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ITETHIC – Book Reviews
Book Review Compilation

By Aaron James L. Tan
This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Philippines License.
1
Preface
Hi,
I’ve worked hard to be able to accomplish this achievement.

This is my Third book ever and it includes my book reviews in my
ITETHIC (Information Technology Ethic Class). It took time before I
was able to make it. I sacrificed a lot so that I could be able to do
this. Yet it was fun.
Now that here it comes and the end of journey is here. Seven
weeks of hardship is done and I find this as a successful gift.
I hope as you read this that you’d like it as the way I do.
2
Dedication
I dedicate this to my
family,
friends,
and professor and
to God.
3
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 is 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.
4
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:
I 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?
5
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 copy written 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
6
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. 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 copy written 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.
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?
7
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)
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 one-
sixth 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
8
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.
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- putting 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.
9
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 informational enriching?
10
Cyber Ethics
DISCLOSIVE COMPUTER ETHICS
Quote:
Ethics is always and already the 'other' side of politics (Critchley 1999)
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 social-technical 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 programmers (and technologies) need to be implemented.
Without closure politics cannot be effective as a programmer 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.
11
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 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,
programmer, 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.
1. What is disclosive computer ethics?

2. Why ethics is always the other sides of politics?
3. Who is Phillip Brey?
4. What is totalitarianism?
5. Is disclosive computer ethics selective?
12
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
13
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 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.
14
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?
15
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
16
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 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.
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?
17
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,
18
computers and unemployment, responsibilities of computer professionals, computers for

persons with disabilities, computers and religion, information networks and globalization,
virtual communities, teleworking, 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.
19
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.?
20
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 groups are not at all aware of
potential security risks associated with agent computing. A framework to analyze the security
risks of agent computing will create and raise awareness of how secure agents are.
Intuitive assessment of agent behavior 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 behavior of an agent can assist developers of

said agent to improve the modeling of the secure and ethical behavior of future versions of the
21
agent. Once the behavior of a number of agents have been analyzed in this systematic fashion,
norms and criteria for the design of new agents that will exhibit acceptable secure and ethical
behavior can be formulated and continually refined. This may lead to a simplification of the
security measures imposed on the agent.
Lesson Learned:
Moor (2001) summarizes 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.
1. Who is James Moor?

2. What is computer ethics?
3. Why are computers malleable according to Moor?
5. What are the uses of computer?
22
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`n 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
23
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 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.
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?
24
Cyber Ethics
THE LAW 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
25
spontaneously in the marketplace and are mostly accepted by common consent. Common-law
courts just keep things tidy at the edges". 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.
26
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?
5. What is cyber ethics?
27
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 is 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
28
beginning to be featured in 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 in-house 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
29
1. Why not avoid the moral dilemma by selecting FOSS?

2. What is the FOS option?
3. Who is Walter Maner?
4. Who is James Moor?
30
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. Industry leaders responded
to the White House call with a barrage of announcements.
31
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.
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 American- and foreign-created speech. It is important to remember that today; nearly
half of all Internet speech originates from outside the United States.
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?
32
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.
33
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 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.
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.
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?
34
35
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
36
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 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.
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).
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?
37
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.
38
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 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.
1. What is PICS?
2. What is Metadata?
3. Who is Paul Resnick?
4. What is Multiplicity Rating Systems?
5. What is Labeling?
39
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
40
judicial interpretation of the relevant provisions of the U.S. Communications Decency Act of
1996 has exceeded the scope 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 re-
evaluating 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.
41
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?
42
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
43
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 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?
44
Cyber Ethics
NOTES ON THE DECSS TRIAL
Quote:
"The software which Sigma Design plans on releasing works only on their card, whereas
the design for LiViD will work on a variety of cards or on systems that do not have a card at all."
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 well-
known hacker journal 2600. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claims that
Corley defied ant circumvention 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.
45
Lesson Learned:
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.
1. What is DeCSS Trial?

2. What is the significance of understanding the concepts of ethics in the DeCSS Trial?
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 DeCSS Trial is important?
46
Cyber Ethics
A POLITICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: ENVIRONMENTALISM FOR THE NET
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
47
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 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.
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?
48
Cyber Ethics
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INFORMATION AND THE COMMON GOOD
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:
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 arrangement of words that the ink marks on the paper represent. The ink marks can
49
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?
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. There is clearly great incentive for the user to make copies without paying
for them, while the creator in many cases insists on being paid for each copy in order to recoup
the investment in creating the product, plus a reasonable (or unreasonable) profit. In addition,
as more and more traditional forms of intellectual property, such as writing, music and other
sound, movies and videos, photographs, and so on, are being made publicly available on
computer networks, they can be copied, manipulated, reworked, excerpted, recombined, and
distributed much more easily than before.

2. What is information?
4. What is plagiarism?
5. What is computer technology?
50
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
51
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 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.
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.” The same document declares that it is “wrong” for a
school to duplicate software. While copying software except for backup or archival purposes is
clearly illegal does this automatically make such actions unethical? Unless one considers all laws
ethical, and that breaking any law to be unethical, illegality and unethicality cannot be
automatically equated. One also might question whether the efforts by the SIIA and its
predecessor organizations to have Congress enact legislation that provides greater rights to
creators (and their assigns) than to users were prompted by an ethical position or by a desire for
greater profits.
1. What is property right?

3. Is copyright unethical?
4. What is Software Publishers’ Association?
52
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).
53
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.
54
1. What is plagiarism?
2. What is piracy?
4. Which is more grave: plagiarism or copyright?
5. What is cyber-plagiarism?
55
Cyber Ethics
AN ETHICAL EVALUATION OF WEB SITE LINKING
Quote:
“When stakeholders are not engaged, evaluation findings might be ignored, criticized, or
resisted because they do not address the stakeholders' questions or values.”
Lesson Expectation:
Review:
The evaluation cycle begins by engaging stakeholders (i.e., the persons or organizations
having an investment in what will be learned from an evaluation and what will be done with the
knowledge). Public health work involves partnerships; therefore, any assessment of a public
health program requires considering the value systems of the partners. Stakeholders must be
engaged in the inquiry to ensure that their perspectives are understood. Review:
• Articulating an evaluation’s purpose (i.e., intent) will prevent premature decision-making

regarding how the evaluation should be conducted. Characteristics of the program,
particularly its stage of development and context, will influence the evaluation’s
purpose. Four general purposes exist for conducting evaluations in public health practice.
• Gain insight -- evaluations done for this purpose provide the necessary insight to clarify
how program activities should be designed to bring about expected changes.
• Change practice -- evaluations done for this purpose include efforts to improve the
quality, effectiveness, or efficiency of program activities.
56
• Assess effects -- evaluations done for this purpose examine the relationship between
program activities and observed consequences.
• Affect participants -- evaluations done for this purpose use the processes of evaluation to
affect those who participate in the inquiry. The logic and systematic reflection required
of stakeholders who participate in an evaluation can be a catalyst for self-directed
change. An evaluation can be initiated with the intent that the evaluation procedures
themselves will generate a positive influence.
Lesson learned:
Public health programs mature and change over time; therefore, a program’s stage of
development reflects its maturity. A minimum of three stages of development must be
recognized: planning, implementation , and effects . During planning, program activities
are untested, and the goal of evaluation is to refine plans. During implementation, program
activities are being field-tested and modified; the goal of evaluation is to characterize real, as
opposed to ideal, program activities and to improve operations, perhaps by revising plans.
During the last stage, enough time has passed for the program’s effects to emerge; the goal of
evaluation is to identify and account for both intended and unintended effects.
1. What is the ethical evaluation?

2. What are the harmful effects of ethical evaluation of web site linking?
3. How to combat web site?
4. What are the laws implemented to prevent evaluation?
5. Define ethical evaluation of web site linking?
57
Cyber Ethics
THE CATHEDRAL AND THE BAZAAR
Quote:
"Most developer's salaries don't depend on software sale value."
Lesson Expectation:
The Cathedral and the Bazaar takes its title from an essay Raymond read at the 1997
Linux Kongress. The essay documents Raymond's acquisition, re-creation, and numerous
revisions of an e-mail utility known as fetch mail. Raymond engagingly narrates the fetch mail
development process while elaborating on the ongoing bazaar development method he uses
with the help of volunteer programmers. The essay smartly spares the reader from the technical
morass that could easily detract from the text's goal of demonstrating the efficacy of the open-
source, or bazaar, method in creating robust, usable software.
Review:
Once Raymond has established the components and players necessary for an optimally
running open-source model, he sets out to counter the conventional wisdom of private, closed-
source software development. Like superbly written code, the author's arguments systematically
anticipate their rebuttals. For programmers who "worry that the transition to open source will
abolish or devalue their jobs," Raymond adeptly and factually counters that "most developer's
salaries don't depend on software sale value." Raymond's uncanny ability to convince is as
unrestrained as his capacity for extrapolating upon the promise of open-source development.
58
Lesson learned:
The Internet has greatly reduced the efforts to plagiarize 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 plagiarized works can greatly
improve the situation. Therefore, computer professionals can provide great help. Firstly, they
can implement new algorithm and create new effective software to identify plagiarized papers.
Software’s which can detect plagiarism in students’ works have proved to be effective.
1. What is the cathedral?

