ITEthics Reader

iTeTHiCS
ReaDer
BY JiNNo RaFaeL a. MaLaBaNaN

To SiR PauL PaJo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike

3.0 Philippines License.
1
This book is dedicated to you.
It contains three different books:
The Cyber Ethics, The Handbook of Information and
Computer Ethics And The Bottom of the Pyramid
2
CONTENTS
Cyber Ethics …….. 4 – 93
The Handbook of Information and

Computer Ethics …….. 94 - 142
The Bottom of the Pyramid …….. 143

- 156
3
The
CYBeR
eTHiCS
4
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 1: ETHICS AND THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION
Quote:
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
Learning Expectation:
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:
First, there is the problem of establishing penalties of computer crime. Typically,

intellectual property has a different status in our criminal justice system. Legal scholars should
evaluate the notion that ideas and information need not be protected in the same way as
property. Legislators need to enact computer information protection laws that will deter
criminals, or even curious computer hackers, from breaking into confidential records. 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 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. Enforcement
will also be a problem for several reasons. One reason is the previously stated problem of
jurisdiction. Another is that police departments rarely train their personnel in computer abuse
and fraud. Computer fraud also raises questions about the role of insurance companies. How
do companies insure an electronic asset? What value does computer information have? These
5
questions also need to be addressed in the future. 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.
Lesson Learned:
We must be conscious on what information we would like to divulge about ourselves for
self-preservation purposes. 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.
Integrative Questions:
What is Cyber ethics?
How do you understand the concepts of ethics in the cyberspace?
What are the tips in order to protect relevant information about you?
How is information being distributed to interested parties?
What is the important of cyber ethics?
6
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 2: ETHICS ON-LINE
Quote:
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:
On-line communications do not only encompass communicating along with other

people. I would like to learn the laws governing on-line communications.
Review:
The answers to many ethical questions depend on answers to questions in metaphysics

and other areas of human thought. Furthermore, philosophers have been concerned to
establish links between the ethical sphere of life itself and other spheres. Some philosophers
have, for philosophical reasons, had doubts about whether philosophy provides anyway the
best approach to ethics. And even those who believe philosophy has a contribution to make
may suggest that ethical justification must refer outside philosophy to common sense beliefs or
real-life examples. A central task of philosophical ethics is to articulate what constitutes ethics
or morality. This project is that of meta-ethics. What is it that especially constitutes the moral
point of view as opposed to others? Some argue that what is morally required is equivalent to
what is required by reason overall, whereas others see morality as providing just one source of
reasons. Yet others have suggested that all reasons are self-interested, and that concern for
others is ultimately irrational. However, with the Internet as a new method of distributing
information, many of these intellectual property laws were challenged. Very few people would
photocopy and sell pages from books, for example, but what about copying and selling
computer programs? It's very much the same thing. 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
7
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
Lesson Learned:
Most of the crime being committed is stealing private property of one another. Even the
identity of these people could be stolen as well.
What is on-line ethics?
How on-line ethics is describes?
What are the crimes being committed when on-line?
How this on-line ethics controlled by the law?
What are the laws that govern on-line activities?
8
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 3: REASON, RELATIVITY, AND RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPUTER ETHICS
QUOTE:
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.
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:
It is the same sort of pyramid scheme that exists over telephone or mail, but no laws
covered it for a while. Also, many email chain letters have allowed urban legends to spread at
an accelerated rate and created alarm over hoaxes concerning many food and drug products.
These emails only bog down email systems and servers, but do not seem to be ending.
Morality must play catch-up to technology that has leap-frogged ahead. Without a
knowledge of computer ethics, you will not be fully equipped to enter the new world of online
society - and you will need to enter that world, whether you choose a career in art,
programming, business, or anything else.
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. With the newly acquired
advantages of computer technology, few would want to put the genie completely back into the
bottle. Aspects of the computer revolution will continue to spring up in unpredictable ways.
9
Lesson Learned:
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.
Integrative Question:
Who is Terry Bynum?

