of Communicative Action to support the suspicion that the moral nature of
privacy and security can be used for ideological purposes.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is the difference between security and privacy?
2. Why secure information is not necessarily private?
3. What are the goals of security?
4. What aspects of security can both be protecting and limiting privacy at the same time?
5. What are the tools used to provide security?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
THE MEANING OF ANONYMITY IN AN INFORMATION AGE
QUOTE:
It is this level of understanding that would make people more cautious, more guarded, more
mindful of the information they divulge to others in various transactions, and as a result, more capable
of protecting the possibility of anonymity.
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
Why does this matter? Although answers to this foundational question will not immediately
yield answers, it is essential to understanding what is at stake in the answer to these question. For,
after all is said and done, we would not want to discover that the thing we have fought so hard to
protect was not worth protecting after all.
REVIEW:
An understanding of the natural meaning of anonymity, as may be reflected in ordinary
usage or a dictionary definition, is of remaining nameless, that is to say, conducting oneself without
revealing one’s name. A poem or pamphlet is anonymous when unattributable to a named person; a
donation is anonymous when the name of the donor is withheld; people strolling through a foreign
city are anonymous because no-one knows who they are. Extending this understanding into the
electronic sphere, one might suggest that conducting one’s affairs, communicating, or engaging in
transactions anonymously in the electronic sphere, is to do so without one’s name being known.
Specific cases that are regularly discussed includes ending electronic mail to an individual, or
bulletin board, without one’s given name appearing in any part of the header participating in a
“chat” group, electronic forum, or game without one’s given name being known by other
participants buying something with the digital equivalent of cash being able to visit any web site
without having to divulge one’s identity
ITHETHIC: Book Review
The concern I wish to raise here is that in a computerized world concealing or withholding
names is no longer adequate, because although it preserves a traditional understanding of
anonymity, it fails to preserve what is at stake in protecting anonymity.
LESSON LEARNED:
For situations that we judge anonymity acceptable, or even necessary, we do so because
anonymity offers a safe way for people to act, transact, and participate without accountability,
without others “getting at” them, tracking them down, or even punishing them. This includes a
range of possibilities. Anonymity may encourage freedom of thought and expression by promising a
possibility to express opinions, and develop arguments, about positions that for fear of reprisal or
ridicule they would not or dare not do otherwise. Anonymity may enable people to reach out for
help, especially for socially stigmatized problems like domestic violence, fear of HIV or other
sexually transmitted infection, emotional problems, suicidal thoughts. It offers the possibility of a
protective cloak for children, enabling them to engage in internet communication without fear of
social predation or — perhaps less ominous but nevertheless unwanted — overtures from
commercial marketers. Anonymity may also provide respite to adults from commercial and other
solicitations. It supports socially valuable institutions like peer review, whistle-blowing and voting.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTION:
1. What is anonymity?
2. What is pseudonym?
3. What is anonymity in a computerized world?
4. How is the concept different from that prior to the computerization of the society?
5. What’s the difference between anonymity and pseudonimity?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
DOUBLE ENCRYPTION OF ANONYMIZED ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE
QUOTE:
“Collecting medical data electronically requires, according to our moral belief, also some kind
of encryption.”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
Both the patient identification in the data and the doctor identification in the data must be
anonymized. We skip the name and address; only the sex and the month-year of birth will be sent
from the doctor to the central database. Even the number of the patient in the doctors database will
be replaced, because once the doctor may be a researcher using the central database who
recognizes one of the patients based on the number.
REVIEW:
To be sure that the data are really sent by the sender of the electronic message, the double
encryption of PGP is a suitable and widely used protocol. The sender encrypts his message with his
secret key firstly and with the public key of the receiver secondly and afterwards he sends the
message. The receiver must decrypt that message first with his own secret key and second with the
public key of the sender according to the header. When the message is readable after this double
decryption, one can be sure that the message was meant to be received by the decrypting receiver
and the message was really sent by the sender named in the header of the message. Thus: double
encryption needs the sender identification in order to decrypt the message with the senders public
key. The problem with an anonymized electronic message is that the senders identification was
anonymized by the virtual postbox.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
LESSONS LEARNED:
To use double encryption for anonymized electronic communication, new requirements
must be specified. In this paper we suggest additional features that network providers must
incorporate in the functionality of electronic message handlers. In fact we propose to add some
‘intelligence’ to the virtual postbox: instead of automatically forwarding, the postbox must now be
able to read the sender from the header, select the appropriate public key from that sender, decrypt
the message with that public key, replace the senders identification and encrypt the message with
its own public key. On the receiver side (the central database) we have to decrypt the message with
the secret key of the virtual postbox and after that with the secret key of the central database
receiver. This procedure requires the availability of a list with only public keys at the virtual
postbox, as well as a program to intervene the electronic communication. Unfortunately, so far none
of the network providers is willing or has been able to implement it. We are building it ourselves
first, to convince the technical feasibility. Meanwhile it is a nice example of ethical constraints
demanding new technology, instead of the opposite
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is Double Encryption of Anonymized Electronic Data Interchange?
2. What do the authors mean by “double encryption used twice”?
3. Is it a robust setup?
4. What is the problem the authors are trying to solve?
5. Why is double encryption necessary in this case?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
WRITTEN ON THE BODY: BIOMETRICS IDENTITY
QUOTE:
“Biometrics will soon hold the key to your future, allowing you and only you to access your
house, car, finances, medical records and workplace (Biever, Celeste 2005).”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
Signature verification is natural and intuitive. The technology is easy to explain and trust.
The primary advantage that signature verification systems have over other types of biometric
technologies is that signatures are already accepted as the common method of identity verification.
This history of trust means that people are very willing to accept a signature based verification
system.
REVIEW:
Biometrics is a technology that verifies a person’s identity by measuring a unique-to-theindividual
biological trait. Biometric technologies include dynamic signature verification,
retinal/iris scanning, DNA identification, face-shape recognition, voice recognition and fingerprint
identification. Biometric identification is superior to lower technology identification methods in
common use today – namely passwords, PIN numbers, key-cards and smartcards.
Biometrics is the measuring of an attribute or behavior that is unique to an individual
person. Biometrics includes measuring attributes of the human body – such as DNA, iris/retina
patterns, face shape, and fingerprints – or measuring unique behavioral actions, such as voice
patterns and dynamic signature verification.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Before biometrics only physical objects or behaviors based-on-memory were used to
identify a computer user. Physical objects include smartcards or magnetic-stripe cards – behaviors
based-on-memory includes the act of entering a PIN number or a secret password.
The primary use of a physical objects or behaviors based-on-memory has a clear set of
problems and limitations. Objects are often lost or stolen and a behavior-based-on-memory is easily
forgotten. Both types are often shared. The use of a valid password on a computer network does not
mean that an identity is genuine. Identity cannot be guaranteed, privacy is not assumed and
inappropriate use cannot be proven or denied. These limitations decrease trust and increase the
possibility of fraud. These limitations are at the root of widespread distrust of the Internet, and
these limitations are the biggest weakness in true network security.
LESSON LEARNED:
Some strengths of using biometrics come from the “distinguishable (rather than unique)
physiological and behavioral traits (Chandra, Akhilesh 2005)” that make up one’s body and the ease
at which they can be used for identification and authentication. Unlike your passwords, you will not
forget your fingerprints, irises, or DNA when you go to work.They are a part of you. They are also
extremely distinguishable from another person’s biometrics. This means that they can be used with
great confidence. Since they are a part of you they are difficult for another person to obtain or fake.
They are also easy to use. All you may have to do is put your finger into a device and it gives you
access if you are authorized or denies you if you aren’t.For these reasons and others, biometric
systems are becoming more mainstream and commonplace. There are, however, some major
weaknesses which need to be considered as biometric systems become more heavily relied upon.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is the entry-point paradox as defined by Roger Clarke?
2. In what ways are name, code, knowledge, and token-based identification schemes deficient?
3. What factors have led to the emergence of a consortium-based specification for a global
standard for biometric technologies?
4. In the context of identity determination and verification, what are the distinctions between
a ‘one to many’ and ‘one to one’ match?
5. In what ways are verification and identification procedures inter-dependent?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE INFORMATION PROFESSIONS
QUOTE:
‘A Physician’s Guide To Medical Writing’, an ideal medical write up framed along ethical
considerations,”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
The efficiency flowing into this professional stream, promises a brighter and strategically
stable future for this industry. But the emergence of certain negative trends in the practice of this
profession poses a threat to its ability to deliver quality contents with reliable information.
REVIEW:
Ethical issues are the concerns that address subjects like, content reliability, data collection
techniques and presentation tactics, marketing strategy and the relevance of research and
development. They play a vital role in relieving the writers of regulatory pressures involved in the
process. Properly includes technical exposition on any subject related to medical science, such as
biochemistry, pharmacologic studies, sanitation and psychoanalysis”. It is the responsibility of the
writer to include necessary technical details under regulatory limitations to establish a level of
understanding among the readers. Such ethical responsibilities have to be shared by the writer as
well as the client. Some ethical considerations to be observed by a client are:-
The client or the researcher should generate complete information on the academic
background of the writer before allotting the assignment. This helps a client to understand the
performance level that could be extracted from a writer.