2. What are the harmful effects of cathedral and the bazaar?
3. What are the laws implemented to prevent plagiarism?
4. What is effective software?
5. Why do students plagiarise?
59
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.
The Cathedral and the Bazaar takes its title from an essay Raymond read at the 1997
Linux Kongress. The essay documents Raymond's acquisition, re-creation, and numerous
revisions of an e-mail utility known as fetch mail. Raymond engagingly narrates the fetch mail
development process while elaborating on the ongoing bazaar development method he uses
with the help of volunteer programmers. The essay smartly spares the reader from the technical
60
morass that could easily detract from the text's goal of demonstrating the efficacy of the open-
source, or bazaar, method in creating robust, usable software.
Once Raymond has established the components and players necessary for an optimally
running open-source model, he sets out to counter the conventional wisdom of private, closed-
source software development. Like superbly written code, the author's arguments systematically
anticipate their rebuttals. For programmers who "worry that the transition to open source will
abolish or devalue their jobs," Raymond adeptly and factually counters that "most developer's
salaries don't depend on software sale value." Raymond's uncanny ability to convince is as
unrestrained as his capacity for extrapolating upon the promise of open-source development.
Lesson learned:
The Internet has greatly reduced the efforts to plagiarize 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 plagiarized works can greatly
improve the situation. Therefore, computer professionals can provide great help. Firstly, they
can implement new algorithm and create new effective software to identify plagiarized papers.
Software’s which can detect plagiarism in students’ works have proved to be effective.
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 plagiarize?
61
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:
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.
62
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.
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?
63
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
64
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 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.
Excluding outsiders and resenting their uninvited intrusions are essential parts of having
an intimate relationship". Ferdinand Schoeman (1984) noted that "one's private sphere in some
sense can be equated with those areas of a person's life which are considered intimate or
innermost" . 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.
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.
65
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?
66
Cyber Ethics
KDD, PRIVACY, INDIVIDUALITY, AND FAIRNESS
Quote:
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
67
involves personal data in the strict sense of data relating to an identified or identifiable
individual, the principles apply without reservation.
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. The rights and
requirements make no sense regarding anonymous data and group profiles.
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.
1. What is KDD?
2. What is privacy?
3. What is individuality?
4. What is fairness?
5. What is a distributive profile?
68
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?
69
According to Cavoukian (1998), data mining is usually used for four main purposes: to
improve customer acquisition and retention; to reduce fraud; to identify internal inefficiencies
and then revamp operations, and to map the unexplored terrain of the 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.
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?
70
Cyber Ethics
WORKPLACE SURVEILLANCE, PRIVACY AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
Quote:
It concludes by arguing that through there has been some shift towards surveillance
practices, there is insufficient evidence that a combination of electronic panopticon and peer
pressure is effective and distinctive enough to constitute a credible new model of control of the
labour process.
Lesson Expectation:
Surveillance and work is examined as the central theme of the issue. Two interpretations
of the phrase are made – first, surveillance of work, and second surveillance as work. After a
focus on the second, a review of recently published work which informs this perspective is
undertaken, and then two issues for future research are discussed.
Review:
While surveillance has long been recognized as part of the armoury of managerial
practices in the workplace, there has been increasing claims that electronic or panoptic
surveillance is a new and successful model of control. This paper explores and challenges these
claims by examining in detail ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ versions of the story through the work of Sewell
and Zuboff respectively, before looking briefly at recent debates on call centers. In addition,
social scientists must be careful not to assume that developments in workplace surveillance are
transferable to the broader social terrain, or vice versa.
71
Lesson learned:
These issues concern how the surveilled subject might come to be understood, and how
connectivity between different surveillance locales may be examined. It is concluded that
examining surveillance as work renders new types of occupational category and organizational
activity significant, as well as the labours involved in the social processes of identity work and
representation management.
1. What is surveillance?
2. What are the privacy and distributive?
3. What are the laws implemented to prevent justice?
4. What is the workplace surveillance?
5. Why do students distributive justice?
72
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
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.
73
Communitarians typically argue that the community benefits significantly from having
knowledge about its members available. According to communitarians modern Western
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.
74
1. What are the different varieties of informational wrongdoing?

2. What is informational injustice?
3. What is informational inequality?
4. What are panoptic technologies?
5. Define privacy.
75
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.
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 of
76
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.
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?
77
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.
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.
78
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.
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? How can one
differentiate the two?
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'' (Reason, Relativity and Responsibility...), his Just
79
Consequentialism..., Brey's Disclosive Computer Ethics, and Adam's ``feminist ethics''

(Gender and...) ?
5. Define hacking.
80
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
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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 can be used for ideological purposes. The paper will
conclude by discussing possible avenues to address this problem.
Lesson Learned:
I n 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.
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?
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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.
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
83
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
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.
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?
84
Cyber Ethics
DOUBLE ENCRYPTION OF ANONYMIZED ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE
Quote:
inexpensive "rip and read" solutions or use outsourced EDI solutions provided by EDI
"Service Bureaus".
Lesson Expectation:
Collecting medical data electronically requires, according to our moral belief, also some
kind of encryption. 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.
Review:
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) refers to the structured transmission of data between
organizations by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic documents from one
computer system to another (ie) from one trading partner to another trading partner. It is more
than mere E-mail; for instance, organizations might replace bills of lading and even checks with
appropriate EDI messages. It also refers specifically to a family of standards, including the X12
85
series. However, EDI also exhibits its pre-Internet roots, and the standards tend to focus on
ASCII(American Standard Code for Information Interchange)-formatted single messages rather
than the whole sequence of conditions and exchanges that make up an inter-organization
business process.
Lesson learned:
The National Institute of Standards and Technology in a 1996 publication defines

Electronic Data Interchange as "the computer-to-computer interchange of strictly formatted
messages that represent documents other than monetary instruments. EDI implies a sequence
of messages between two parties, either of whom may serve as originator or recipient. The
formatted data representing the documents may be transmitted from originator to recipient via
telecommunications or physically transported on electronic storage media.". It goes on further
to say that "In EDI, the usual processing of received messages is by computer only. Human
intervention in the processing of a received message is typically intended only for error
conditions, for quality review, and for special situations. For example, the transmission of binary
or textual data is not EDI as defined here unless the data are treated as one or more data
elements of an EDI message and are not normally intended for human interpretation as part of
online data processing.
1. What is double encryption?

2. What are the electronic data interchange?
3. What is the system of electronic data interchange?
4. How we use the electronic data interchange?
5. What are the effects of encryption of anonymized electronic ?
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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).”
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-the-

individual 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
87
patterns, face shape, and fingerprints - or measuring unique behavioral actions, such as voice
patterns and dynamic signature verification.
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.
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.
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?
88
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
89
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 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.
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?
90
Cyber Ethics
NO,PAPA,: WHY INCOMPLETE CODES OF ETHICS ARE WORSE THAN NONE AT ALL”
Quote:
"It is better to adhere to the spirit of an ethic," but that doesn't mean that should be no
letter.”
A code of ethics from, say, instruction from a teacher or parent? It is one thing to tell
people what they ought or ought not do - even I do that. And quite another to codify that.
Review:
When something like ethics is codified, then this gives people room to be 'ethical' by
watching for loopholes or playing legal games. It is better to adhere to the spirit of an ethic
rather than the letter, to be ethical by holding your behaviour accountable to your own sense of
good and right, not some arbitrary third party construction.
Lessons Learned:
I would prefer to see the possibility of the spirit informing the letter, and the letter
informing the spirit, with each mutually reinforcing the other.
Also, as far as codes leading people to watch for loopholes as distinct from telling people
to do, you should meet my seven-year-old son. He remembers everything I tell him to do and not
to do, and is constantly formulating exceptions. So, we might consider codes simply as the
pragmatic recognition of the fact that not everyone possesses or "adhere[s] to the spirit of an
91
ethic." Thus, rather than being "arbitrary," they often are evolving adaptations by a concerned
party to historical evasions of ethics. Having said that, it would be appropriate to bring the other
concerned party, the students, into the writing (and ongoing re-writing) of a code of ethics.
1. Why should rules be complete in order to be valuable?

2. Is this action really an exception?
3. In what ways does this exception inform our understanding of the rule?
4. Should we change the rule or simply?
5. Is there noting the exception, complexify our understanding of the rule?
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Cyber Ethics
SUBSUMPTION ETHICS
Quote:
"Subsumption Ethics" published in Computers and Society,
Subsumption ethics is the process by which decisions become incorporated into the
operation of information technology (IT) systems, and subsequently forgotten. IT systems, by
nature, repeat operations over and over. If those operations have unethical impacts, the system
will continue to execute them anyway.
Review:
Unlike a human operator, there is no point in the cycle where the machine pauses to ask,
"Should I do this?" Subsumption in general is the process of building larger components from
smaller ones. In this sense, a cell subsumes DNA function, American common law subsumes
judicial decisions, and a hairdryer subsumes an electric motor. Subsumption in computers is
different because there is so much more of it going on than in simple machines.
In computer systems, small components are developed and tested, and once they are
working reliably they are subsumed into larger systems. This is the enabling technique of object
oriented programming. The larger systems, in turn, are subsumed into still larger systems. Once
components, subsystems and applications are operating, the subsumed process becomes
invisible and unavailable to the user, what James Moor calls the "invisibility factor."
93
Lessons Learned:
Information systems subsume design, policy and implementation decisions in

programming code and content. Code segments and content become "subsumed objects."
While it is demonstrable that systems are built from subsumed components, it is less easy to
show exactly how decisions are subsumed. This axiom posits that the decisions themselves,
including many subtle factors, are incorporated into systems operation.
1. What is sumbsumption ethics?

2. What is ethics?
3. What is Moral in the sumbsumption?
4. What is psychological ethics ?
5. What is subsumed objects?
94
Cyber Ethics
ETHICAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS COMPUTING
Quote:
“Businesses operate and enlarging the opportunities available to them to reach and
service customers.”
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.
Review:
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. It will provide readers with a clear knowledge of the complex ethical issues involved in
e-business 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.
95
Lessons Learned:
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 e-business 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. The target audience of this book will be
composed of researches and professionals working in the field of e-business and business ethics
in various disciplines, e.g. business and management, information technology, philosophy,
communication sciences, computer science, and consumer studies. In providing a broad
overview of the various ethical issues involved in all aspects of e-business, the book will also
provide a useful resource for all persons involved in e-business. The book will also provide a
useful tool for educators and students studying e-business, business ethics, and related topics.
1. What are the ethical issues?

2. What is business computing?
3. What is e-business?
4. What is the system to computing?
5. What is the issue in business computing?
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Cyber Ethics
THE PRACTITIONER FROM WITHIN: REVISITING THE VIRTUES
Quote:
“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:
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 “cyberethics” and “Internet ethics”, have been used to
refer to aspects of computer ethics associated with the Internet.
97
Lessons Learned:
In laying down a foundation for information ethics, Wiener developed a cybernetic view
of human nature and society, which led him to an ethically suggestive account of the purpose of
a human life. Based upon this, he adopted “great principles of justice” that he believed all
societies ought to follow. These powerful ethical concepts enabled Wiener to analyze
information ethics issues of all kinds.
1. What is the revisiting virtue of ethics?

2. What are the human nature and society?
3. What are the ethical concepts of revisiting virtues?
4. What is the moral?
5. Define ethical virtues?
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Handbook of Ethics
Foundation of information ethics
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 of ICT.
The present essay concerns this broad new field of applied ethics.
Learning Expectations:
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). 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 “cyberethics” and “Internet ethics”, have been used to refer to aspects of computer ethics
associated with the Internet.
Review:
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”.
99
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. 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.
Lessons Learned
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 “cyberethics” and “Internet ethics”, have been used to
refer to aspects of computer ethics associated with the Internet.
Integrative Questions
1. What is information technology ?