What is the role of responsibility in computer ethics?
Why is reason and relativity significant in the daily aspect of computer technology?
How is computer ethics being practice?
How is computer informational enriching?
10
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 4: DISCLOSIVE COMPUTER ETHICS
Quote:
Ethics is always and already the 'other' side of politics.
(Critchley 1999)
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:
In this essay I will discuss what makes computers different from other technology and
how this difference makes a difference in ethical considerations. In particular, I want to
characterize computer ethics and show why this emerging field is both intellectually interesting
and enormously important.
Computers provide us with new capabilities and these in turn give us new choices for
action. Often, either no policies for conduct in these situations exist or existing policies seem
inadequate. A central task of computer ethics is to determine what we should do in such cases,
i.e., to formulate policies to guide our actions. Of course, some ethical situations confront us as
individuals and some as a society. Ethics is always and already the 'other' side of politics
(Critchley 1999). When we use the term 'politics' (with a small 'p')--as indicated above--we refer
to the actual operation of power in serving or enclosing particular interests, and not others. For
politics to function as politics it seeks closure--one could say 'enrolment' in the actor network
theory language. Decisions (and technologies) need to be made and programmes (and
technologies) need to be implemented. Without closure politics cannot be effective as a
programme of action and change. Obviously, if the interests of the many are included--in the
11
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.
Lesson Learned:
We can also see it as an ongoing operation of 'closing'--where the possibility for

suggesting or requesting alternatives is progressively excluded. 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.
What is disclosive computer ethics?
How is computer ethics affects the politics?
Who is Phillip Brey?
What is totalitarianism?
What is the rule of disclosive ethics in our society?
12
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 5: GENDER AND COMPUTER ETHICS
Quote:
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.
Dutton, 1996).
Lesson Expectation:
The study will further help me to understand the role of the women in cyber
technology. It will also help me define gender issues in the computer technology. In addition,
what are the laws that are being implemented to protect the well-being of the women.
Review:
While pornography had been traded over the Internet since the 1980s, it was the
invention of the World Wide Web in 1991 as well as the opening of the Internet to the general
public around the same time that led to an explosion in online pornography.
It also allows access to pornography by people whose access is otherwise restricted for
legal or social reasons.Looking toward other more radical approaches to ethics throws into
relief the question of power structures in relation to our use of information technology. Gender
and technology studies have proved successful in exposing power relations in the development
and use of technologies. At the same time, major developments in feminist ethics over the last
two decades, particularly in terms of Gilligan’s (1982) ‘ethic of care’ make this an area at least
as important as computer ethics in terms of overall contribution to philosophical ethics. I claim
that bringing feminist ethics to bear on computer ethics offers a novel and fruitful alternative to
current directions in computer ethics in two major ways: firstly in revealing continuing
inequalities in power and where liberal approaches to power do not work; and secondly, in
13
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. 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.
Lesson Learned:
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.
What is pornography?
How pornography affects the internet in as social life?
How women were harassed on-line?
What are the laws governing pornography?
What are the effects of pornography to mankind?
14
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 6: 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:
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 Internet has made possible entirely new forms of social interaction, activities and
organizing, thanks to its basic features such as widespread usability and access.
Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace have created a new form of
socialization and interaction. Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of items to their
personal pages, to indicate common interests, and to connect with others. It is also possible to
find a large circle of existing acquaintances, especially if a site allows users to utilize their real
names, and to allow communication among large existing groups of people.
Sites like meetup.com exist to allow wider announcement of groups which may exist
mainly for face-to-face meetings, but which may have a variety of minor interactions over their
group's site at meetup.org, or other similar sites.
In democratic societies, the Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool. The
presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004 in the United States became famous for its
ability to generate donations via the Internet. Many political groups use the Internet to achieve
a whole new method of organizing, in order to carry out Internet activism.
15
Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws making the possession
or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, illegal, but do not use filtering
software. There are many free and commercially available software programs with which a user
can choose to block offensive websites on individual computers or networks, such as to limit a
child's access to pornography or violence. See Content-control software.
The Internet has been a major source of leisure since before the World Wide Web, with
entertaining social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university
servers, and humor-related Usenet groups receiving much of the main traffic. Today, many
Internet forums have sections devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form
of Flash movies are also popular. Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means
of communication and for the sharing of ideas.
Lesson Learned:
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.
What is global information infrastructure?
What is the effect of global information infrastructure to democracy?
What are the uses of global information infrastructure?
Are all nations benefited by global information infrastructure?
How is global information infrastructure being distributed?
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Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 7: APPLYING ETHICAL AND MORAL CONCEPTS AND THEORIES TO IT ETHICS: 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:
“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:
These “policies” — to borrow a helpful word from Moor (1985) — constitute a “received
policy cluster”; and in a reasonably just society, they can serve as a good starting point for
developing an answer to any information ethics question. Wiener's methodology is to combine
the “received policy cluster” of one's society with his account of human nature, plus his “great
principles of justice”, plus critical skills in clarifying vague or ambiguous language. In this way,
he achieved a very effective method for analyzing information ethics issues. Cyberethics, also
referred to as internet ethics, is a branch of ethics that studies the ethical dilemmas brought on
by the emergence of digital technologies. With the advent of the internet conflicts over privacy,
property, security, accuracy, accessibility, censorship and filtering have arose. Since then,
controversy over who or what should be responsible for governing and maintaining ethical
conventions in cyberspace have been heatedly debated, ruled upon and amended. Despite
being a universal topic, cyberethics may change from country to country, where cultural and
societal ethics may differ and therefore are reflected in the debates over the ethics of
cyberspace. With the speed at which the internet changes, cyberethics evolves as well.
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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.
What is moral ethics?
Who is Norbert Wiener?
What is cybernetics?
What is information revolution?
Who is the author of God and Golem, Inc.?
18
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 8: 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:
It is even plausible to think of communities of intelligent agents, inhabiting cyberspace,