Regular communication with the writer is an essential condition for the correct formulation
of the content.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
It is pivotal for a client to allow proper validation of the content written for him before mass
circulation.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Ethical and legal considerations enhance the quality and reliability of the content. It is true that the
technical aspects in the profession of medical writing demand constant attention and need to be
presented with clarity. In absence of such considerations it will be impossible for the clients to
bridge the communication gaps between them and the target audience. It is widely accepted by
many researchers that legal and ethical issues can play the role of obstacles in the progress of
marketing a research as they impose certain limitations on the utilization of research products. But
it is important to remember that appropriate observance of these issues can bring momentum in
research activities along with assured standards of safety.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is ethical considerations?
2. What is the information professions?
3. What are the activities of ethical?
4. Define ethical considerations?
5. Find the legal and ethical issues?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING CODE OF ETHICS: APPROVED!
QUOTE:
For Aristotle, on the other hand, the purpose of moral rules was to promote individual moral virtues
and the development of a good will or moral character. Put in more general terms, the
rights/obligations ethicist starts with rules stating obligations about how one should behave and
rights about how I am to be treated, while the virtue ethicist starts with the human character and its
ethical dispositions. Virtue ethics does not lie in following a set of well defined rules but it lies in one’s
character; you have to see what is the right action and then choose to do it.
LESSON EXPECTATION:
How were these two approaches to ethics reflected in the initial development and
responses to the Code? There are several purposes of a code of ethics. Several principles that were
suggested for the code used imperative language.
REVIEW:
In 1993, the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and the Association of Computing Machinery
(ACM) formed a joint committee to help organize software developers and engineers into a
profession. As part of this project, a sub-committee of professionals, academics, and members of
ACM and IEEE-CS began work drafting a code of ethics for software engineers through electronic
mail. After four years of online discussion and revision, version 5.2 of the Software Engineer’s Code
of Ethics and Standards of Practice was adopted by IEEE-CS and ACM in 1998, and since then, the
code has been adopted by software engineering and computer societies worldwide.
The IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineering Code of Ethics Archive documents the drafting,
debate, and final adoption of the joint IEEE Computer Society /ACMSoftware Engineering Code of
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Ethics and Standards of Practice. Indirectly, the archive illustrates how software engineering
developed from an occupation to a profession. The drafting and approval of the Software
Engineering Code, carried out in substantial part by email, has produced a detailed record of the
development of a professional code of ethics. This correspondence, as well as related documents,
interviews, and publications, make up the contents of the IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineer’s Code
of Ethics Archive.
LESSON LEARNED:
Addressing computer ethics issues for the professional and in the classroom needs to
include both of these approaches. The software engineer as a practicing professional acts from a
higher level of care for the customer (virtue ethics) and conforms to the development standards of
the profession (right/obligations ethics). Both types of ethics are needed for the Professional
engineer.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What does IEEE-CS stands for?
2. What does ACM stands for?
3. Why did they develop a joint force ethical approach for software engineering?
4. Enumerate and explain the short version of the software engineering ethics.
5. What is Virtue Ethics?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
NO,PAPA,: WHY INCOMPLETE CODES OF ETHICS ARE WORSE THAN NONE AT ALL”
QUOTE:
“Computer and information ethics”, in the broadest sense of this phrase, can be understood as
that branch of applied ethics which studies and analyzes such social and ethical impacts”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
REVIEW:
The more specific term “computer ethics” has been used to refer to applications by
professional philosophers of traditional Western theories like utilitarianism, Kantianism, or virtue
ethics, to ethical cases that significantly involve computers and computer networks. “Computer
ethics” also has been used to refer to a kind of professional ethics in which computer professionals
apply codes of ethics and standards of good practice within their profession. In addition, other
more specific names, like “cyber ethics” and “Internet ethics”, have been used to refer to aspects of
computer ethics associated with the Internet.
LESSONS LEARNED:
The problem is, that by focusing on these four areas of concern, attention may be taken
away from other, potentially more important, moral issues. Not all important moral issues in
information technology can be put under those headings. Yet focusing on four areas gives the
erroneous impression that adherence to the moral requirements in those areas alone could ensure
moral rectitude.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
The same considerations are highly likely to apply to any moral code that is developed
(whether in computing or elsewhere). Authors of incomplete moral codes risk encouraging others
to act in immoral ways with the author’s apparent sanction.
Related, broader, questions are considered, and it is advocated that there should always be
acknowledgment of the existence of ‘external’, potentially more important, moral issues.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is codes of ethics
2. What are the worse than none at all in ethics
3. What are the kinds of computer ethics?
4. Define codes of ethics?
5. How does codes of ethics existence?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
SUBSUMPTION ETHICS
QUOTE:
“A key factor is whether the subsumptionist can prevent a conscious victim from calling for
help, and whether or not the subsumptionist enjoys toying with a victim who is aware of the process. “
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
Subsumption is a form of violent assault, carried out by one
AI or virtual
against another. It
has been compared, inadequately, to such perversions as rape, cannibalism, and
bodyjacking
. Of
these, cannibalism is the closest equivalent. The attacker takes all of the victim’s memories,
cognitive structures, and available computronium, and incorporates them into emself. Usually this
results in the death of the victim, but in some cases the attacker retains an inactive backup copy, or
keeps the victim as a much-reduced emulation in a simulated environment.
REVIEW:
As may be guessed, the motivations for doing so are rarely benign, and the experiences of
the survivor are not usually pleasant. The very rare restored survivors of such treatment have
compared it to such ancient human practices as lobotomy, emasculation, or blinding, sometimes
followed by various forms of torture.
Usually a subsumptionist simply causes a series of unexplained disappearances and then
moves on before eir activities are noticed. However, a particularly skilled subsumptionist, who has
can retained all of the victim’s traits and memories intact, may conceal the crime from outsiders for
an indefinite period of time. The public “outward” aspect of the victim’s personality is retained as a
kind of mask, and the subsumptionist acts from within this shell.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
LESSONS LEARNED:
Most examples of subsumption have been carried out by sapient-grade entities, or even by
specialized sub-sapient (sentient-level) AIs. The number of subsumption events known to have
occurred between beings of higher toposophic levels is relatively small (the destruction of
numerous lesser sapient and transapient beings by the Archosaurian
Entity
in 9400 a.t. is a recent
exception). Whether this is because such events are actually rarer among transapients or whether
this is because they are difficult for SI<1 observers to detect is unknown. On the other hand, it is not
at all uncommon for lesser entities to be destroyed and/or incorporated when a transapient
ascends to a higher toposophic level. This is regarded as subsumption (and also as a perverse
transcend) in “civilized” parts of the Terragen sphere if the participants are unwilling. It is
considered a kind of voluntary amalgamation if they volunteer. Volition under such circumstances
is a slippery concept at best however; this provides rich material for debates regarding the ethics
and meta-ethics of such events.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is Subsumption?
2. What is the use of transapient?
3. How many numbers in subsumption?
4. Define subsumption?
5. What are the human practices?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
ETHICAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS COMPUTING
QUOTE:
“It will provide readers with a clear knowledge of the complex ethical issues involved in ebusiness
and improve their understanding of widely discussed current issues in e-business such as
those of privacy, information management, data mining, intellectual property, and consumer
tracking.”
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
The internet has revolutionized business by fundamentally changing the means by which
businesses operate and enlarging the opportunities available to them to reach and service
customers. However, in doing so, the development and practice of e-business also raises a host of
ethical issues, such as those pertaining to information security, privacy, data mining, and
intellectual property.
REVIEW:
Therefore, as e-business continues to grow in significance and scope, it is important to
understand and respond to the unique ethical issues associated with e-business. As e-business
models become more common in the world of business, there must be an effort to integrate ebusiness
more fully into the field of business ethics so that scholars and professionals working in
the field can better appreciate and respond to these ethical issues. There thus exists a clear need for
an edited collection of articles that provides a comprehensive and thorough treatment of ethical
issues in e-business.
LESSONS LEARNED:
ITHETHIC: Book Review
This book will aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the most important ethical
issues associated with the expanding world of e-business. Grounded solidly in the most recent
scholarship in business ethics, the book will apply the most relevant theoretical frameworks to
ethical issues in all significant areas of e-business. The book will be written for scholars,
professionals, and students interested in gaining a better comprehension and appreciation of the
moral issues encountered in the multifaceted world of e-business.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is the importance of ethics for e-business?
2. What are the new paradigm of business on the internet and its ethical implications?
Identifying and responding to stakeholders in e-business?