2. Define the moral of information technology?
3. What are the use of information technology?
4. How t use to refer or application of information technology?
5. Which computer professionals apply codes of information technology?
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Handbook of Ethics
Milestones in the History of Information and Computer Ethics
Quote:
Cybernetics takes the view that the structure of the machine or of the organism is an
index of the performance that may be expected from it.
Wiener's cybernetic understanding of human nature stressed the physical structure of

the human body and the remarkable potential for learning and creativity that human physiology
makes possible. While explaining human intellectual potential, he regularly compared the
human body to the physiology of less intelligent creatures like insects:
The fact that the mechanical rigidity of the insect is such as to limit its intelligence while
the mechanical fluidity of the human being provides for his almost indefinite intellectual
expansion is highly relevant to the point of view of this book. … man's advantage over the rest
of nature is that he has the physiological and hence the intellectual equipment to adapt himself
to radical changes in his environment. The human species is strong only insofar as it takes
advantage of the innate, adaptive, learning faculties that its physiological structure makes
possible. (Wiener 1954, pp. 57-58, italics in the original)
Review:
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
101
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.
Lessons Learned:
In The Human Use of Human Beings, Wiener explored some likely effects of information
technology upon key human values like life, health, happiness, abilities, knowledge, freedom,
security, and opportunities. The metaphysical ideas and analytical methods that he employed
were so powerful and wide-ranging that they could be used effectively for identifying, analyzing
and resolving social and ethical problems associated with all kinds of information technology,
including, for example, computers and computer networks; radio, television and telephones;
news media and journalism; even books and libraries. Because of the breadth of Wiener's
concerns and the applicability of his ideas and methods to every kind of information technology,
the term “information ethics” is an apt name for the new field of ethics that he founded. As a
result, the term “computer ethics”, as it is typically used today, names only a subfield of
Wiener's much broader concerns.
1. What is information ethics?

2. What are the information technologies?
3. What is the use an effective methodology, for today's field of computer and information ethics.
4. What is cybernetics?
5. What are the opportunities in the information technology?
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Handbook of Ethics
Moral Methodology and Information Technology
Quote:
IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert,
store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.
When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is

information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that
describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or
disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole,
it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.
Review:
In 1976, nearly three decades after the publication of Wiener's book Cybernetics, Walter
Maner noticed that the ethical questions and problems considered in his Medical Ethics course
at Old Dominion University often became more complicated or significantly altered when
computers got involved. Sometimes the addition of computers, it seemed to Maner, actually
generated wholly new ethics problems that would not have existed if computers had not been
invented.
Lessons Learned
He concluded that there should be a new branch of applied ethics similar to already
existing fields like medical ethics and business ethics; and he decided to name the proposed new
103
field “computer ethics”. (At that time, Maner did not know about the computer ethics works of
Norbert Wiener.) He defined the proposed new field as one that studies ethical problems
“aggravated, transformed or created by information technology”. He developed an
experimental computer ethics course designed primarily for students in university-level
computer science programs. His course was a success, and students at his university wanted him
to teach it regularly.
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?
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Handbook of Ethics
Value Sensitive Design and Information System
Quote:
Value Sensitive Design refers to an approach to the design of technology that accounts
for human values in a principled and systematic manner throughout the design process.
Design for values is a methodological approach based on a soft technological determinism,

based on itterative evaluation of technology using the tools of the social science and detailed
technical examination.
Review:
First is technological determinism: what is technologically possible will inevitably be developed

and the characteristics of the newly developed technologies will alter society as the technology
is adopted. The second view is social constructed: technologies are constructed by the
stakeholders, including inventors and governments, on the basis of social values. Some
proponents of this view hold that users are the only critical stakeholders, that adoption is
innovation and thus technology is defined by the users. The third view is that values emerge in a
dynamic fashion -- while technologies have biases the way in which technologies are adopted
alters the values in the technology, and thus the future design of the technology in a interactive,
almost evolutionary, manner. All three theoretical frameworks support the argument that
values can be embedded at any stage in the development process: invention, adoption,
diffusion, and iterative improvement.
105
Lessons Learned
"Sustainability is rapidly becoming an issue of critical importance for designers and

society as a whole. A complexity of dynamically interrelated ecological, social, cultural economic
and psychological (awareness) problems interact and converge in the current crisis of our
unsustainable civilization. However, in a constantly changing environment, sustainability is not
some ultimate endpoint but is better conceived as a continuous process of learning and
adaptation. Designing for sustainability not only requires the re-design of our habits, lifestyles
and practices, but also, the way we think about design. Sustainability is a process of co-
evolution and co-design that involves diverse communities in making flexible and adaptable
design decisions at local, regional and global scales. The transition towards sustainability is
about co-creating a human civilization that flourishes within the ecological limits of the
planetary life support system.
1. What is privacy?
2. What are the ownership and property?
3. What is the freedom from us?
4. What is autonomy?
5. What are the informed consent?
106
Handbook of Ethics
Personality-Based, Rule-Utilitarian, and Lockean Justificatons of Intellectual Property
Quote:
First possession" forms the basis for legal title and believes that this is the heart of
Locke's position.
The enough and as good condition protects Locke's labor justification from any attacks
asserting that property introduces immoral inequalities. Essentially the enough and as good
condition is an equal opportunity provision [*298] leading to a desert-based, but
noncompetitive allocation of goods: each person can get as much as he is willing to work for
without creating meritocratic competition against others.
Review:
The general outline of Locke's property theory is familiar to generations of students. In

Chapter V of the Second Treatise of Government, Locke begins the discussion by describing a
state of nature in which goods are held in common through a grant from God. God grants this
bounty to humanity for its enjoyment but these goods cannot be enjoyed in their natural state.
The individual must convert these goods into private property by exerting labor upon them. This
labor adds value to the goods, if in no other way than by allowing them to be enjoyed by a
human being.
Locke proposes that in this primitive state there are enough unclaimed goods so that
everyone can appropriate the objects of his labors without infringing upon goods that have been
appropriated by someone else. Although normally understood as descriptive of the common, the
107
enough and as good condition also is conceptually descriptive of human beings. In other words,
this condition is possible because the limited capacities of humans put a natural ceiling on how
much each individual may appropriate through labor.
Lessons Learned
In this primitive state also is limited by Locke's introduction of the non-waste condition.
This condition prohibits the accumulation of so much property that some is destroyed without
being used. Limited by this condition, Locke suggests that even after the primitive state there
sometimes can be enough and as good left in the common to give those without property the
opportunity to gain it. Spain and America, he says, illustrate the continuing applicability of this
justification of property.
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?
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Handbook of Ethics
Informational Privacy: Concepts, Theories, and Controversies
Quote:
"Internet-specific" and are contrasted with those privacy concerns categorized as

"Internet-enhanced."
In the recent literature on privacy and technology, considerable attention has been paid
to privacy issues and concerns involving the Internet. In the present study, we consider whether
any -- and if so, which -- privacy concerns are unique, or in any way special, to the Internet. It is
argued that while many privacy concerns currently associated with the Internet are essentially
concerns that were introduced by information and communications technologies that predate
the Internet, at least two Internet-related privacy issues have resulted from the use of tools and
techniques that did not exist prior to the Internet era: "cookies" and search engines.
Review:
Privacy concerns raised by these tools and techniques are labeled "Internet-specific" and are
contrasted with those privacy concerns categorized as "Internet-enhanced." It is also suggested
that perhaps the most significant impact that the Internet has had for personal privacy thus far
has not been with respect to any Internet-specific privacy concerns that have been recently
introduced, but instead can be found in the implications that certain Internet activities have for
questions related to the public vs. private nature of personal information. It will be seen that
both Internet-specific privacy concerns, such as those caused by certain uses of search-engine
tools, and Internet-enhanced privacy concerns, such as those related to certain uses of data-
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mining technology on the Internet, raise serious questions for the debate over the public vs.
private nature of certain kinds of personal information currently accessible on the Internet.
Lessons Learned
We begin with an attempt to gain a clearer understanding of the concept of privacy by

examining some recent philosophical theories. We next set out to clarify what exactly is meant
by the Internet before considering specific privacy concerns currently associated with the
Internet. Privacy concerns attributable to Internet-specific and Internet-enhanced tools and
techniques are then considered. Next, we examine the impact of those concerns for the debate
over the public vs. private nature of personal information currently accessible to users of the
Internet. We conclude with an analysis of certain Internet-related privacy issues vis-à-vis a policy
model recently put forth by James Moor.
1. What is Personal Privacy?

2. What are the Control and Restricted Access Theories of Privacy?
3. What is Restricted Access Theory?
4. What exactly is the Internet?
5. What is New about Privacy Threats Posed by the Internet?
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Handbook of Ethics
Online Anonymity
Quote:
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word meaning "without a name" or

"namelessness". In colloquial use, the term typically refers to a person, and often means that
the personal identity, or personally identifiable information of that person is not known.
The term "anonymous message" typically refers to message (which is, for example,
transmitted over some form of a network) that does not carry any information about its sender
and its intended recipient. It is therefore unclear if multiple such messages have been sent by
the same sender or if they have the same intended recipient.
Sometimes it is desired that a person can establish a long-term relationship (such as a

reputation) with some other entity, without his/her personal identity being disclosed to that
entity. In this case, it may be useful for the person to establish a unique identifier, called a
pseudonym, with the other entity. Examples of pseudonyms are nicknames, credit card
numbers, student numbers, bank account numbers, and IP addresses. A pseudonym enables the
other entity to link different messages from the same person and, thereby, the maintenance of a
long-term relationship. Although typically pseudonyms do not contain personally identifying
information, communication that is based on pseudonyms is often not classified as
"anonymous", but as "pseudonymous" instead. Indeed, in some contexts, anonymity and
pseudonymity are separate concepts.
Review:
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Anonymity is a result of not having identifying characteristics (such as a name or

description of physical appearance) disclosed. This can occur from a lack of interest in learning
the nature of such characteristics, or through intentional efforts to hide these characteristics. An
example of the former would include a brief encounter with a stranger, when learning the other
person's name is not deemed necessary. An example of the latter would include someone hiding
behind clothing that covers identifying features like hair color, scars, or tattoos, in order to avoid
identification. In some cases, anonymity is reached unintentionally, as is often the case with
victims of crimes or war battles, when a body is discovered in such a state that the physical
features used to identify someone are no longer present. Anonymity is not always found in such
morbid situations, however. As an example, a winner of a lottery jackpot is anonymous (one of
however many play the lottery) until that person turns in the winning lottery ticket.
Lessons Learned
There are many reasons why a person might choose to obscure their identity and
become anonymous. Several of these reasons are legal and legitimate - many acts of charity are
performed anonymously, as benefactors do not wish, for whatever reason, to be acknowledged
for their action. Someone who feels threatened by someone else might attempt to hide from the
threat behind various means of anonymity, a witness to a crime can seek to avoid retribution,
for example, by anonymously calling a crime tipline. There are also many illegal reasons to hide
behind anonymity. Criminals typically try to keep themselves anonymous either to conceal the
fact that a crime has been committed, or to avoid capture. However, the saying that there is no
honor among thieves implies that criminals may also snitch on each other for various reasons.
1. Why a person might choose to obscure their identity?

