ITEC120 ethics

Themes

RU account policies — in particular, RU's Acceptable Use policy and Password policy.

With power comes responsibility; being able to write programs is power.

Being a member of community; there exists professional codes-of-conduct; as a member of the IT profession (even if just perceived), you are indirectly an ambassador of the IT profession.

You are part of many communities. A desktop image that's fine for your shared apartment may not be appropriate for a shared lab.

Think of real-world analogs for moral electronic-issues, but be aware that ease-of-use does how often people do things in the real world.

Legal vs. moral — may not be in sync (perhaps because unenforceable, or perhaps because laws not caught up)

Random discussion points

RU account policy

Can you use your account to download The Anarchist's Cookbook?

Can you try to guess your friend's password, to print out one of their papers for them? Can they tell you their password?

Run a webserver for a side-business you're trying to start? How about for a non-profit organization?

RU account definitions & policies

Hacking

Brute force password attacks: If you can write a program to attempt to log into your friend's WoW account (perhaps by trying every word in the dictionary), does that mean it's fair game to try?

How about trying a few passwords by hand -- is this any different?

How about trying your friend's doorknob, to see if it's unlocked? A friend-of-a-friend? A random house on the street?

Is it legal to try a neighbor's house-door, to see if it's unlocked? To go in, if it is unlocked -- even if you don't disturb anything, you just look around? Maybe leave a note, "you should get a better lock"?

Compare to: trying a friend's password; just going and looking around their files (w/o changing them at all).
How about doing this to a corporation's computer system? The pentagon's computer system?

Downloading a patch to your cable box, getting you access to free premium channels?

Hacking into somebody's web server, to demonstrate that they have a security hole? What about breaking into somebody's house, to leave a note on their table?

Privacy issues

Can RU system administrators read your email?

Can RU faculty/staff read your email?

Having a provocative background image on your own computer, which you use in class? On a lab computer?

ISPs giving out information about one specific customer, to somebody who calls up claiming to be that person's wife/parent/self?

ISPs giving out information about one specific customer, to law enforcement with a warrant?

ISPs giving out information about hundres of thousands of customers to law enforcement without a warrant?

In the workplace

Your company wants to release TextEditSuperPro v2.0, but you don't think it's been tested well enough, and the program might… suddenly quit (user loses their work), or corrupt the user's disk. What about if it's software which might impact life safety: an anti-lock braking system, or airplane autopilot, or medical x-ray device.

What if you know your company's program is just worse (harder to use, and/or fewer features) than an open-source, free program available?

What if your company writes software used by the military… for combat; potentially for combat; for non-combat. How do these answers change, if your company might sell this software to not just the US military, but also other countries? To third parties in the US or abroad?

Copying digital media

Real-world sequence of reasoning:

Change my mind

A seller is selling their pepperoni pizza for $6/slice. You think Hmmm, I'd buy it if were cheaper. Does that decision allow you to steal it? Of course not.
HBO's subscription service is too expensive. I wouldn't pirate Game of Thrones if they charged a more reasonable price!
Clearly, somebody else not running their business the way you think would be best (for them), is in no way a justification to steal.
But there's a difference between these two scenarios: In the first, there is a tangible good which the seller had to invest in; in the second there is no loss: I wouldn't watch GoT at all if I don't pirate it, so either way they are getting $0 from me, with their current pricing scheme.
If the pizza is going to get thrown away at the end of the workday, does that allow you to steal it right at the last moment? (After all, at that point, your theft incurs no further loss to the seller — their item has already lost its value.)
(Though of course: writing a hit song or book does take effort before the digital copy ever gets made. Not just paying for food and rent while writing the book or song, but the years and years spent learning how to play and write music.)
Maybe you'd watch the show 10yrs later (when you can afford HBO's business model) — perhaps you would just give in and decide that 50¢/day is worth it for the four different shows you've heard about. (Maybe HBO actually has good marketing people who truly do understand their price-point and its effects!)
Regardless, even if there is no tangible loss, disagreeing with their somebody's business-model clearly does not allow you to steal it for less than they're willing to sell it … even if you think/feel there is no tangible loss to them!
(And perhaps: even if there is truly no loss to them!)

This applies to scenarios like: a book is out-of-print; can I distribute it to my class for free?
The answer is clear, even if it seems to make no sense ¹. But it may make sense when you look at a bigger picture of ownership, production, and fairly recompensing people for what they produce.

Copying music from a friend's CD? From their iPod?

Downloading music via bittorrent etc.? How about for a song you already own? How about for a song on a CD which was stolen from you? Which you dropped? (Old-timers: How about for a song on a cassette/vinyl which you wore out?) For a song your parents own, but you didn't copy before leaving for college. For a live version of a song you own?

From a band's myspace page where they include streaming audio (but no download), using a program to download it? What if they specifically ask you not to do this? (Consider legal vs. ethical.)

What about pirating the System of a Down's Steal this Album!? What about shoplifting Ryko sampler Steal this Disc?

Subscribing to a music-streaming service for one week, and using a program to download/save the music to your hard drive?

Pirating software which doesn't have any protections?

Pirating software which does have protections which you have to modify (or download a patch) to use?

Giving freeware to a friend? What if a beta version which had been free, although now the program is in production and non-free?

Downloading shareware for the trial period, then deleting and re-downloading?

What about using an ad-blocker plugin to view sites which are trying to support themselves by advertising?

How does the business model of making money through advertising vs. through selling copies of the software change the picture?
(For example: a website where you can stream any song you want for free, but it displays ads on the side.) Does this change how you value the product?

Monopolies/Labor/etc

{citation needed:} In Virginia, if you buy something in another state and pay no sales tax there, then you must pay sales tax to Virginia. (This law has an estimated 1% compliance rate.) (Note that this law is discontinuous: If I paid 0% tax buying something over the internet, I owe VA 5%. But If I paid 0.01% sales tax to another state, then I owe VA 0%.)

WikiLeaks — how does technology change the nature of leaking secrets?

Net Neutrality — should ISP give the same priority to all data, or preferential priority to customers who pay more, or preferential priority to streaming video [since its timeliness is critical], or priority to non-video [since video can be a bandwidth hog]?

Microsoft integrating Windows w/ Explorer -- unfair for competition?

topics without clear answers

¹ Consider the argument: People decide to never buy books; then all books go out-of-print, and anybody can have them all for free. … but of course, that'd just mean that nobody can ever afford to write a book again, if they're not already independently wealthy. ↩

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