3. How to Applying ethical principles to e-business?
4. What is Ethical issues in e-marketing?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
CYBER ETHICS
THE PRACTITIONER FROM WITHIN: REVISITING THE VIRTUES
QUOTE:
‘Flourishing’ by means of what is variously presented as the formation of virtuous ‘habits’ or a
virtuous ‘character’.
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
A
lthough virtue ethics has received attention in computer and information ethics before
(e.g., Grodzinsky 1999), the emphasis in previous discussion has been on virtue ethics as a means to
instil moral values and behaviours in computer professionals and computer users through
character formation. In this paper, I want to take a different approach that emphasises individual
human flourishing – although moral values and behaviours will also be discussed in the context of
this approach. I want to investigate to what extent virtue ethics can ground a conception of the
good life and, correspondingly, the good society, in relation to uses of information technology and
new media.
REVIEW:
Two specific reasons present themselves at inception in support of positing Virtue Ethics as
a particular object of inquiry in the context of this paper. First, Virtue Ethics has recently
experienced a novel degree of academic and policy-related attention in contemporary and ongoing
work in the fields of political philosophy, freedom and development studies, media and culture
research, and economics. Originally revived and re-introduced into moral philosophy by Elisabeth
Anscombe around 1958, Virtue Ethics is currently a central element in the work of, for instance,
Nussbaum, Sen, Foot, and Solomon. Where it does not form a fundamental part of inquiry it is
nevertheless receiving critical attention (e.g. Baron et. al 1997). What is more – and as the paper
will argue and endeavour to show – there are some complimentarities between Virtue Ethics and
ITHETHIC: Book Review
the other dominant methods of ethics, particularly some versions and elements of Kantianism.
However, salient methodological and analytical incompatibilities will also be highlighted and
examined.
Second, Virtue Ethics has one unique feature which lacks in the other major ethical methods
and which renders it particularly interesting to the present inquiry. This feature is its central
concern with an areatically and ontologically conceived ethical subject and her ‘flourishing’ by
means of what is variously presented as the formation of virtuous ‘habits’ or a virtuous ‘character’.
By critiquing deontological approaches and strictly universal rules-based accounts of ethics, Virtue
Ethics is particularly agent-focused and agent-based. This arguably means that a Kantian moral
dilemma in which an ethical subject must choose between two first-order moral rules and
necessarily, therefore, violate one of them can at least be conceptually addressed by Virtue Ethics in
that attention is paid to the mechanisms and the underlying moral virtues by which a subject might
decide over and between different courses of action. That said, such a perspective invites the
problems associated with (ethical) relativism, and this challenge will be quite explicitly highlighted
in the proposed paper.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Nevertheless, Virtue Ethics does afford the moral theorist the perhaps only
contemporaneous ethical account that might address the crucial questions over the ways and
processes in which an ethical subject might come to be ethical. In other words, it is important to ask
in relation to
all
major ethical traditions how and why an agent might variously choose to enter into
a given social and moral contract, or embrace universal rule-based moral systems, or indeed
become virtuous. Ethical subjects have histories and futures, they are engaged in development,
identity- and value-formation and self-reflection. And it is here that the recent work which relates
to Virtue Ethics is beginning to have some impact in a number of disciplines. It will be useful to
extend these applications to new media and information technology.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is The Practitioner from Within: Revisiting the Virtues?
2. How virtuous is the virtual?
3. Does Virtue Ethics does afford the moral?
4. What are the policy of ethics virtue?
5. What are the methods of virtues?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATION ETHICS
QUOTE:
Information technology affects fundamental rights involving copyright protection, intellectual
freedom, accountability, and security.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS
Information ethics is the field that investigates the ethical issues arising from the
development and application of information technologies. It provides a critical framework for
considering moral issues concerning informational privacy, moral agency (e.g. whether artificial
agents may be moral), new environmental issues (especially how agents should one behave in the
infosphere), problems arising from the life-cycle (creation, collection, recording, distribution,
processing, etc.) of information (especially ownership and copyright, digital divide). Information
Ethics is related to the fields of computer ethics and the philosophy of information.
REVIEW
Dilemmas regarding the life of information are becoming increasingly important in a society
that is defined as “the information society”. Information transmission and literacy are essential
concerns in establishing an ethical foundation that promotes fair, equitable, and responsible
practices. Information ethics broadly examines issues related to ownership, access, privacy,
security, and community.
In most countries of the world, the “information revolution” has altered many aspects of life
significantly: commerce, employment, medicine, security, transportation, entertainment, and so on.
Consequently, information and communication technology (ICT) has affected — in both good ways
and bad ways — community life, family life, human relationships, education, careers, freedom, and
democracy (to name just a few examples). “Computer and information ethics”, in the broadest sense
ITHETHIC: Book Review
of this phrase, can be understood as that branch of applied ethics which studies and analyzes such
social and ethical impacts of ICT. The present essay concerns this broad new field of applied ethics.
LESSONS LEARNED
Professional codes offer a basis for making ethical decisions and applying ethical solutions
to situations involving information provision and use which reflect an organization’s commitment
to responsible information service. Evolving information formats and needs require continual
reconsideration of ethical principles and how these codes are applied. Considerations regarding
information ethics influence “personal decisions, professional practice, and policy “Therefore,
ethical analysis must provide a framework to take into consideration “many, diverse domains”
(ibid.) regarding how information is distributed.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. What is foundation of information ethics?
2. What are the information ethics?
3. What are the codes of information ethics?
4. What is literacy?
5. How these codes are applied?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTER ETHICS
QUOTE:
“Computer ethics” or “information ethics”. The founder of this new philosophical field was the
American scholar Norbert Wiener, a professor of mathematics and engineering at MIT
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
In the mid 1940s, innovative developments in science and philosophy led to the creation of
a new branch of ethics that would later be called “computer ethics” or “information ethics”. The
founder of this new philosophical field was the American scholar Norbert Wiener, a professor of
mathematics and engineering at MIT. During the Second World War, together with colleagues in
America and Great Britain, Wiener helped to develop electronic computers and other new and
powerful information technologies.
REVIEW:
The world and all the entities within it, including humans, to be combinations of matterenergy
and information. Everything in the world is a mixture of both of these, and
THINKING
,
according to Wiener, is actually
A KIND OF INFORMATION PROCESSING
. Consequently, the brain
does not secrete thought “as the liver does bile”, as the earlier materialists claimed, nor does it
put it out in the form of energy, as the muscle puts out its activity. Information is information,
not matter or energy. No materialism which does not admit this can survive at the present day.
(Wiener 1948, p. 155)
According to Wiener’s metaphysical view, everything in the universe comes into existence,
persists, and then disappears because of the continuous mixing and mingling of information and
matter-energy. Living organisms, including human beings, are actually patterns of information that
persist through an ongoing exchange of matter-energy. Thus, he says of human beings,
ITHETHIC: Book Review
We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but
patterns that perpetuate themselves. (Wiener 1954, p. 96)
Using the language of today’s “information age” we would say that, according to Wiener,
human beings are “information objects”; and their intellectual capacities, as well as their personal
identities, are dependent upon persisting patterns of information and information processing
within the body, rather than on specific bits of matter-energy.
LESSONS LEARNED
While engaged in this war effort, Wiener and colleagues created a new branch of applied
science that Wiener named “cybernetics” (from the Greek word for the pilot of a ship). Even while
the War was raging, Wiener foresaw enormous social and ethical implications of cybernetics
combined with electronic computers. He predicted that, after the War, the world would undergo “a
second industrial revolution” — an “automatic age” with “enormous potential for good and for evil”
that would generate a staggering number of new ethical challenges and opportunities.
Integrative Questions
1. What is the Milestones in the History of Information and Computer Ethics?
2. What is the history of computer?
3. What are the opportunities of computer??
4. what is milestone?
5. What are the strategy of information of computer?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
MORAL METHODOLOGY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
QUOTE:
Information technology
(IT
), as defined by the Information Technology Association of
America (ITAA), is “the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of
computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of
computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information
technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of
duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and
information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data
management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well
as the management and administration of entire systems.
REVIEW:
The term Information Technology (IT) is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic
of Michigan in November 1981. Domsic, who worked as a computer manager for an automotive
related industry, is supposed to have created the term to modernize the outdated phrase “data
processing”.
LESSONS LEARNED
The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining information technology as “the branch
of technology concerned with the dissemination, processing, and storage of information, esp. by
means of computers” provides an illustrative quote from the year 1958 (Leavitt & Whisler in
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Harvard Business Rev. XXXVI. 41/1 “The new technology does not yet have a single established
name. We shall call it information technology.”) that predates the so-far unsubstantiated Domsic
coinage.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. What is the moral methodology of IT?