2. What are the benefactors do not wish?
3. for whatever reason?
4. What is Anonymity?
5. Why are many illegal reasons to hide behind anonymity?
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Handbook of Ethics
Ethical Issues Involving Computer Security: Hacking,Hactivism, and Counterhacking
Quote:
Computer security is a branch of technology known as information security as applied

to computer(s).
Computer security imposes requirements on computers that are different from most
system requirements because they often take the form of constraints on what computers are
not supposed to do. This makes computer security particularly challenging because it is hard
enough just to make computer programs do everything they are designed to do correctly.
Furthermore, negative requirements are deceptively complicated to satisfy and require
exhaustive testing to verify, which is impractical for most computer programs.
Review:
One use of the term computer security refers to technology to implement a secure
operating system. Much of this technology is based on science developed in the 1980s and used
to produce what may be some of the most impenetrable operating systems ever. Though still
valid, the technology is in limited use today, primarily because it imposes some changes to
system management and also because it is not widely understood. Such ultra-strong secure
operating systems are based on operating system kernel technology that can guarantee that
certain security policies are absolutely enforced in an operating environment. An example of
such a Computer security policy is the Bell-La Padula model. The strategy is based on a coupling
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of special microprocessor hardware features, often involving the memory management unit, to
a special correctly implemented operating system kernel. This forms the foundation for a secure
operating system which, if certain critical parts are designed and implemented correctly, can
ensure the absolute impossibility of penetration by hostile elements. This capability is enabled
because the configuration not only imposes a security policy, but in theory completely protects
itself from corruption. Ordinary operating systems, on the other hand, lack the features that
assure this maximal level of security. The design methodology to produce such secure systems is
precise, deterministic and logical.
Lessons Learned
Lower levels mean we can be less certain that the security functions are implemented
flawlessly, and therefore less dependable. These systems are found in use on web servers,
guards, database servers, and management hosts and are used not only to protect the data
stored on these systems but also to provide a high level of protection for network connections
and routing services.
1. What is the security of computer?

2. What are reasons why computer hacking??
3. What are the causes of hactivism?
4. How can computer hacking?
5. What are the ethical issues on computer security?
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Handbook of Ethics
Information Ethics and the Library Profession
Quote:
The library collection is intended to meet the educational and research needs of persons
concerned with the study and practice of the professions.
Consistent with the Center's broad mandate to focus on a wide range of professional
fields, the collection includes materials relating to ethical issues and activities in such areas as
architecture, computers, dentistry, education, engineering, law, management, medicine, the
military, nursing, psychology, public service, science, and social work. The collection also
contains a rich variety of materials on important generic issues relating to the professions,
including, for example, codes of ethics, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, loyalty, risk and
professional concerns such as self-regulation and continuing education.
Review:
The types of materials in the collection are almost as varied as the information they
convey. In addition to books and journals, the collection includes monographs, videos,
newsletters, bibliographies, professional directories, government reports and regulations, court
decisions, unpublished manuscripts, and conference proceedings. The library houses an
extensive paper archive of codes of ethics promulgated by professional and trade associations,
businesses, and government organizations. Copies of most of these statements and codes can
be obtained from the Center. Please also visit the extensive Codes of Ethics Online collection.
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Lessons Learned
Every citizen has the right as an individual to take part in public debate or to engage in
social and political activity. The only restrictions on these activities are those imposed by specific
and well-publicized laws and regulations which are generally applicable. However, since
personal views and activities may be interpreted as representative of the institution in which a
librarian is employed, proper precaution should be taken to distinguish between private actions
and those one is authorized to take in the name of an institution.
1. Has a special responsibility to maintain the principles of the Library Bill of Rights. ?
1. 2.Should knew and execute the policies of the organization of which the librarian is a
part and should endeavor to change any policy which conflicts with the spirit of the
Library Bill of Right?
2. 3.Should provide competent and complete professional service both to the individual
user and to the clientele as a whole. ?
3. 4.Should recognize and protect the user’s right to privacy with respect to information
sought or received and materials consulted or borrowed. ?
4. 5.Should recognize and avoid situations in which the librarian’s personal interests are
served or financial benefits are gained at the expense of the employing institution. ?
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Handbook of Ethics
Ethical Interest in Free and Open Source Software
Quote:
There’s no way to be sure which studies (if any) are actually valid. For example,
Microsoft’s “get the facts” campaign identifies many studies, but nearly every study is entirely
vendor-funded, and I have no way to determine if any of them are valid.
The goal of this paper is to convince you to consider using OSS/FS when you’re looking
for software, using quantitive measures. Some sites provide a few anecdotes on why you should
use OSS/FS, but for many that’s not enough information to justify using OSS/FS.
Review:
Using OSS/FS when you’re looking for software, using quantitive measures. Note that
this paper’s goal is not to show that all OSS/FS is better than all proprietary software. Certainly,
there are many who believe this is true from ethical, moral, or social grounds. It’s true that
OSS/FS users have fundamental control and flexibility advantages, since they can modify and
maintain their own software to their liking. And some countries perceive advantages to not
being dependent on a sole-source company based in another country. However, no numbers
could prove the broad claim that OSS/FS is always “better” (indeed you cannot reasonably use
the term “better” until you determine what you mean by it). Instead, I’ll simply compare
commonly-used OSS/FS software with commonly-used proprietary software, to show that at
least in certain situations and by certain measures, some OSS/FS software is at least as good or
better than its proprietary competition. Of course, some OSS/FS software is technically poor, just
117
as some proprietary software is technically poor. And remember -- even very good software may
not fit your specific needs. But although most people understand the need to compare
proprietary products before using them, many people fail to even consider OSS/FS products, or
they create policies that unnecessarily inhibit their use; those are errors this paper tries to
correct.
Lessons Learned
After a pair of vendor-funded studies were publicly lambasted, Forrester Research

announced that it will no longer accept projects that involve paid-for, publicized product
comparisons. One ad, based on a vendor-sponsored study, was found to be misleading by the
UK Advertising Standards Authority (an independent, self-regulatory body), who formally
adjudicated against the vendor.
1. What is the free Redistribution?

2. What is the Source Code?
3. Is there is a Derived Works?
4. What are the Integrity of The Author’s Source Code?
5. is there no Discrimination against Persons or Groups?
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Handbook of Ethics
Internet Research ethics: The Field and Its Critical Issues
Quote:
Internet research is the practice of using the Internet, especially the World Wide Web,
for research. To the extent that the Internet is widely and readily accessible to hundreds of
millions of people in many parts of the world, it can provide practically instant information on
most topics, and is having a profound impact on the way in which ideas are formed and
knowledge is created.
Compared to the Internet, print physically limits access to information. A book has to be
identified, then actually obtained. On the Net, the Web can be searched, and typically hundreds
or thousands of pages can be found with some relation to the topic, within seconds. In addition,
email (including mailing lists), online discussion forums (aka message boards, BBS's), and other
personal communication facilities (instant messaging, IRC, newsgroups, etc) can provide direct
access to experts and other individuals with relevant interests and knowledge. However,
difficulties persist in verifying a writer's credentials, and therefore the accuracy or pertinence of
the information obtained -- see also the article Criticism of Wikipedia and its section Difficulty of
fact-checking.
Review:
Being human is becoming more and more a matter of being online. Our lives, particularly
our lives as researchers, and, correspondingly, our research objects and methods, are informed
119
and thus transformed by digital devices and particularly by digital networks. We live in a digital
environment in the sense that we look at reality within the framework of its possibility of being
digital or of its digitability. This ontological or, to put it in Thomas Kuhn's terminology (Kuhn
1970), paradigmatic dimension does not just concern the fact that we create digital objects and
processes or that we are able to create digital models of non-digital objects and processes but
the very possibility of a digital casting of the world or a digital ontology.
We use the concept of ontology in its Heideggerian sense as related to the human capacity of
world construction on the basis of the givenness of our being-in-the-world itself. Heidegger's
terminus technicus [technical term] for this existential givenness is Dasein (Heidegger 1977). The
perception of the finite openness of our existence allows us to produce not just new things but
new world ‘castings’ or projects [Entwurf]: within such castings, natural things and processes as
well as man-made ones can be understood, discovered and/or invented, and used. At the same
time, to be able to perceive the openness of our bodily existence in its tension between birth and
death makes us conscious of the relativity of human world constructions.
Lessons Learned
According to Kant, the receptive character of embodied knowledge makes the basis of
this difference. That is: while human reason and understanding actively originate or "legislate"
(to use a later Kantian term) the forms of our knowledge (e.g., the frameworks of time and
space, the categories of causality, etc.) - as embodied beings, we also depend entirely upon the
material world as received through our senses for the content of our knowledge. Hence, Kant's
transcendental constructivism is a finite one because it is bodily oriented. Similarly, in
Heidegger's existential constructivism, Being itself is finite.
1. What are the respect for bodily identity as affected by research on digital identity?
2. What is the respect for the interests and values of the people subject to online research,
giving them the opportunity of an active and free cooperation?
120
3. Find the unmasking of abuses with regard to the misuse of instrument-oriented analysis
by political and/or private bodies?
4. What are the creation of an atmosphere of social responsibility of online researchers as
well as of their patrons with regard to the utility and usability of their research?
5. What are the particularly with regard to the weakest members of society?
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Handbook of Ethics
Health Information Technology: Challenges in Ethics, Science and Unertaintly
Quote:
Health information technologies can be tools that help individuals maintain their health
through better management of their health information.
To promote a more effective marketplace, greater competition, and increased

choice through accessibility to accurate information on healthcare costs, quality,
and outcomes, The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is advancing the NHIN
as a “network of networks” which will connect diverse entities that need to
exchange health information, such as state and regional health information
exchanges (HIEs), integrated delivery systems, health plans that provide care,
personally controlled health records, Federal agencies, and other networks as well
as the systems to which they, in turn, connec
Review:
Data and technical standards are critical to the advancement of the national health IT
agenda and achieving many of the agenda’s intended health goals and outcomes. Well defined
standards are the foundation for interoperability between systems and for systems that can
fulfill the promise of electronically enabled health and care. By harmonizing standards, different
information systems, networks, and software applications will be able to ‘speak the same
language’ and work together technically to manage and use consistent, accurate, and useful
health information for providers and consumers.
122
Lessons Learned
The core capabilities of the NHIN establish an interoperable infrastructure among

distinct networks and systems that allows for different approaches and implementations, while
ensuring secure information exchange as needed for patient care and population health.
1. What are the Improve health care quality?

