Which of the following actions is most likely to raise legal or ethical concerns?
Background on ethical issues, and activities that illustrate these issues. Show
ObjectivesAt the conclusion of this lesson, students will have an understanding of:
Student prerequisitesSome understanding of basic ethical theory—for a summary, see "A Proposed Methodology..." below. Resource MaterialsOnlineA Proposed Methodology for the Teaching of Information Technology Ethics in SchoolsI wrote this article, which appears in John Weckert, ed., Computer Ethics 2000: Selected Papers from the Second Australian Institute of Computer Ethics Conference, vol. 1 (Sydney: Australian Computer Society Inc.,
2001). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy—Computer Ethics: Basic Concepts and Historical OverviewTerrell Bynum's entry for information technology ethics is an excellent synopsis. BooksBaase, Sara. A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computers and the Internet. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003. Bynum, Terrell Ward, and Simon Rogerson. Computer Ethics and Professional Responsibility. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Tavanni, Herman T. Ethics and Technology: Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2003. Ethics for Content Providers and ISPs: Specific Issues for the ActivitiesThe activities below deal with Internet content providers (ICPs) and ISPs. Make it clear to students what the two terms mean and who belongs to each group:
One does not exist without the other; to read content, you need an ISP. Laws exist that apply to both groups. In general, ISPs can be held legally liable in relation to the degree to which the ISP was aware of illegal activity and did nothing to prevent the activity from taking place or did nothing to prevent potential illegal activity from occurring. Encourage the students to think about how they behave and make decisions. Draw a distinction between:
A law works if transgressions can be detected and then effectively prosecuted.
Ask students these questions:
Students will probably be confused at this point, which indeed is the point—deciding how to behave is confusing. Ethics for Content ProvidersConcentrate on two key areas: copyright and not doing harm. CopyrightCopyright seeks to provide a balance between a fair return to the creator and encouragement of originality and free flow of information. Copyright does not protect ideas. It protects the creator's right to perform, reproduce, sell, and derive related works. A common example is that hearing a song or reading a novel about "love" or "hurt" prompts you to decide to write your own. You are free to do so, but if you repeat the exact notes of the chorus or copy exact pieces of dialogue, you will infringe the original author's copyright. In fact, the underlying structure of a song or novel may well be copyrighted also.
Generally, if someone reuses a work and benefits commercially, the owner of the copyright may well objec—provided, of course, that the infringement is detected.
Not Doing Harm
Ethics for ISPsHave the students consider this situation:
Now consider the ISP:
Putting aside the legal issues raised here, have the students consider the ethical behavior of the actors in this scenario. Refer to my “Proposed Methodology” paper (described above under "Resource Materials").
The participants have participated in an act of abuse. Let's assume for the moment that the participants have not identified themselves and have not identified the victim. Can the participants claim to have acted ethically? Have students discuss and produce a justifiable set of ethics for a chat room.
The questions will require students to research on the Internet and/or library. Teachers will also have to take students through a scenario-analysis process. Summary of Expected Results
Andrew Meyenn received master of science and master of education degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia as part of a doctoral program in e-learning. He is the head of the information technology (IT) learning area at Wesley College in Melbourne and lectures on IT professional issues at the University of Melbourne and at Central Queensland University. Author of a number of textbooks, he is the coauthor, with Richard Jones, of Computer Science: Java Enabled, for use with the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program; Meyenn and Jones are developing an online teaching resource for IB computer science. He is a member of the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA). Authored byAndrew Meyenn Which of the following activities is most likely to be a successful as a citizen science project?3. Which of the following activities is most likely to be successful as a citizen science project? Collecting pictures of plants from around the world that can be analyzed to look for regional differences in plant growth.
Which of the following is a direct benefit of publishing the results in this type of publication?Which of the following is a direct benefit of publishing the results in this type of publication? The researcher can allow the results to be easily obtained by other researchers and members of the general public.
Which of the following is an advantage of a lossless compression algorithm over an lossy?Which of the following is an advantage of a lossless compression algorithm over a lossy compression algorithm? A lossless compression algorithm can guarantee that compressed information is kept secure, while a lossy compression algorithm cannot.
Which of the following is a direct benefit of publishing the software with this type of license?Which of the following is a direct benefit of publishing the software with this type of license? The programmer can specify the ways that other people are legally allowed to use and distribute the software.
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