2. What are the moral of information technology?
3. Defining the information technology?
4. What are the database of information technology?
5. What are the opportunities in moral methodology of IT?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
VALUE SENSITIVE DESIGN AND INFORMATION SYSTEM
QUOTE:
Value-Sensitive Design is primarily concerned with values that center on human well being,
human dignity, justice, welfare, and human rights. Value-Sensitive Design connects the people who
design systems and interfaces with the people who think about and understand the values of the
stakeholders who are affected by the systems.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Above all design for values is design of technology in its social, economic, and political context. An
understanding of design for values begins with the major strands of theoretical work and must
include methodological approaches. on the interactions of technological development and social
values.
REVIEW:
Thus design for values includes the evaluation of past designs with a critical eye on the
initial design, improvement of specific designs, and the development of guidelines for designs.
There is a specific design focus distinct from those methods that are focused on critique rather than
design. As opposed to traditional technical approaches to socially responsible design, there is a
focus on iteration and the use of legal and social scholarship to refine or correct designs that builds
upon computer supported cooperative work.
Design is fundamental to all human activity. At the nexus of values, attitudes, needs and
actions, designers have the potential to act as a transdisciplinary integrators and facilitators. The
map of value systems and perspectives described by Beck and Cowan as ‘Spiral Dynamics’, can
serve as a tool in the facilitation of ‘transdisciplinary design dialogue’. Such dialogue will help to
ITHETHIC: Book Review
integrate the multiple perspectives and diverse knowledge base of different disciplines, value
systems and stakeholders.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Further expansion of the ‘integral vision’ by Wilber consolidates a framework for
understanding, acknowledging and weaving together different perspectives and worldviews.
Esbjörn-Hargens and Brown describe the application of this framework to solving complex
problems of local and global relevance and to sustainable development. When applied to design this
kind of framework can help us to conceptualize how different value systems and different ontoepistemological
assumptions change our experience of reality and therefore intentionality behind
design.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. Why we design things and processes?
2. In turn, affects what and how we design?
3.
What are the nexus of values, attitudes, needs and actions, designers?
4. Is there is a specific design?
5.
What are the different kinds of design?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
PERSONALITY-BASED, RULE-UTILITARIAN, AND LOCKEAN JUSTIFICATONS OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
QUOTE:
“The obvious line for justification is that each person is in possession of himself, if not by choice
or conscious act, then by a kind of natural necessity.”
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Yet if that possession is good enough to establish ownership of self, then why is not
possession of external things, unclaimed by others, sufficient as well? The irony of the point should
be manifest. The labor theory is called upon to aid the theory that possession is the root of title; yet
it depends for its own success upon the proposition that the possession of self is the root of title to
self.
REVIEW:
It is unclear why Epstein should reach this conclusion. Locke never mentions one’s
possession of one’s body as the basis for one’s property in one’s body; he begins simply by asserting
one’s body is one’s property. Yet Epstein connects property to possession by saying, ” Epstein
directly, albeit unknowingly, points out a critical difference: we are not in possession of any
particular external objects by a kind of natural necessity. If we were, the need for property laws
would be greatly diminished. Each person, like a tree, would be rooted to his own parcel of external
objects; this would be “of natural necessity,” and no one would try to displace another from his
natural and necessary attachments. Precisely because “natural necessity” goes no further than the
mind/body link, reliance upon the “possession” of body as a foundation for a possession-based
justification of property is a bit disingenuous
LESSONS LEARNED:
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Until this point in his exposition, Locke does not explore the notion of labor and the desert it
creates. His theory is largely a justification by negation: under his two conditions there are no good
reasons for not granting property rights in possessions. This has led scholars such as Richard
Epstein to a possession-based interpretation of Locke. Epstein argues that “first possession” forms
the basis for legal title and believes that this is the heart of Locke’s position. For Epstein, the talk of
labor is a smokescreen hiding the fundamental premise of Locke’s argument that a person
possesses his own body:
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. What justly can be reduced to property?
2. What is the conditions there are no good reasons for not granting property rights in
possessions?
3. What is the limited capacity of humans put a natural ceiling?
4. How much each individual may appropriate through labor?
5. What is the condition prohibits the accumulation?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
INFORMATIONAL PRIVACY: CONCEPTS, THEORIES, AND CONTROVERSIES
QUOTE:
From a practical point of view, it might seem fruitful to approach privacy-related issues and
concerns simply from the vantage point of various stipulated interests.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Privacy is a concept that is neither clearly understood nor easily defined. Some authors
suggest that it is more useful to view privacy as either a presumed or stipulated interest that
individuals have with respect to protecting personal information, personal property, or personal
space than to think about privacy as a moral or legal right.
REVIEW:
For example, Posner (1978) has suggested that privacy can be viewed in terms of an
economic interest and that information about individuals might be thought of in terms of personal
property that could be bought and sold in the commercial sphere. Clarke (1999) has recently
suggested that privacy can be thought of as an “interest individuals have in sustaining personal
space free from interference by other people and organizations.” From a practical point of view, it
might seem fruitful to approach privacy-related issues and concerns simply from the vantage point
of various stipulated interests. Many Western European nations have preferred to approach issues
related to individual privacy as issues of “data protection” for individuals — i.e., as an interest in
protecting personal information — rather than in terms of a normative concept that needs
philosophical analysis. In the U.S., on the other hand, discussions involving the concept of privacy as
a legal right are rooted in extensive legal and philosophical argumentation, including debate in both
Constitutional and tort law.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
LESSONS LEARNED
We shall see that a brief examination of some of the philosophical and legal foundations of
privacy will not only provide us with a rich perspective on privacy itself, but will also be
particularly useful in helping us to understand what privacy is, why it is valued, and how it is
currently threatened by certain activities on the Internet. Such an examination will also help us to
differentiate between some subtle, yet significant, aspects of personal privacy. For example, it will
enable us to differentiate between the condition of privacy (what is required to have privacy) and a
right to privacy, and between a loss of privacy and a violation or invasion of privacy. The purpose of
our brief look into privacy theories is not so much to determine whether privacy is or ought to be a
right — moral, legal, or otherwise — but rather to understand better how one’s privacy is threatened
by certain activities on the Internet.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. What is perspective privacy?
2. Ho to determine privacy?
3. Is privacy is ought to be right?
4. Is there a moral, legal or otherwise?
5. Is privacy helping us to understand?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
ONLINE ANONYMITY
QUOTE:
More strictly, and in reference to an arbitrary element (e.g. a human, an object, a computer), within
a well-defined set (called the “anonymity set”), “anonymity” of that element refers to the property
of that element of not being identifiable within this set. If it is not identifiable, then the element is
said to be “anonymous”.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
However, in other contexts what matters is that both anonymity and pseudonymity are concepts
that are, among other things, concerned with hiding a person’s legal identity. In such contexts
people may not distinguish between anonymity and pseudonymity.
The problem of determining whether or not the identity of a communication partner is the same as
one previously encountered is the problem of authentication.
REVIEW:
LESSONS LEARNED:
In conversational settings, anonymity may allow people to reveal personal history and feelings
without fear of later embarrassment. Electronic conversational media can provide physical
isolation, in addition to anonymity. This prevents physical retaliation for remarks, and prevents
negative or taboo behavior or discussion from tarnishing the reputation of the speaker. This can be
beneficial when discussing very private matters, or taboo subjects or expressing views or revealing
ITHETHIC: Book Review
facts which may put someone in physical, financial, or legal danger (such as illegal activity, or
unpopular or outlawed political views).
With few perceived negative consequences, anonymous or semi-anonymous forums often provide a
soapbox for disruptive conversational behavior. The term Internet troll is sometimes used to refer
to those who do this online.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is Anonymity in charity?
2. What is the referring to the anonymous?
3. What are the Anonymity and the press?
4. Define the Anonymity on the Internet?
5. Why Anonymity and politics involve?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
ETHICAL ISSUES INVOLVING COMPUTER SECURITY: HACKING,HACTIVISM, AND
COUNTER HACKING
QUOTE:
The objective of computer security can include protection of information from theft or
corruption, or the preservation of availability, as defined in the security policy.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Computer security provides a technical strategy to convert negative requirements to
positive enforceable rules. For this reason, computer security is often more technical and
mathematical than some
computer science
fields.
REVIEW:
Systems designed with such methodology represent the state of the art of computer security
although products using such security are not widely known. In sharp contrast to most kinds of
software, they meet specifications with verifiable certainty comparable to specifications for size,
weight and power. Secure operating systems designed this way are used primarily to protect
national security information, military secrets, and the data of international financial institutions.
LESSONS LEARNED:
In USA parlance, the term High Assurance usually suggests the system has the right security
functions that are implemented robustly enough to protect DoD and DoE classified information.
Medium assurance suggests it can protect less valuable information, such as income tax
information. Secure operating systems designed to meet medium robustness levels of security
functionality and assurance have seen wider use within both government and commercial markets.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. Why computer hacking?