1. 2.How to Prevent medical errors?
2. 3.Why Reduce health care costs?
3. 4.How many Increase administrative efficiencies?
4. 5.is there an Expand access to affordable care?
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Handbook of Ethics
Ethical Issues of Information and Business
Quote:
Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or
ethical problems that arise in a business environment. Applied ethics is a field of ethics that
deals with ethical questions in many fields such as medical, technical, legal and business ethics.
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). Businesses can often attain short-
term gains by acting in an unethical fashion; however, such antics tend to undermine the
economy over time.
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).
124
Also known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business and

corporate social performance'is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business
model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby
business would monitor and ensure their adherence to law, ethical standards, and international
norms. Business would embrace responsibility for the impact of their activities on the
environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the
public sphere. Furthermore, business would proactively promote the public interest by
encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that
harm the public sphere, regardless of legality.
Lessons Learned
Proponents argue that there is a strong business case for CSR, in that corporations
benefit in multiple ways by operating with a perspective broader and longer than their own
immediate, short-term profits. Critics argue that CSR distracts from the fundamental economic
role of businesses; others argue that it is nothing more than superficial window-dressing; others
argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful
multinational corporations.
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?
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Responsibilities for Information on the Internet
Quote:
The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share
information along multiple channels. Typically, a computer that connects to the Internet can
access information from a vast array of available servers and other computers by moving
information from them to the computer's local memory.
One problem in using the Internet to do historical research is that the quality of sources
varies tremendously. Unlike books and journals, which go through a filtering process (e.g.
editing, peer review), information on the Internet is mostly unfiltered.
Review:
One advantage of online information relative to the ease with which it is updated is
currency. Currency can be thought of as the "freshness" of information, and is a desirable
characteristic for statistics, news, and other present-context material. Historical material
restricted to a particular period doesn't require as frequent updating as state-of-the-art
information, and can be regarded in a different light. In general, the latest information is the
most valuable.
It is important to identify any biases that the author(s) or editor(s) of an information

source might possess. If there are sponsoring agencies, they should be named and reputable.
Any apparent conflicts of interest should be identified. An important consideration with web
pages is the presence of advertising. Ideally, objective material is preferred, but equally valuable
material that is slanted should not be ignored, but evaluated in light of the bias.
Lessons Learned
A companion to currency is the frequency of update, which tells how often new
information is added to the source, and whether or not this is done on a regular basis. A further
126
consideration is the extent to which updating of content is done. Sources that don't date their
content, don't update frequently, or update regularly must be regarded as questionable.
1. What are the identifying and accessing the appropriate data repositories, i.e., databases
and/or web sites,
2. Is there a conducting comprehensive searches by constructing queries that are

