Prince Sultan University

College of Computer and Info Sciences

1st Semester 2022 – 2023
ETHC303: Ethical and Social Aspects of Computing
Assignment#1
Scenario 1:
Acme Corporation licenses a sophisticated software package to many state, districts, and city
governments. Government agencies have the choice of three levels of service: the bronze level
provides online support only; the silver level adds phone support; and the gold level includes
training classes taught on the customer’s site. The gold level of support costs $20,000 a year
more than the silver level.
Jean is one of the Acme employees who works in the support organization. Mostly, Jean
provides phone support, but from time to time he teaches an on-site class. In fact, Jean created
many of the instructional materials used in these classes. Because of the recession, quite a few
government agencies have dropped from the gold level of support to the silver level, and some
members of Jean’s training group have lost their jobs. Jean has a family to support, and he is
wondering if his position will soon be eliminated as well.
The state government of East Dakota is one of the many customers that no longer pays Acme
Corporation for on-site training. One day Jean gets a call from Maria, who works for the East
Dakota state agency using the software package. Maria offers to pay Jean $5,000 plus expenses
to run a five-day training class that covers the same material as the official course taught by
Acme. Jean accepts the offer, but he does not inform anyone at Acme Corporation of his
decision. Working at home on evenings and weekends, he develops his own set of instructional
materials. He takes a week of paid vacation from work, travels to East Daktoa, and teaches the
class.
1. Summarize the scenario and identify the ethical issue.
Many states, districts, and city governments have licenses for a sophisticated software
package from Acme Corporation. Many of the training materials used in these seminars
were created by Jean since he gave some lessons there. Some people in Jean's training
group have lost their employment as a result of the recession. So, Jean fears losing his job
and he got a call from a competitor company & they offered him to give lessons about the
same material during 5-days with a paid salary and he accepted that. The ethical issue
here is that Jean accepted to work in another organization without telling his company by
working secretly and taking a leave as if he needed it.
2. State Utilitarianism and Deontology (Kantianism) Theory.

3. Describe Jean’s professional ethical behavior in this scenario (when he accepted the
offer) based on the following ethical theories.
a. Kantianism Theory
b. Utilitarianism Theory

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Scenario No. 2
A worm is a self-contained program that spreads through a computer network by taking
advantage of security holes in the computers connected to the network. In August 2003, the
Blaster worm infected many computers running the Windows 8 and Windows 10, operating
systems. The Blaster worm caused computers it infected to reboot every few minutes. Soon
another worm was exploiting the same security hole in Windows to spread through the Internet.
However, the purpose of the new worm, named Nachi, was benevolent. Since Nachi took
advantage of the same security hole as Blaster, it could not infect computers that were immune to
the Blaster worm.
Once Nachi gained access to a computer with the security hole, it located and destroyed copies
of the Blaster worm. It also automatically downloaded from Microsoft a patch to the operating
system software that would fix the security problem. Finally, it used the computer as a launching
pad to seek out other Windows PCs with the security hole.
Using the following theories, was the action of the person who released the Nachi worm
morally right or wrong?
a. Social contract theory (Hint: First you assume a rule or contract and then based on
that figure out the action was right or wrong)
b. Deontology
c. Utilitarianism

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Scenario No. 3:
In analyzing the following scenario, describe how an act utilitarian, a rule utilitarian,
deontologist (using 1st and 2nd categorical imperative) would each reach a solution to this
dilemma. Which solution seems most plausible?
You have just been appointed to the board of directors of XYZ.com. Unfortunately, the dot-com
company has been experiencing some difficult financial times, resulting in revenue losses in
three of the last four quarters. As you assume your new position, you discover that two proposals
are on the table. Each proposal has been put forth as a means for dealing with XYZ’s immediate
financial problems.
Proposal #1 recommends that all employees be retained, but that an immediate freeze on salary
increases (raises) for all employees be imposed for the next six months. (Employees may even be
asked to take a 5% cut in pay if things do not improve by the end of that period.)
Proposal #2 recommends that wages not be frozen, but that 5% of the XYZ’s work force be laid
off. (One piece of reasoning behind this proposal is that taking more drastic measures will
“protect” 95% of XYZ’s workers and will send a message to Wall Street and local investors that
XYZ is serious about improving its financial position and that it will soon be a stable company
once again.) The board is evenly split, seven members favoring proposal# 1 and seven favoring
proposal #2. Yours will be the tie-breaking vote. 2.