2. What are the code of computer security?
3. Why computer needs security code?
4. What are the effects of computer hacking?
5. Define computer security?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
INFORMATION ETHICS AND THE LIBRARY PROFESSION
QUOTE:
In addition to its holdings of relevant books and leading periodicals, the library contains a
comprehensive collection of codes of ethics, many now available online, and an extensive collection of
materials on other centers.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
The library has enhanced its computer resources in order to interact with other libraries, as
well as to conduct online searches. Staffed by a professional research librarian, the library provides
bibliographic assistance to researchers anywhere in the world and assists visiting scholars and
practitioners.
REVIEW:
The American Library Association has a special concern for the free flow of information and
ideas. Its views have been set forth in such policy statements as the
Library Bill of Rights
and the
Freedom to Read Statement
where it has said clearly that in addition to the generally accepted legal
and ethical principles and the respect for intellectual freedom which should guide the action of
every citizen, membership in the library profession carries with it special obligations and
responsibilities.
Special collections librarians share fundamental values with the entire library profession.
They should be thoroughly familiar with the ALA Code of Ethics and must adhere to the principles
of fairness, freedom, professional excellence, and respect for individual rights expressed therein.
Furthermore, special collections librarians have extraordinary responsibilities and opportunities
associated with the care of cultural property, the preservation of original artifacts, and the support
of scholarship based on primary research materials. At times their commitment to free access to
ITHETHIC: Book Review
information may conflict with their mission to protect and preserve the objects in their care. When
values come into conflict, librarians must bring their experience and judgment to bear on each case
in order to arrive at the best solution, always bearing in mind that the constituency for special
collections includes future generations.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Librarians have a special concern for the free flow of information and ideas. The American
Library Association has set forth its views in such policy statements as the
Library Bill of Rights
and
the
Freedom to Read Statement
where it is clearly stated that in addition to the generally accepted
legal and ethical principles and the respect for intellectual freedom which should guide the action of
every citizen, membership in the library profession carries with it special obligations and
responsibilities. The statement which follows sets forth certain ethical norms which are basic to
librarianship.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. Has a special responsibility to maintain the principles of the
Library Bill of Right?.
2. Should learn and faithfully execute the policies of the institution of which one is a part and
should endeavor to change those which conflict with the spirit of the
Library Bill of Rights.?
3. Must protect the essential confidential relationship which exists between a library user and
the library?
4. Must avoid any possibility of personal financial gain at the expense of the employing
institution?
5. Has an obligation to insure equality of opportunity and fair judgment of competence in
actions dealing with staff appointments, retentions, and promotions. ?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
ETHICAL INTEREST IN FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
QUOTE:
Software that cannot be modified and redistributed without further limitation, but whose
source code is visible (e.g., “source viewable” or “open box” software, including “shared source” and
“community” licenses), is not considered here since such software doesn’t meet the definition of
OSS/FS. OSS/FS is not “freeware”; freeware is usually defined as proprietary software given away
without cost, and does not provide the basic OSS/FS rights to examine, modify, and redistribute the
program’s source code.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Instead, this paper emphasizes
quantitative
measures (such as experiments and market
studies) to justify why using OSS/FS products is in many circumstances a reasonable or even
superior approach. I should note that while I find much to like about OSS/FS, I’m not a rabid
advocate; I use both proprietary and OSS/FS products myself. Vendors of proprietary products
often work hard to find numbers to support their claims; this page provides a useful antidote of
hard figures to aid in comparing proprietary products to OSS/FS.
REVIEW:
Many proprietary software product licenses include clauses that forbid public criticism of
the product without the vendor’s permission. Obviously, there’s no reason that such permission
would be granted if a review is negative — such vendors can ensure that any negative comments are
reduced and that harsh critiques, regardless of their truth, are never published. This significantly
reduces the amount of information available for unbiased comparisons. Reviewers may choose to
change their report so it can be published (omitting important negative information), or not report
at all — in fact, they might not even
start
the evaluation. Some laws, such as UCITA (a law in
Maryland and Virginia), specifically enforce these clauses forbidding free speech, and in many other
ITHETHIC: Book Review
locations the law is unclear — making researchers bear substantial legal risk that these clauses
might
be enforced.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Other alternative terms for OSS/FS, besides either of those terms alone, include “libre
software” (where libre means free as in freedom), “livre software” (same thing), free-libre / opensource
software (FLOS software or FLOSS), open source / Free Software (OS/FS), free / open
source software (FOSS or F/OSS), open-source software (indeed, “open-source” is often used as a
general adjective), “freed software,” and even “public service software” (since often these software
projects are designed to serve the public at large). I recommend the term “FLOSS” because it is easy
to say and directly counters the problem that “free” is often misunderstood as “no cost”. However,
since I began writing this document before the term “FLOSS” was coined, I have continued to use
OSS/FS here.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. Is there no Discrimination against Fields of Endeavor?
2. What is the Distribution of License?
3. How License Must Not Be Specific to a Product?
4. Why License Must Not Restrict Other Software
5. Is there no provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or
style of interface?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
INTERNET RESEARCH ETHICS: THE FIELD AND ITS CRITICAL ISSUES
QUOTE:
Research is a broad term. Here, it is used to mean “looking something up (on the Web)”. It
includes any activity where a topic is identified, and an effort is made to actively gather information
for the purpose of furthering understanding.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Common applications of
Internet research
include personal research on a particular subject
(something mentioned on the news, a health problem, etc), students doing research for academic
projects and papers, and journalists and other writers researching stories. It should be
distinguished from scientific research – research following a defined and rigorous process – carried
out on the Internet; from straightforward finding of specific info, like locating a name or phone
number; and from research
about
the Internet.
REVIEW:
First of all, online existence involves a bodily abstraction which implies abstraction from bodily
identity and individuality. Secondly, online existence also entails abstraction from our situational
orientation – an orientation which includes sharing time and space with others. Thirdly, online
existence is presence- as well as globally-oriented. Given the bodily abstraction of online existence,
we can also say that digital being-with-others tends to be
ghostly
-oriented. These characteristics of
online existence thus help sharpen the point: ethical dilemmas of Internet research arise from the
tension
between the proper object of research, i.e. online existence, and bodily existence. The
borderline between these two phenomena is
interface
communication itself.
LESSONS LEARNED:
ITHETHIC: Book Review
The body is the primordial medium of our being-in-the-world. We can take a distance from
it only in a derivative way and make it an object within, for instance, the digital casting. The digital
casting concerns our existence, i.e., the way we share the world with others as well as, more
fundamentally, the way we cast Being itself. (There is a difference between digital ontology and
digital metaphysics. From a metaphysical point of view, the real is the digital and vice versa. To put
it in Berkeley’s formula: To be, is to be digital or
Esse est computari
(Capurro 1999, Berkeley 1965,
62).)
Digital ontology concerns our
understanding of Being. We believe that we understand something
in
its being
when we are able to re-make digitally. Within the digital casting of Being we look at
humans as they are online instead of embracing the digital within the “life-world” (Husserl). The
online casting pervades our lives, including our lives as researchers.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1.
What are the characteristics of online existence?
2. What are the including whole societies as weakest members or non-members of the online
world.
3. Why researchers online should be aware of their own gender biases within their own
culture?
4. What are the cultures that are the object of their research?
5. Is there an
ethics of care and less by utilitarian and/or deontological
premises that may lead
either to a purely instrumental or moralist view.?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: CHALLENGES IN ETHICS, SCIENCE AND
UNCERTAINLY
QUOTE:
Health IT will help consumers gather all of their health information in one place so they can
thoroughly understand it and share it securely with their health care providers so they get the care
that best fits their individual needs.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Electronic health information exchange promises an array of potential benefits for
individuals and the U.S. health care system through improved clinical care and reduced cost. At the
same time.
REVIEW:
This environment also poses new challenges and opportunities for protecting individually
identifiable health information. In health care, accurate and complete information about individuals
is critical to providing high quality, coordinated care. If individuals and other participants in a
network lack trust in electronic exchange of information due to perceived or actual risks to
individually identifiable health information or the accuracy and completeness of such information,
it may affect their willingness to disclose necessary health information and could have lifethreatening
consequences.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Coordinated attention at the Federal and State levels is needed both to develop and
implement appropriate privacy and security policies. Only by engaging all stakeholders, particularly
ITHETHIC: Book Review
consumers, can health information be protected and electronically exchanged in a manner that
respects variations in individuals’ views on privacy and access.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. What are the Early detection of infectious disease outbreaks around the country?
2. Is there an improved tracking of chronic disease management?
3. What are the Evaluation of health care based on value?
4. What are the enabled by the collection of de-identified price and quality information that
can be compared?
5. Why Reduce health care costs?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
ETHICAL ISSUES OF INFORMATION AND BUSINESS
QUOTE:
Business ethics is one of the forms of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral
or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for
more ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism) is increasing. Simultaneously,
pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics through new public initiatives and laws
(e.g. higher UK road tax for higher-emission vehicles).
REVIEW:
Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate practice
and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia, descriptive approaches
are also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree to which
business is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. Historically, interest in
business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major
corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporate websites lay emphasis
on commitment to promoting non-economic social values under a variety of headings (e.g. ethics
codes, social responsibility charters). In some cases, corporations have re-branded their core values
in the light of business ethical considerations (e.g. BP’s “beyond petroleum” environmental tilt).