appropriate for the topic's breadth and depth, and
3. What are the preliminarily organized and ranked according to source, topic structure, or
chronology; the next step is to
4. Is there a critically evaluate each information resource.
5. How reliable and free from error is the information?
127
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation
Quote:
Simulated reality is the proposition that reality could be simulated—perhaps by
computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain
conscious minds which may or may not know that they are living inside a simulation. In its
strongest form, the "simulation hypothesis" claims it is possible and even probable that we are
actually living in such a simulation.
In a brain-computer interface simulation, each participant enters from outside, directly
connecting their brain to the simulation computer. The computer transfers sensory data to them
and reads their desires and actions back; in this manner they interact with the simulated world
and receive feedback from it.
Review:
It is relevant to the Simulation Hypothesis in that it illustrates how a simulation could
contain conscious subjects, as required by a "virtual people" simulation. For example, it is well
known that physical systems can be simulated to some degree of accuracy. If computationalism
is correct, and if there is no problem in generating artificial consciousness from cognition, it
would establish the theoretical possibility of a simulated reality. However, the relationship
between cognition and phenomenal consciousness is disputed. It is possible that consciousness
requires a substrate of "real" physics, and simulated people, while behaving appropriately,
would be philosophical zombies. This would also seem to negate Nick Bostrom's simulation
argument; we cannot be inside a simulation, as conscious beings, if consciousness cannot be
simulated. However, we could still be within a simulation, and yet be envatted brains.
Lessons Learned:
A computer simulation would be limited to the processing power of its host computer,
and so there may be aspects of the simulation that are not computed at a fine-grained (e.g.
128
subatomic) level. This might show up as a limitation on the accuracy of information that can be
obtained in particle physics.
However, this argument, like many others, assumes that accurate judgments about the
simulating computer can be made from within the simulation. If we are being simulated, we
might be misled about the nature of computers.
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?
129
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Genetic Information: Epistemological and Ethical Issues
Quote:
The natural trajectory of human genome research is toward the identification of genes,
genes that control normal biological functions and genes that create genetic disease or interact
with other genes to precipitate hereditary disorders. Genes are being localized far more rapidly
than treatments are being developed for the afflictions they cause, and the human genome
project will accelerate this trend.
We all expected that the detection of a marker linked to the Huntington's disease gene would
require thousands of tests and probes, but the third probe that Gusella characterized and the
twelfth one he tried hit the jackpot. He began with the Iowan family, whose samples were the
first to be collected, and the probe, called G8, was weakly positive, but not significantly so.
Review:
At Massachusetts General Hospital, DNA was extracted from blood samples from the
Venezuelan family members. Jim Gusella was also studying a large American family with
Huntington's disease from Iowa. He searched the DNA from these two families for a telltale
marker, helping to develop what were to become standard laboratory procedures in such
ventures. Jim sliced up each person's DNA with restriction enzymes. He then developed markers,
RFLPs, which he made radioactive. These markers were called anonymous because he did not
know on which human chromosome they were located, only that they were in one unique spot
in the genome, just like a gene, and they came in several forms so that individuals could be
differentiated from one another. The fragments of chopped-up DNA from the family members
were put on a gel that separates fragments on the basis of size. The radioactive probe
(denatured, or single- stranded) was then added. When the probe is radioactive, it would "light
up" where it was stuck on the gel, revealing distinctive bands. One would then need to check if a
certain pattern of bands appeared only in individuals who had the disease and another pattern
in their relatives who were healthy. If this difference was true more often than would be
130
expected by chance, it would be very likely that the marker and the gene were close together on
the same chromosome.
Lessons Learned
It had taken us just three years -- an astonishingly short time -- to localize the HD gene.
Our critics and even our supporters said, rightly, that we had been incredibly lucky. It was as
though, without the map of the United States, we had looked for the killer by chance in Red
Lodge, Montana, and found the neighborhood where he was living.
1. What is genetic?
2. What is DNA?
3. What are the Epistemological ?
4. What are the genetic information?
5. Define Genetic Information?
131
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
The Ethics of Cyber Conflict
Quote:
In almost all of these cases, it's about censorship," he said. "The Internet has become a
communications tool for dissidents, which is great, but DDoS tools are becoming a way to
silence them."
A handful of times in the past two years, political tensions in former Soviet states have
spilled over into cyberspace. In April 2007, protests in Estonia, which was occupied by the Soviet
Union for nearly four decades, resulted in attacks by ethnic Russians and their sympathizers on
Estonian government networks.
Review:
A year later, cyber attacks on networks in the nation of Georgia accompanied the
military conflict between that country's government and Russia. Radio Free Europe suffered an
attack nearly a year ago after it posted a report on the anniversary of the accident at the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
After analyzing the most recent international denial-of-service attacks, Jose Nazario,
manager of security research for Arbor Networks, found that each incident targeted a
government network or news agency that had criticized a particular nation, including Russia,
China and Israel. While the attacks on Estonia disrupted online business services in that country,
the attackers had primarily aimed at the attacks at government Web sites responsible for
moving a statue of historical importance to Russian nationalists. And, while attacks on the
former Soviet state of Georgia coincided with the movement of Russian ground forces, initial
attacks that occurred more than a week earlier had taken down the Georgian president's Web
site, Nazario said.
Lessons Learned
132
While several security experts reported an attack on the networks of another former
Soviet state, Kyrgyzstan, Nazario stressed that he has yet to find any data that confirmed such
an attack actually happened.
While it could have been an internal conflict between an opposition party and the ruling
political party, "privately people are doubting that this attack occurred," he said.
1. What is cyber conflict
2. What are the ethics of cyber?
3. Is there are conflict in cyber?
4. Define cyber conflict
5. What are the networks of cyber?
133
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
A Practical Mechanism for Ethical Risk
Quote:
In non-technical contexts, the word “risk” refers, often rather vaguely, to situations in
which it is possible but not certain that some undesirable event will occur. In technical contexts,
the word has several more specialized uses and meanings. Five of these are particularly
important since they are widely used across disciplines:
Although this distinction between risk and uncertainty is decision-theoretically useful,
from an epistemological point of view it is in need of clarification. Only very rarely are
probabilities known with certainty. Strictly speaking, the only clear-cut cases of “risk” (known
probabilities) seem to be idealized textbook cases that refer to devices such as dice or coins that
are supposed to be known with certainty to be fair.
Review:
In real-life situations, even if we act upon a determinate probability estimate, we are not
fully certain that this estimate is exactly correct, hence there is uncertainty. It follows that
almost all decisions are made “under uncertainty”. If a decision problem is treated as a decision
“under risk”, this does not mean that the decision in question is made under conditions of
completely known probabilities. Rather, it means that a choice has been made to simplify the
description of this decision problem by treating it as a case of known probabilities. This is often a
highly useful idealization in decision theory.
A major problem in the epistemology of risk is how to deal with the severe limitations
that characterize our knowledge of the behaviour of unique complex systems that are essential
for estimates of risk, such as the climate system, ecosystems, the world economy, etc. Each of
these systems contains so many components and potential interactions that it is in practice
unpredictable. However, in spite of this fundamental uncertainty, meaningful statements about
some aspects of these systems can be made. The epistemological status of such statements, and
the nature of the uncertainty involved, are in need of clarification.
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Lessons Learned
However, in practical applications it is important to distinguish between those
probabilities that can be treated as known and those that are uncertain and therefore much
more in need of continuous updating. Typical examples of the former are the failure frequencies
of a technical component that are inferred from extensive and well-documented experience of
its use. The latter case is exemplified by experts' estimates of the expected failure frequencies of
a new type of component
1. What is the Ethical Risk?
2. What is the practical Mechanism?
3. Find the risk?
4. Is there a moral on ethical risk?
5. What are the causes of risk?
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Regulation and Governance of the Internet
Quote:
The infrastructure layer can be considered the foundational layer of the Internet– it
includes the copper and optical fibre cables (or “pipes”) and radio waves that carry data around
the world and into users’ homes.
Internationally, however, there is no regulation, and the terms of any interconnection
agreement are generally determined on the basis of negotiation and bargaining. In theory, this
allows the market to determine interconnection in an efficient manner. In practice, however,
unequal market position, and in particular the important positions occupied by Tier 1 providers,
means that the larger providers are often able to dictate terms to the smaller ones, which in
turn must bear the majority of the costs of connection.
Review:
The Internet is a “network of networks”; it is composed of a multitude of smaller
networks that must connect together (“interconnect”) in order for the global network to
function seamlessly. In traditional telecommunications networks, interconnection is clearly
regulated at the national level by State authorities, and at the international level (i.e., between
national networks) by well-defined principles and agreements, some of which are supervised by
the ITU. Interconnection between Internet networks, however, is not clearly governed by any
entity, rules or laws. In recent years, this inherent ambiguity has become increasingly
problematic, leading to high access costs for remote and developing countries, and in need of
some kind of governance solution. Indeed, in its final report, the WGIG identified the ambiguity
and uneven distribution of international interconnection costs as one of the key issues requiring
a governance solution.15
On the Internet, access providers must interconnect with each other across international,
national or local boundaries. Although not formalized, it is commonly said that there are three
categories of access providers in this context: Tier 1 (large international backbone operators);
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Tier 2 (national or regional backbone operators); and Tier 3 (local ISPs). In most countries, there
is some regulation of interconnection at national and local levels (for Tiers 2 and 3 ISPs), which
may dictate rates and other terms between these providers.
Lessons Learned
As we have seen, Internet governance encompasses a range of issues and actors, and
takes place at many layers. Throughout the network, there exist problems that need solutions,
and, more importantly, potential that can be unleashed by better governance. It is not possible
here to capture the full range of issues. This section, rather, seeks to provide a sampling. It
describes the issues by layers, and it also discusses key actors for each layer. A more extensive
description of actors and their responsibilities can be found in Appendix 1; Figure 1 also contains
a representation of issues by layer.
1. What are the access for every citizen on an individual or household basis?
2. Is there an ensure that all citizens are within reach of an access point?
3. How to access only to basic telephony?
4. What are the value-added services like the Internet and broadband; and
5. Find the access only to infrastructure, or also to content, services and applications.
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Information Overload
Quote:
There is a downfall or a negative impact within this issue Together with the amount of
information being produced from various people on the net, the problem of Information
Overload arises. The implication arises from the psychological field, society and individual
Information overload refers to an excess amount of information being provided, making
processing and absorbing tasks very difficult for the individual because sometimes we cannot
see the validity behind the information.
Review:
As the world moves into a new era of globalization, an increasing number of people are
logging onto the internet to conduct their own research and are given the ability to produce as
well as consume the data accessed on an increasing number of websites As of February 2007
there were over 108 million distinct websites and increasing. Users are now classified as active
users because more people in society are participating in the Digital and Information Age More
and more people are considered to be active writers and viewers because of their participation
This flow has created a new life where we are now dependant on access to information
Therefore we see an information overload from the access to so much information, almost
instantaneously, without knowing the validity of the content and the risk of misinformation
People are provided with wrong information about economics, politics and business.
Hence, problems like misunderstanding arise in a society, and this creates havoc and madness.
Since information is different, people tend to react differently according to their set of beliefs
corroborating with the information available. - For example, if there are blogs or websites
discussing about culture and if certain numbers of people are not happy with its contents
published, hence a peaceful realm will be shaken into the falls of stones and rocks.
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Lessons Learned
The increase of information growth provides opportunity for interaction and
communication to take place. Individuals are able to converse about certain issues with
different information hence bringing up a discussion. For example, in www.murdoch.edu.au, an
LMS site is provided in which unit discussions within students takes place. One of the questions
that are being asked is, “Is Second Life the New Life”. As we know, students have a range of
information and thus, with their own set of knowledge from journals, books and website
references, they argue their points out with one another hence improving the students to think
critically and beyond the box. In the midst of this discussion, unintentionally interaction and
communication takes place. Though it is taking place virtually yet it is achieving one of the main
objective in this century. The social interaction enhances communication as the main tool.
1. What is the rapidly increasing rate of new information being produced
2. What are the ease of duplication and transmission
3. What are the data across the Internet
4. Is there an increase in the available channels of incoming information
5. Find the Large amounts of historical information to dig through?
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Email Spam
Quote:
E-mail spam, also known as junk e-mail, is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical
messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail.
E-mail addresses are collected from chatrooms, websites, newsgroups, and viruses which
harvest users' address books, and are sold to other spammers. Much of spam is sent to invalid e-
mail addresses. ISPs have attempted to recover the cost of spam through lawsuits against
spammers, although they have been mostly unsuccessful in collecting damages despite winning
in court. Spam averages 94% of all e-mail sent
Review:
Sending spam violates the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) of almost all Internet Service
Providers. Providers vary in their willingness or ability to enforce their AUP. Some actively
enforce their terms and terminate spammers' accounts without warning. Some ISPs lack
adequate personnel or technical skills for enforcement, while others may be reluctant to enforce
restrictive terms against profitable customers.
As the recipient directly bears the cost of delivery, storage, and processing, one could
regard spam as the electronic equivalent of "postage-due" junk mail.[6] Due to the low cost of
sending unsolicited e-mail and the potential profit entailed, some believe that only strict legal
enforcement can stop junk e-mail. The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE)
argues "Today, much of the spam volume is sent by career criminals and malicious hackers who
won't stop until they're all rounded up and put in jail."
Lessons Learned
Origin or source of spam refers to the geographical location of the computer from which
the spam is sent; it is not the country where the spammer resides, nor the country that hosts the
140
spamvertised site. Due to the international nature of spam, the spammer, the hijacked spam-
sending computer, the spamvertised server, and the user target of the spam are all often
located in different countries. As much as 80% of spam received by Internet users in North
America and Europe can be traced to fewer than 200 spammers.
1. What is email spam?
2. What is chatting?
3. How to send an message?
4. How to obtain the email addresses?
5. Define email spam?
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
The Matter of Plagiarism: What, Why, and If
Quote:
Students need to be able to trust their professors. They need confidence that professors
are up-to-date in the information they present, accurate in their portrayal of texts and theories,
reliably fair in their evaluations of students' work.
Review:
The fair use of information and the honest presentation of one's self are important
responsibilities for career and citizenship. The habits students develop in college as they write
papers prepare them for the kinds of writing and speaking they will do throughout a lifetime.
Honesty and fairness cannot be compartmentalized as character traits to be practiced later,
"when it really matters." If a writer plagiarizes in college,
Plagiarism carries severe disciplinary and financial consequences. When a student is

proven to have plagiarized a paper, he or she faces serious penalties, ranging from failure on
the assignment to failure in the course. These penalties will be reported to the Provost of the
college, who will enter the offense in the student's record. Repeated acts of plagiarism will lead
to dismissal from the college.
Plagiarism in the professional world can also lead to serious consequences, including
professional disgrace, loss of position, and lawsuits.
Lessons Learned
Plagiarism is the reuse of significant, identical, or nearly identical portions of one’s own
work without acknowledging that one is doing so or without citing the original work. Articles of
this nature are often referred to as multiple publications. The issue can be either legal, in the
case where copyright of the prior work has been transferred to another entity, or merely ethical.
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Typically, self-plagiarism is only considered to be a serious ethical issue in settings where a