The term CSR came in to common use in the early 1970s although it was seldom
abbreviated. The term stakeholder, meaning those impacted by an organization’s activities, was
used to describe corporate owners beyond shareholders as a result of an influential book by R
Freeman in 1984
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Whilst there is no recognized standard for CSR, public sector organizations (the United
Nations for example) adhere to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). It is widely accepted that CSR adheres
to similar principals but with no formal act of legislation.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Managing risk is a central part of many corporate strategies. Reputations that take decades
to build up can be ruined in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental
accidents. These events can also draw unwanted attention from regulators, courts, governments
and media. Building a genuine culture of ‘doing the right thing’ within a corporation can offset these
risks
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. What are the Corporate social responsibility ?
2. Find the Issues regarding the moral rights and duties between a company and its
shareholders: fiduciary responsibility, stakeholder concept v. shareholder concept.?
3. What is Ethical issues concerning relations between different companies?
4. Who are the Leadership issues: corporate governance. ?
5. Is there a Political contributions made by corporations?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET
QUOTE:
The same connection allows that computer to send information to servers on the network; that
information is in turn accessed and potentially modified by a variety of other interconnected
computers.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Using and citing information found on the Internet is a little like swimming on the beach
without a lifeguard. How can you tell whether or not an Internet resource is appropriate for a
research project? A researcher should evaluate Internet pages to make sure that they are
appropriate information sources for a particular assignment.
REVIEW:
When referring to a database, it could refer to the content being broken up into specific
fields that have been indexed to maximize search capability. Design is a criterion that surfaces
frequently with regard to web pages and web sites. The pages should be properly linked externally
and internally to facilitate navigation. There should not be any broken links. The design should be
appropriate to the content, and maximize utility. Files and graphics should be of a size that allows
them to be loaded quickly. the design should be based upon an easily-grasped hierarchy or logic.
The use of frames in the web site should not result in the user becoming lost, or take up valuable
screen area. The users’ primary method of accessing the site should be considered. If the site is
designed for network access primarily, then the greater bandwidth of that medium can be
employed. If dialup modem is the primary means of access, then the site should conform to those
standards. Although multimedia hardware such as graphics accelerators, better graphics cards, and
sound cards are now more commonplace, site hardware requirements should be clearly identified
and conform to generally-used standards.
LESSONS LEARNED:
The importance of accuracy cannot be overstated. When possible, information should be
cross-checked to verify its accuracy. The source should not only be reliable, but error-free. Obvious
inaccuracies, misspellings, and poor grammar often (but not always) indicate a lack of careful
authorship. With respect to web pages, links from the source should be relevant and appropriate.
The subject should be covered comprehensively within the intended scope (i.e., completely). There
should be no question as to whether the information presented is factual, opinion, or interpretation
of facts.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS
1. How reliable and free from error is the information?
2. Who is the author or developer of the material?
3. Who is the publisher or producer of the site?
4. Are there footnotes and/or a bibliography?
5. is there an attempt to sway the opinion of the audience?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
VIRTUAL REALITY AND COMPUTER SIMULATION
QUOTE:
This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality. Virtual
reality is easily distinguished from the experience of “true” reality; participants are never in doubt
about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible
to distinguish from “true” reality.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
However, such messages have not been made public if they have been found, and the
argument relies on the messages being truthful. As usual, other hypotheses could explain the same
evidence. In any case, if such constants are in fact infinite, then at some point an apparently
meaningful message will appear in them (this is known as the infinite monkey theorem), not
necessarily because it was placed there.
REVIEW:
In a virtual-people simulation, every inhabitant is a native of the simulated world. They do
not have a “real” body in the external reality. Rather, each is a fully simulated entity, possessing an
appropriate level of consciousness that is implemented using the simulation’s own logic (i.e. using
its own physics). As such, they could be downloaded from one simulation to another, or even
archived and resurrected at a later date. It is also possible that a simulated entity could be moved
out of the simulation entirely by means of mind transfer into a synthetic body. Another way of
getting an inhabitant of the virtual reality out of its simulation would be to “clone” the entity, by
taking a sample of its virtual DNA and create a real-world counterpart from that model. The result
would not bring the “mind” of the entity out of its simulation, but its body would be born in the real
world.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Taken one step further, the “fine grained” elements of our world could themselves be
simulated since we never see the sub-atomic particles due to our inherent physical limitations. In
order to see such particles we rely on other instruments which appear to magnify or translate that
information into a format our limited senses are able to view: computer print out, lens of a
microscope, etc. Therefore, we essentially take on faith that they’re an accurate portrayal of the fine
grained world which appears to exist in a realm beyond our natural senses. Assuming the subatomic
could also be simulated then the processing power required to generate a realistic world
would be greatly reduced.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
2. Is there any difference between a simulated reality and a “real” one?
3. How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?
4. What is virtual simulation?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
GENETIC INFORMATION: EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
QUOTE:
Philosophy has remained an intellectual enterprise, which deals with ideas or concepts by way
of creating, criticizing and justifying it.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
To begin with, there is no doubt that personal experiences are socially and theoretically
constructed, and that it is in this manner that knowledge is produced. The implication is that
knowledge is a product of personal, social and theoretical experience. It is equally true, that such
socially bound problems especially the ethics related issues and phenomenon stem from
epistemological experiences. The claim to be advanced in this paper is that there are no genuine
ethical problems; that ethical problems are not necessarily religious problems as they are often
concerned, and most of all, that what we call ethical problems are some sort of epistemological
problems moralized.
REVIEW:
From the very on-set, it is necessary to differentiate between ethics and morality. Until
such distinction is made, it might appear too difficult to ascertain whether ethical problems are
epistemological problems or not. There is no claim here that, the two concepts – ethics and
morality may not or cannot in certain circumstances be used interchangeably. Scholars often
correctly use the two terms as though they are the same. J.A. Aigbodioh for instance refers to ethics
as one of the moral disciplines. Jacques Maritain says ethics or morals are the practical science
which aims at procuring man are unqualified good.
Properly understood however, while ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with the
study of the fundamental principles of morality and human conduct, morality on the other hand is
connected with the rightness of action or behaviour of individuals, class, group or society at large.
The difference lies on the point that while morality concerns itself with the set of rules and
principles involved in the assessment of actions of individuals or groups. The morality of a class or
group has to do with the right beliefs or behaviours recommended and approved for the class or
group in question. Ethics on the other hand is a step further from morality. It is an intellectual
reflection on those approved norms and principles of morality with the intent of proffering answers
to question that are raised on the moral principles and norms of morality.
LESSONS LEARNED:
ITHETHIC: Book Review
The consequence of this is that, ethical problems are systematic or intellectual problems
requiring conceptual analysis, clarification and deeper reflection. Ethics therefore does not aim at
describing how individuals, group or people behave, neither does it only try to identify the pattern,
norm or principles of conduct of an individuals or people ought to behave, as well as why such
principles or norms should be considered good or bad, appropriates or otherwise.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Is there any such thing as objectivity in moral action or choice?
2. Can we justify our moral claims and judgments?
3. are there such things as facts or truth about morality?
4. Are our actions actually guided by moral considerations?
5. Define Genetic Information?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
THE ETHICS OF CYBER CONFLICT
QUOTE:
Cyberethics, also referred to as internet ethics, is a branch of ethics that studies the ethical
dilemmas brought on by the emergence of digital technologies. With the advent of the internet
conflicts over privacy, property, security, accuracy, accessibility, censorship and filtering have arose.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Since then, controversy over who or what should be responsible for governing and
maintaining ethical conventions in cyberspace have been heatedly debated, ruled upon and
amended. Despite being a universal topic, cyberethics may change from country to country, where
cultural and societal ethics may differ and therefore are reflected in the debates over the ethics of
cyberspace. With the speed at which the internet changes, cyberethics evolves as
REVIEW:
Accessibility, censorship and filtering bring up many ethical issues that have several
branches in cyberethics. Many questions have arisen which continue to challenge our
understanding of privacy, security and our participation in society. Throughout the centuries
mechanisms have been constructed in the name of protection and security. Today the applications
are in the form of software that filters domains and content so that they may not be easily accessed
or obtained without elaborate circumvention or on a personal and business level through free or
content-control software. Internet censorship and filtering are used to control or suppress the
publishing or accessing of information.
LESSONS LEARNED:
The legal issues are similar to offline censorship and filtering. The same arguments that
apply to offline censorship and filtering apply to online censorship and filtering; whether people are
better off with free access to information or should be protected from what is considered by a
governing body as harmful, indecent or illicit. The fear of access by minors drives much of the
concern and many online advocate groups have sprung up to raise awareness and of controlling the
accessibility of minors to the internet.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What are the data record-keeping systems whose very existence is secret?
2. Find out what information about the person is in a record and how it is used?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
3. Is there a a way for a person to prevent information about the person that was obtained
for one purpose from being used or made available for other purposes without the
person’s consent.
4. Is there a way for a person to correct or amend a record of identifiable information
about the person?
5. Any organization creating, maintaining, using, or disseminating records of identifiable
personal data ?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
A PRACTICAL MECHANISM FOR ETHICAL RISK
QUOTE:
In the risk sciences, it is common to distinguish between “objective risk” and “subjective risk”.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Problems of risk have seldom been treated systematically in moral philosophy. A possible
defence of this limitation is that moral philosophy can leave it to decision theory to analyse the
complexities that indeterminism and lack of knowledge give rise to in real life.
REVIEW:
Issues of risk have given rise to heated debates on what levels of scientific evidence are
needed for policy decisions. The proof standards of science are apt to cause difficulties whenever
science is applied to practical problems that require standards of proof or evidence other than
those of science.
Two major types of errors are possible in a decision whether or not to accept a scientific
hypothesis. The first of these consists in concluding that there is a phenomenon or an effect when in
fact there is none. This is called an error of type I (false positive). The second consists in missing an
existing phenomenon or effect. This is called an error of type II (false negative). In the internal
dealings of science, errors of type I are in general regarded as more problematic than those of type
II. The common scientific standards of statistical significance substantially reduce the risk of type I
errors but do not protect against type II errors.
LESSONS LEARNED:
According to the conventional division of labour between the two disciplines, moral
philosophy provides assessments of human behaviour in well-determined situations. Decision
theory takes assessments of these cases for given, adds the available probabilistic information, and
derives assessments for rational behavior in an uncertain and indeterministic world. On this view,
no additional input of moral values is needed to deal with indeterminism or lack of knowledge,
since decision theory operates exclusively with criteria of rationality.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is the Ethical Risk?
2. What is the practical Mechanism?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
3. Find the risk?
4. Is there a moral on ethical risk?
5. What are the causes of risk?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE OF THE INTERNET
QUOTE:
It is upon this layer that the other two layers (logical and content) are built, and governance of
the infrastructure layer is therefore critical to maintaining the seamlessness and viability of the entire
network.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Moreover, as we shall discuss further later, the lack of adequate competition policies and
inadequately developed national markets also play a significant role in raising access costs for endusers.
Increasing connectivity within regions has reduced some of the concerns for the costs of
connection to major backbones, as has absolute cost of undersea optical cable services.
REVIEW:
This situation is particularly problematic for developing countries, which generally lack
ownership of Tier 1 infrastructure and are often in a poor position to negotiate favourable access
rates. By some accounts, ISPs in the Asia-Pacific region paid companies in the United States US$ 5
billion in “reverse subsidies” in 2000; in 2002, it was estimated that African ISPs were paying US$
500 million a year. One commentator, writing on access in Africa, argues that “the existence of these
reverse subsidies is the single largest factor contributing to high bandwidth costs”. 16
It should be noted that not everyone would agree with that statement, and that high
international access costs are not by any means the only reason for high local access costs. A related
– indeed, in a sense, the underlying – problem is the general lack of good local content in many
developing countries. It is this shortage of local content, stored on local servers, that leads to high
international connectivity costs as users are forced to access sites and information stored outside
the country.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Most importantly, this section attempts to make clear the real importance of Internet
governance by drawing links between apparently technical decisions and their social, economic or
political ramifications. Indeed, an important principle (and difficulty) of Internet governance is that
the line between technical and policy decision-making is often blurred. Understanding the “real
world” significance of even the most arcane technical decision is essential to understanding that
decision and its processes, and to thinking of new ways to structure Internet governance.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. How to define “universal”?
2. Find the Universal access is frequently taken to mean access across geographic areas?
3. What are the digital divide, to refer to the need for equitable access?
4. Find the rich and poor between countries.?
5. Should universal access include support services?
6. Why does plagiarism matter?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
QUOTE:
People nowadays are logging in to the net not only to surf or browse but to donate or share a
piece of information. According to Sohora Jha, journalists are using the web to conduct their research,
getting information regarding interviewing sources and press releases, updating news online, and thus
it shows the gradual shifts in attitudes because of the rapid increase in the Internet.[
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Many academics, corporate decision-makers, and federal policy-makers recognize the
magnitude and growing impact of this phenomenon. In June 2008 a group of interested researchers
from a diverse set of corporations, smaller companies, academic institutions and consultancies
created the Information Overload Research Group (IORG), a non-profit interest group dedicated to
raising awareness, sharing research results and promoting the creation of solutions around
Information Overload.
REVIEW:
Recent research suggests that an "attention economy" of sorts will naturally emerge from
information overload, allowing Internet users greater control over their online experience with
particular regard to communication mediums such as e-mail and instant messaging. This could
involve some sort of cost being attached to e-mail messages. For example, managers charging a
small fee for every e-mail received - e.g. $5.00 - which the sender must pay from their budget. The
aim of such charging is to force the sender to consider the necessity of the interruption.
According to Steve Beller, “I’m defining information overload as a state of having more
information available that one can readily assimilate, that is, people have difficulty absorbing the
information into their base of knowledge. This hinders decision-making and judgment by causing
stress and cognitive impediments such as confusion, uncertainty and distraction” [
“A symptom of the high-tech age, which is too much for one human being to absorb in an
expanding world of people and technology. It comes from all sources including TV, newspapers,
magazines as well as wanted and unwanted regular e-mail and faxes. It has been exacerbated
enormously because of the formidable number of results obtained from web search engines.”
LESSONS LEARNED:
Media like the internet are conducting research to promote awareness of information
overload. In , Kyunghye Kim, Mia Liza A. Lustria, Darrell Burke, and Nahyun Kwon conducted a
ITHETHIC: Book Review
study regarding people who have encountered information overload while searching for health
information about cancer and what the impact on them was. The conclusion drawn from the
research discusses how health information should be distributed and that information campaigns
should be held to prevent irrelevant or incorrect information being circulated on the internet.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What are the Contradictions and inaccuracies ?
2. Is there an available information ?
3. Find the low signal-to-noise ratio ?
4. Is there a lack of a method for comparing and processing?
5. What are the different kinds of information ?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
EMAIL SPAM
QUOTE:
E-mail spam has steadily, even exponentially grown since the early 1990s to several billion messages a
day. Spam has frustrated, confused, and annoyed e-mail users.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Often, image spam contains nonsensical, computer-generated text which simply annoys the
reader. However, new technology in some programs try to read the images by attempting to find
text in these images. They are not very accurate, and sometimes filter out innocent images of
products like a box that has words on it.
A newer technique, however, is to use an animated GIF image that does not contain clear
text in its initial frame, or to contort the shapes of letters in the image (as in CAPTCHA) to avoid
detection by OCR tools.
REVIEW:
Spam is legally permissible according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 provided it follows
certain criteria: a truthful subject line; no false information in the technical headers or sender
address; "conspicuous" display of the postal address of the sender; and other minor requirements.
If the spam fails to comply with any of these requirements, then it is illegal. Aggravated or
accelerated penalties apply if the spammer harvested the email addresses using methods described
earlier.
A review of the effectiveness of CAN-SPAM in 2005 showed that the amount of sexually
explicit spam had significantly decreased since 2003 and the total volume had begun to level off.
Senator Conrad Burns, a principal sponsor, noted that "Enforcement is key regarding the CANSPAM
legislation." In 2004 less than 1% of spam complied with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
Several countries have passed laws that specifically target spam, notably Australia and all
the countries of the European Union.
an Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (2002/58/EC) provides that
the EU member states shall take appropriate measures to ensure that unsolicited communications
for the purposes of direct marketing are not allowed either without the consent of the subscribers
concerned or in respect of subscribers who do not wish to receive these communications, the
choice between these options to be determined by national legislation.
ITHETHIC: Book Review
LESSONS LEARNED:
In order to send spam, spammers need to obtain the e-mail addresses of the intended
recipients. To this end, both spammers themselves and list merchants gather huge lists of potential
e-mail addresses. Since spam is, by definition, unsolicited, this address harvesting is done without
the consent (and sometimes against the expressed will) of the address owners. As a consequence,
spammers' address lists are inaccurate. A single spam run may target tens of millions of possible
addresses — many of which are invalid, malformed, or undeliverable.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is gathering addresses?
2. How to Delivering spam messages
3. Find the Using Webmail services
4. Why other people's computers
5. How to open relays
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
THE MATTER OF PLAGIARISM: WHAT, WHY, AND IF
QUOTE:
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Likewise, professors need to trust their students. They have to have confidence in the
truthfulness of students' statements in class, the honesty of their efforts to learn, and their
trustworthiness in the papers and projects they submit for grading
REVIEW:
Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and
representation of them as one's own original work.
Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic
dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including
expulsion. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters
caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination.