publication is asserted to consist of new material, such as in academic publishing or educational
assignments. It does not apply (except in the legal sense) to public-interest texts, such as social,
professional, and cultural opinions usually published in newspapers and magazines.
1. What are the liberal education within the context of the historic Christian faith"
2. Is there "an atmosphere of search and confrontation that will liberate the minds,
enhance?
3. What are the discernment, enlarge the sympathies?
4. How to encourage the commitments of all students?
5. what can be given to others in service to God and humanity.?
143
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral Challenges of Online File Sharing
Quote:
File sharing is the distribution or exchange of files over computer networks, and peer-to-
peer (P2P) networks in particular.
To peer-to-peer networks are designed with a degree of anonymity provided by routing
traffic through other users' clients, effectively hiding the identity of the users. Most of these
networks use strong encryption to resist traffic sniffing.
Review:
The oldest form of file sharing is Sneakernet (called such because people would
physically transfer files from one person to another by walking; using their sneakers). Before
network file sharing people would exchange files on Magnetic tape (including audio cassettes,
8-tracks, VHS, Betamax, etc.), floppy disks and other removable media.
The oldest form of network file sharing is the server-based approach in which a network
host is designated as a file server. A file server implements at least one network file sharing
protocol, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), Secure File
Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Network File System (protocol) (NFS), Server Message Block (SMB,
CIFS), or other network file systems. Computers seeking to access stored files utilize a
compatible client-side protocol implementation and either mount an entire remote directory
hierarchy within their file system or facilitate access, transfer, and local storage of individual
remote files by means of a user application.
Webhosting is also used for file-sharing; it is similar to the server-based approach, but
uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and related technologies for file transfer. In small
communities popular files can be distributed very quickly and efficiently without extra software
in addition to the ubiquitous web browsers. Web hosters are independent of each other;
therefore contents are not distributed further. Another term for this is one-click hosting.
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Lessons Learned
To understand peer-to-peer file sharing and what was indeed the very first
implementation of peer-to-peer file sharing, you need to go back before the popularized form of
the Internet as we know it. First use of Peer-to-peer file sharing was on a network similar to the
Internet known as WWIVnet. WWIVnet was like FidoNet but it used a distributed model of
nodes where traffic was re-routed based on the shortest distance between nodes. It worked very
much like the Internet but without a constant always on connection.
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?
145
HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Censorship and Access to Expression
Quote:
Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on
the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship.
Barring total control on Internet-connected computers, such as in North Korea and Cuba, total
censorship of information on the Internet is very difficult (or impossible) to achieve due to the
underlying distributed technology of the Internet.
Review:
One difference is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that
bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside the country. Conversely,
attempts by one government to prevent its citizens from seeing certain material can have the
effect of restricting foreigners, because the government may take action against Internet sites
anywhere in the world, if they host objectionable material.
Pseudonymity and data havens (such as Freenet) allow unconditional free speech, as the
technology guarantees that material cannot be removed and the author of any information is
impossible to link to a physical identity or organization.
Lessons Learned
On a different level, the actions and reactions of large corporations to the Internet has to be
factored into any discussion of economic censorship. Some firms have paid search engine
companies for preferential placement in particular subject categories when a user submits an
online search inquiry.
Because so many nations of the world are now considering the filtering system known as PICS
(Platform for Internet Content Selections) as an answer to their concerns, the question of
parental controls also must be addressed. In many countries, the state justifies censorship with
146
the claim that it is acting in loco parentis. Such claims, whether interpreted as "state as parent"
or "state as Big Brother," are responsible for many of the restrictions on information distribution
found today across the world.
1. What is Auto-censorship against sexual words in matter for children?
2. How the users who are not administrators, has been known to query usernames?
3. Find the Yahoo email group system's profanity blocker, set to block the acronym CP in descriptions of
email groups?
4. How to treating it as meaning "child pornography",?
5. How to block it when a journalist setting up an email group used "CP?
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
The Gender Agenda in Computer Ethics
Quote:
Computer Ethics is the branch of philosophy that analysis the nature and social impact
of computer technology as well as the standards of conduct which pertain to proper use
computers. It involves social issues, such as access rights, working place monitoring, censorship
and junk mail; professional issues such as professional responsibility and code of conduct; legal
issues such as legal obligations, data protection, computer misuse and software piracy.
Computer Ethics is a branch of practical philosophy which deals with how computing
professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct. The term
"computer ethics" was first coined by Walter Maner in the mid-1970s, but only since the 1990s
has it started being integrated into professional development programs in academic settings.
Review:
Identifying ethical issues as they arise, as well as defining how to deal with them, has
traditionally been problematic in computer ethics. Some have argued against the idea of
computer ethics as a whole. However, Collins and Miller proposed a method of identifying issues
in computer ethics in their Paramedic Ethics model. The model is a data-centered view of
judging ethical issues, involving the gathering, analysis, negotiation, and judging of data about
the issue.
In solving problems relating to ethical issues, Michael Davis proposed a unique problem-
solving method. In Davis's model, the ethical problem is stated, facts are checked, and a list of
options is generated by considering relevant factors relating to the problem. The actual action
taken is influenced by specific ethical standards.
Lessons Learned
148
One of the most definitive sets of ethical standards is the Association for Computing
Machinery Code of Ethics. The code is a four-point standard governing ethical behavior among
computing professionals. It covers the core set of computer ethics from professional
responsibility to the consequences of technology in society.
1. What is the agenda of computer ethics?
2. What are the ethics of agenda?
3. Find the ethical behavior among computer professional?
4. What are the responsibility of computer?
5. Define computer ethics?
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
The Digital Divide: A Perspective for the Future
Quote:
The term digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital
and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all. It includes the
imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the imbalances in resources and skills
needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen.
The Internet has prompting intense speculation about its ultimate impact upon the
economy, society and politics. Many hope that the Internet will be a powerful new force capable
of transforming existing patterns of social inequality, strengthening linkages between citizens
and representatives, facilitating new forms of public engagement and communication, and
widening opportunities for the development of a global civic society.
Review:
This book sets out to understand these issues, drawing upon worldwide surveys of public
opinion, systematic content analysis of web sites, and case studies of online civic engagement.
Much existing research on the Internet is based upon the situation in the United States, but it is
not clear how far we can generalize more widely from this particular context. Democracies offer
citizens different structures of opportunity to participate in their own governance. Based upon
an examination of OECD countries, this book argues that the political role of the Internet reflects
and thereby reinforces, rather than transforms, the structural features of each country’s political
system.
Lessons Learned
Digital divide is the global digital divide, reflecting existing economic divisions in the
world, which can clearly be seen in The Global Digital Divide image. This global digital divide
widens the gap in economic divisions around the world. Countries with a wide availability of
Internet access can advance the economics of that country on a local and global scale. In today's
150
society, jobs and education are directly related to the Internet, in that the advantages that come
from the Internet are so significant that neglecting them would leave a company vulnerable in a
changing market.“Andy Grove, the former chair of Intel, said that by the mid-2000s all
companies will be Internet companies, or they won’t be companies at all. In countries where the
Internet and other technologies are not accessible, education is suffering, and uneducated
people and societies that are not benefiting from the information age, cannot be competitive in
the global economy. This leads to these countries, which tend to be developing countries,
suffering greater economic downfall and richer countries advancing their education and
economy.
1. How to Continuing to Overcome the Digital Divide?
2. What is digital divide?
3. What are the effects of digital?
4. Is there an information age cannot competitive?
5. Define the digital divided?
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HANDBOOK OF ETHICS
Intercultural Information Ethics
Quote:
the word “philosophy” points to a specific way of questioning of the kind “what is?” (ti
estin), and more precisely “what is being?”
Review:
Aristotle’s conception of practical philosophy is concerned with the reflection on the
ways human beings dwell in the world, with their ethos, and their search for good life (eu zen).
According to Luhmann (1990) the ethical discourse should not provide a given morality with a
kind of fundamentum inconcussum or even become a meta-perspective beyond all other societal
systems but, quite the contrary, it belongs to the self-referential process of morality itself.
Philosophic questioning is of the nature that it binds questions with the essence of the
questioner. To answer the question ‘what is philosophy?’ is then by no means possible by
referring to one of the possible answers alone, nor is it the result of looking for what is common
to all of them as this would provide just a “void formula” (“leere Formel”) (Heidegger 1976, 19).
It is also not sure that our answer, or Heidegger’s own, will be a philosophic one.
Lessons Learned
In fact, this situation of disturbance or insecurity may be a hint and even a “touchstone”
(“Prüfstein”) that we are on a philosophic path (Heidegger 1976, 19). What is basic for grasping
the differences among philosophic answers is their corresponding mood, including the sober
mood of planning and calculating which is a characteristic of modern science and with it of what
we use to call ‘modernity.’ In fact, as Heidegger states, it is not possible to be able to ever go
back to the original Greek experience of logos and it is of course not possible just to incorporate
it
152
1. How far does the Internet affect?
2. Is it for better or worse, local and particularly global cultures?
3. How far does it foster democratic processes inside and between them?
4. How do people construct their cultural identities within this medium?
5. How does it affect their customs, languages, and everyday problems?
153
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

The Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Quote:
“Most thinking people know where they have to go, but letting go of their beliefs and
abandoning their "zones of comfort" and familiarity are not easy.”
The poor cannot participate in the benefits of globalization without an active

engagement and without access to products and services that represent global quality
standards. They need to be exposed to the range and variety of opportunities that inclusive
globalization can provide. The poor represent a "latent market" for goods and services. Active
engagement of private enterprises at the BOP is a critical element in creating inclusive
capitalism, as private-sector competition for this market will foster attention to the poor as
consumers. It will create choices for them. They do not have to depend only on what is available
in their villages.
Review:
These characteristics of a market economy, new to the BOP, can facilitate dramatic
change at the BOP. Free and transparent private-sector competition, unlike local village and
shanty-town monopolies controlled by local slum lords, can transform the "poor" into
consumers (as we illustrate with examples). Poverty alleviation will become a business
development task shared among the large private sector firms and local BOP entrepreneurs.
154
Lessons Learned:
In this chapter BOP markets must become an integral part of the work of the private
sector. They must become part of the firms’ core businesses; they cannot merely be relegated to
the realm of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Successfully creating BOP markets
involves change in the functioning of MNCs as much as it changes the functioning of developing
countries. BOP markets must become integral to the success of the firm in order to command
senior management attention and sustained resource allocation.
1. What are the policies of government?

2. What is BOP?
3. What is right and moral?
4. Is there are as many rural rich as there are urban poor?
5. Is difficult to give up for individuals, political parties, and sections of the bureaucracy?
155

Products and Services for the BOP
Quote:
As White explains, “our products have huge reach and so the opportunity to improve
lives and to make sure we reduce our overall environmental impact is primarily through our
products.”
Not only are companies attracted by the prospect of discovering markets with untapped
growth potential, but they’re also aiming to have an impact, in a global society characterized by
deep divisions between the haves and the have-nots. But those developing new products for
those living in poverty are finding that cost alone isn’t the most important factor.
Review:
The product had clear social benefits, providing clean drinking water for households in
places where the health risks of untreated drinking water are high, especially for children. After
three years of market tests though, PUR was looking like a commercial failure. Many other firms
would have closed down the project, but P&G instead moved PUR to its corporate sustainability
department, easing the pressure on turning a profit. Since 2003, P&G has sold the product at
cost and worked in partnership with non-profit organizations, who distribute the product
through their development and humanitarian relief networks.
156
Lessons Learned:
People can afford computers and, thus, schools can justify investments in routers and
infrastructure, a sensible proposition for companies like Cisco. The cycle goes on.
So, rather than, or as a complement to, trying to make money off of the BOP as new market
opportunities, when companies help create value by allowing families to create wealth through
"their" creations or products, lends itself to more robust investments. Otherwise, companies will
continue to scratch their heads on how to capitalize on the BOP.
1. What are the products of BOP?