Some individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they
plagiarized unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or give the appropriate citation. While
plagiarism in scholarship and journalism has a centuries-old history, the development of the
Internet, where articles appear as electronic text, has made the physical act of copying the work of
others much easier, simply by copying and pasting text from one web page to another.
Plagiarism is not copyright infringement. While both terms may apply to a particular act,
they are different transgressions. Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a copyright
holder, when material protected by copyright is used without consent. On the other hand,
plagiarism is concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author's reputation that is
achieved through false claims of authorship.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Generally, although plagiarism is often loosely referred to as theft or stealing, it has not
been set as a criminal matter in the courts.[10] Likewise, plagiarism has no standing as a criminal
offense in the common law. Instead, claims of plagiarism are a civil law matter, which an aggrieved
person can resolve by launching a lawsuit. Acts that may constitute plagiarism are in some
instances treated as copyright infringement, unfair competition, or a violation of the doctrine of
ITHETHIC: Book Review
moral rights. The increased availability of intellectual property due to a rise in technology has
furthered the debate as to whether copyright offences are criminal.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What is the deepen their commitments, and to develop their capacities for service.”
2. is it realistic to expect that he or she won’t do so later?
3. Why does plagiarism matter? Is anyone really hurt by it?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: LEGAL AND MORAL CHALLENGES OF ONLINE FILE SHARING
QUOTE:
File sharing can be implemented in a variety of storage and distribution models. Current
common models are the centralized server-based approach and the distributed peer-to-peer (P2P)
networks.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
Recently, Facebook opened its API to 3rd party developers which has allowed for a new
type of file-sharing service to emerge. Box.net and FreeDrive.com[1] are two examples of
companies that have specific Facebook applications that allow file sharing to be easily
accomplished between friends.
REVIEW:
The first generation of peer-to-peer file sharing networks over the Internet had a
centralized server system. This system controls traffic amongst the users. The servers store
directories of the shared files of the users and are updated when a user logs on. In the centralized
peer-to-peer model, a user would send a search to the centralized server of what they were looking
for. The server then sends back a list of peers that have the data and facilitates the connection and
download. The server-client system is efficient because the central directory is constantly being
updated and all users had to be registered to use the program. However, there is only a single point
of entry, which could result in a collapse of the network. In addition, it is possible to have out-ofdate
information or broken links if the server is not refreshed.[3]
The first file-sharing programs on the Internet marked themselves by inquiries to a server,
either the data to the download held ready or in appropriate different Peers and so-called Nodes
further-obtained, so that one could download there. Two examples were Napster (today using a pay
system) and eDonkey2000 in the server version (today, likewise with Overnet and KAD – network
decentralized). Another notable instance of peer to peer file sharing, which still has a free version, is
Limewire.
LESSONS LEARNED
The Internet existed prior to WWIVnet, but it was only available to academic institutions,
governments and large corporations. FidoNet was a hierarchical (server/client) based network
thus not peer-to-peer. WWIVnet was the first widely available distributed network model that you
could bring to your home. That all being said, it did not have the capability to share files built in. It
was not until the introduction of Linker34 by Jayson Cowan did we see the first P2P application
ITHETHIC: Book Review
over a distributed end user network.[2] Requests for file lists and specific files where handled by
the peer much in the same way as second generation peer-to-peer file sharing and no central server
was used for this process.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Why file-sharing enables people to share files?
2. What feature allows you to access and share files?
3. Is there a private sharing files ?
4. What is Peer to Peer file sharing?
5. What are the technologies to use in file sharing?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
CENSORSHIP AND ACCESS TO EXPRESSION
QUOTE:
“Censorship through consensus” is also a real possibility. There are countries where the
adherence to a shared social, though not religious, code is a fact of life. Understanding that entails
discerning where the boundaries of expression are, and where they might be interfered with in a
consensus situation.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:
To understand censorship, and the impulse to censor, it is necessary to strip away the shock
epithet value that is attached to the word at first utterance.
REVIEW:
Censorship — the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society — has been
a hallmark of dictatorships throughout history. In the 20th Century, censorship was achieved
through the examination of books, plays, films, television and radio programs, news reports, and
other forms of communication for the purpose of altering or suppressing ideas found to be
objectionable or offensive. The rationales for censorship have varied, with some censors targeting
material deemed to be indecent or obscene; heretical or blasphemous; or seditious or treasonous.
Thus, ideas have been suppressed under the guise of protecting three basic social institutions: the
family, the church, and the state.
One must recognize that censorship and the ideology supporting it go back to ancient times,
and that every society has had customs, taboos, or laws by which speech, dress, religious
observance, and sexual expression were regulated. In Athens, where democracy first emerged,
censorship was well known as a means of enforcing the prevailing orthodoxy. Indeed, Plato was the
first recorded thinker to formulate a rationale for intellectual, religious, and artistic censorship. In
his ideal state outlined in The Republic, official censors would prohibit mothers and nurses from
relating tales deemed bad or evil. Plato also proposed that unorthodox notions about God or the
hereafter be treated as crimes and that formal procedures be established to suppress heresy.
Freedom of speech in Ancient Rome was reserved for those in positions of authority. The poets
Ovid and Juvenal were both banished, and authors of seditious writings were punished severely.
The emperor Nero deported his critics and burned their books.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Not all censorship is equal, nor does all arise from government or external force. People
self-censor all the time; such restraint can be part of the price of rational dialogue. The artist Ben
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Shahn’s poster illustration reads: “You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.”
Silence can indicate a forced assent, or conversely, it can be contemplative, a necessary part of
dialogue that rises above the din of quotidian life.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What are the Moral censorship?
2. is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise morally questionable.?
3. What is Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics?
4. Find the Political censorship ?
5. What is Religious censorship is the means by which any material objectionable to a certain
faith is removed?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
THE FORTUNE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE
PYRAMID
THE MARKET AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
QUO
T
E:
In textiles, for example, the “hand loom sector” dominated by small firms was given preference.
There was no credible voice in public policy for nurturing market-based ecosystems that included the
large and the small in a symbiotic relationship.
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
For more than 50 years, the World Bank, donor nations, various aid agencies, national
governments, and, lately, civil society organizations have all fought the good fight, but have not
eradicated poverty. The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by the United Nations
only underscores that reality; as we enter the 21st century, poverty—and the disenfranchisement that
accompanies it—remains one of the world’s most daunting problems.
REVIEW:
It is to illustrate that the typical pictures of poverty mask the fact that the very poor represent
resilient entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers. This collaboration between the poor, civil
society organizations, governments, and large firms can create the largest and fastest growing
markets in the world. Large-scale and wide-spread entrepreneurship is at the heart of the solution to
poverty. Such an approach exists and has, in several instances, gone well past the idea stage as private
enterprises, both large and small, have begun to successfully build markets at the bottom of the
pyramid (BOP) as a way of eradicating poverty.
LESSONS LEARNED:
ITHETHIC: Book Review
There are organizations helping the handicapped walk and helping subsistence farmers check
commodity prices and connect with the rest of the world. There are banks adapting to the financial
needs of the poor, power companies reaching out to meet energy needs, and construction companies
doing what they can to house the poor in affordable ways that allow for pride. There are chains of
stores tailored to understand the needs of the poor and to make products available to them.
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:
1.
What is needed is a better approach to help the poor?
2.
Why what you know about BOP markets is wrong?
3.
What is the most enduring contributions in company
4.
Is there a delivering dignity, empowerment?
5.
What are the interaction of the BOP market?
ITHETHIC: Book Review
THE FORTUNE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE
PYRAMID
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FOR THE BOP
QUOTE:
Executing a bottom of the pyramid strategy with a new product isn’t easy. Even if you can
come up with a product which would help improve the lives of the world’s poor, distribution can be
difficult due to access barriers in highly segmented lower income markets.
LEARNING EXPECTATION:
A growing number of global companies are being drawn to the seductive idea that money can
be made by developing a
n
d marketing products for those at the bottom of the pyramid, some four
billion people around the world who eke out a living on about two US dollars a day.
REVIEW:
When creating innovative, new products for markets at the base of the pyramid, Peter White,
Director of Global Sustainability at Procter & Gamble, notes that cost alone is not the issue. “It’s not
just about making consumer products cheaper,” he says. “You’ve got to come up with products that
actually meet the specific needs at the bottom of the pyramid. How do you design products that people
need? You have to actually go and find out, and so we send researchers to find out how people live –
how they do their washing, their cleaning (and) what are their problems.”
He outlined the case of a water purification system called PUR, which P&G developed in
collaboration with the US Centre for Disease Control for commercial markets, targeting low income
consumers
LESSONS LEARNED:
ITHETHIC: Book Review
Develop a global marketplace that allows people and corporations to purchase from people
that live in developing countries. For example, what if consumers in the UK, Japan, or the US were
aware of all the exciting products and services that create jobs, new levels of income and opportunity
for growth in the BOP. Let’s take ecomaximus for example. The company makes fine paper products