2. What are the services for the BOP?
3. What are the opportunities in the company?
4. What is the impact in global society?
5. What are the creations of the products or investments?
157

BOP: A Global Opportunity
Quote:
The total opportunity costs of such an action can never be known with certainty, and
are sometimes called "hidden costs" or "hidden losses" as what has been prevented from being
produced cannot be seen or known. Even the possibility of inaction is a lost opportunity.
Global Opportunity cost is a key concept in economics because it implies the choice
between desirable, yet mutually exclusive results.
Review:
Global Opportunity cost or economic opportunity loss is the value of the next best
alternative foregone as the result of making a decision. Opportunity cost analysis is an
important part of a company's decision-making processes but is not treated as an actual cost in
any financial statement. The next best thing that a person can engage in is referred to as the
opportunity cost of doing the best thing and ignoring the next best thing to be done.
It is a calculating factor used in mixed markets which favour social change in favour of
purely individualistic economics. It has been described as expressing "the basic relationship
between scarcity and choice." The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring
that scarce resources are used efficiently. Thus, opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary
or financial costs: the real cost of output forgone, lost time, swag, pleasure or any other benefit
that provides utility should also be considered opportunity costs.
158
Lessons Learned:
A person who sells stock for $10,000 denies himself or herself the opportunity to sell the
stock for a higher price in the future, inheriting an opportunity cost equal to future price minus
sale price.
An organization that invests $1 million in acquiring a new asset instead of spending that
money on maintaining its existing asset portfolio incurs the increased risk of failure of its
existing assets. The opportunity cost of the decision to acquire a new asset is the financial
security that comes from the organization's spending the money on maintaining its existing
asset portfolio.
If a city decides to build a hospital on vacant land it owns, the opportunity cost is the
value of the benefits forgone of the next best thing that might have been done with the land
and construction funds instead. In building the hospital, the city has forgone the opportunity to
build a sports center on that land, or a parking lot, or the ability to sell the land to reduce the
city's debt, since those uses tend to be mutually exclusive. Also included in the opportunity cost
would be what investments or purchases the private sector would have voluntarily made if it
had not been taxed to build the hospital.
1. What is global opportunity?

2. Is there an ability to construct a fund?
3. What is the organization of BOP?
4. How much the value of the benefits in funds?
5. Define the BOP?
159

The Ecosystem for Wealth Creation
Quote:
“An ecosystem is a complete community of living organisms and the nonliving materials
of their surroundings.”
Ecosystem Wealth Creation is a stock, meaning that it is a total accumulation over time.
Income is a flow, meaning it is a rate of change. Income represents the increase in wealth,
expenses the decrease in wealth. If you limit wealth to net worth, then mathematically net
income (income minus expenses) can be thought of as the first derivative of wealth,
representing the change in wealth over a period of time.
Review:
The environment is relatively stable and the innovation that comes with diversity isn't a
high priority, you can move to directly control the assets your company needs, by acquiring your
partners or otherwise taking over their functions. A physical dominator ultimately becomes its
own ecosystem, absorbing the complex network of interdependencies that existed between
distinct organizations, and is able to extract maximum short-term value from the assets it
controls. When it reaches this end point, an ecosystem strategy is no longer relevant.
If, however, your business chooses to extract maximum value from a network of assets
that you don't control—the value dominator strategy—you may end up starving and ultimately
destroying the ecosystem of which you are a part. This makes the approach a fundamentally
flawed strategy.
160
Lessons Learned:
If your business is at the center of a complex network of asset-sharing relationships and

operates in a turbulent environment, a keystone strategy may be the most effective. By carefully
managing the widely distributed assets your company relies on in part by sharing with your
business partners the wealth generated by those assets. Can capitalize on the entire ecosystem's
ability to generate, because of its diversity, innovative responses to disruptions in the
environment.
1. What is ecosystem?
2. What is wealth creation?
3. What is the strategy of managing the company?
4. Is there an ability of ecosystem’s to generate?
5. What are the value from a network of assets?
161

Reducing Corruption
Quote:
"The people practice the corruption because is the easy way to do his jobs and resolve
his problems, and they just follow the example, and because they say that the people who
practice that is the smart people"
The leadership desires Corruption is self-defeating and therefore will work for its
dissolution. A good leadership worths best in a society no matter what.
Review:
Corruption is said to be an act done with intent to give some advantage inconsistent
with official duty and the rights of others. It includes bribery, but is more comprehensive;
because an act may be corruptly done, though the advantage to be derived from it be not
offered by another. Corruption has been around for a very long time and will be around in the
future unless governments can figure out effective ways to combat it. This is not going to be
easy, since much public corruption can be traced to government intervention in the economy,
policies aimed at liberalization, stabilization, deregulation, and privatization can sharply reduce
the opportunities for rent-seeking behavior and corruption. Where government regulations are
pervasive, however, and government officials have discretion in applying them, individuals are
often willing to offer bribes to officials to circument the rules and, sad to relate, officials are
occasionally tempted to accept these bribes.
162
Lessons Learned:
Corruption from my point of view is like a disease that eats a country up. i think that
corruption retards growth because when u always have to bribe your way through getting
things done, then it practically mean that you are preventing another resourceful person from
achieving his or her goal. the 'who you know' system is so bad that even when it comes to
schooling, the good students are left to stay home and the unintelligent ones take their place
only because they don't have the money to pay to get admission.this is a peculiar issue in my
country which is destroying it because at the end of the day,the schools produce very poor
commodities who cant even think on their feet and as such stops creative thinking. therefore, i
think that for a country to progress, it needs a corrupt free environment"
1. What are the plans of government for changes to the current system and to create laws
to protect whistle blowers?
2. What articles write to your local newspaper when you see corruption in action?
3. How many of the campaigns to fight against corruption?
4. Is there for a for good governance around the world ?
5. Is there a global phenomenon of corruption?
163

Development as Social Transformation
Quote:
Financial assistance sought by individuals or groups should not duplicate assistance that
is obtainable from other government agencies or departments.
Review:
The Committee only considers requests from individuals whose income levels are at or
below the poverty line ($5,503.00 per annum). Discretion may be exercised for families facing
extenuating circumstances.
Funds shall not be provided directly to individuals. Rather the agencies of the Ministry of
Social Transformation shall liaise with institutions, agencies or businesses to procure services or
items granted to individuals or groups.
Submissions for funding from CBOs and NGOs shall include the comments of the
Community Development Department and/or the Poverty Alleviation Bureau on the viability of
the project and its potential to alleviate poverty, where relevant.
For funds approved in excess of $100,000.00 an agreement prepared by the Office of the
Solicitor General would be concluded by the organisation and the Ministry of Social
Transformation.
164
Lessons Learned:
The Welfare Department, was established and a number of Social Centers were built for
the increasing social activities which were mainly tea meetings, dances and service or
songs. The League and later the Welfare Department managed the Social Centres and assumed
responsibility for Community Development in the island.
The early Centres were also used as venues where people were taught Handicraft to
meet the demands of the embryonic tourist market and as an income earner mainly for
women. Some were also used as Child Health clinics. In the mid and late 1960 there was an
increase in community development activity in Barbados, necessitating an increase in facilities.
1. How to encourage and develop a sense of civic consciousness.

2. How to build and maintain strong, cooperative and harmonious?
3. What are the relationships among the various interest groups within communities?
4. How to foster a spirit of self-help, community enterprise and entrepreneurship?
5. What are the part of an overall strategy towards sustainable development and poverty
eradication.
165

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ITETHIC – Book Reviews

Book Review Compilation

This work is licensed under a

I’ve worked hard to be able to accomplish this achievement.

1. What is Cyber ethics?

I am aware that on-line communications do not only encompass communicating along

1. What is on-line ethics?

We are entering a generation marked by globalization and ubiquitous computing. The

Selling computer software which is known to malfunction in a way which is likely to

1. Who is Terry Bynum?

It is the excluded--the other on the 'outside' as it were--that is the concern of ethics.

1. What is disclosive computer ethics?

1. What is global information infrastructure?

computers and unemployment, responsibilities of computer professionals, computers for

According to Wiener's metaphysical view, everything in the universe comes into

1. What is moral ethics?

Computer ethics is a field of professional ethics concerned with issues of responsibilities

An a posteriori systematic analysis of the behavior of an agent can assist developers of

1. Who is James Moor?

It is very much important to understand ethics and its connection to internet. It is

To answer such a question, perhaps it would help to consider a particular computer

1. What are the laws of cyberspace?

beginning to be featured in academic publications and conferences. An excellent example is the

1. Why not avoid the moral dilemma by selecting FOSS?

1. What is freedom of speech?

In this case it may be instructive to look at the legal definitions of obscene or

1. What is Internet Services Provider?

The DMCA is anti-competitive. It gives copyright holders — and the technology

1. What is DeCSS Trial?

1. What is intellectual property?

Intellectual property is an odd notion, almost an oxymoron. Property usually refers to

Computer technology has created a new revolution in how intellectual property is

1. What is intellectual property?

A property right is the relationship between individuals in reference to things. Cohen

1. What is property right?

• Articulating an evaluation’s purpose (i.e., intent) will prevent premature decision-making

recognized: planning, implementation , and effects . During planning, program activities

1. What is the ethical evaluation?

"Most developer's salaries don't depend on software sale value."

1. What is the cathedral?

1. Why do students plagiarized?

To understand the importance of personal data protection. To establish the directive a

1. What is directive 95/46/ec?

Prominent among contemporary philosophical works on privacy is Charles Fried's. Fried

A person's right to privacy restricts access by others to this sphere of personal,

1. Who is Helen Nissembaum?

Today we consciously or unconsciously diffuse our data somewhere. Whenever we shop,

1. What is data mining?

I expect awareness of informational wrongdoing. It will also define different varieties of

1. What are the different varieties of informational wrongdoing?

1. What is computer crime?

In this essay, I argue that this increasingly influential line of reasoning is

Consequentialism..., Brey's Disclosive Computer Ethics, and Adam's ``feminist ethics''

1. What is the difference between security and privacy?

An understanding of the natural meaning of anonymity, as may be reflected in ordinary

The concern I wish to raise here is that in a computerized world concealing or

For situations that we judge anonymity acceptable, or even necessary, we do so because

The National Institute of Standards and Technology in a 1996 publication defines

1. What is double encryption?

Biometrics is a technology that verifies a person’s identity by measuring a unique-to-the-

Biometrics is the measuring of an attribute or behavior that is unique to an individual

Before biometrics only physical objects or behaviors based-on-memory were used to