interacting with other entities (agents, human users and hosts) and in this way developing a
social life. This raises issues concerning information security as well as the ethical and social
behaviour of intelligent agents.
The simplest form of consequentialism is classical (or hedonistic) utilitarianism, which

asserts that an action is right or wrong according to whether it maximizes the net balance of
pleasure over pain in the universe. The consequentialism of G.E. Moore, known as “ideal
utilitarianism,” recognizes beauty and friendship, as well as pleasure, as intrinsic goods that
one's actions should aim to maximize. According to the “preference utilitarianism” of R.M. Hare
(1919–2002), actions are right if they maximize the satisfaction of preferences or desires, no
matter what the preferences may be for. Consequentialists also differ over whether each
individual action should be judged on the basis of its consequences or whether instead general
rules of conduct should be judged in this way and individual actions judged only by whether
19
they accord with a general rule. Computer users may be classified as either aware or unaware
of security aspects. The former group mistrusts unfamiliar agents while the latter group are not
at all aware of potential security risks associated with agent computing. A framework to analyse
the security risks of agent computing will create and raise awareness of how secure agents are.
Intuitive assessment of agent behaviour may be misleading and it can be argued that a
systematic ethical analysis will provide a more reliable basis for assessment. For example the
actions of Clippy may be considered as unethical by an expert user due to Clippy’s obtrusive
character – however the systematic ethical analysis of Clippy’s actions in section 4.2, reveals
that Clippy’s actions can at most be considered irritating, but certainly not unethical.
Lesson Learned:
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.
Who is Deborah Johnson?
Who is James Moor?
What is computer ethics?
Why are computers malleable according to Moor?
What are the uses of computer?
20
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 9: 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 furthermore important to consider privacy in the computer context as a delicate

subject. The paper will aim to answer the question regarding the internet as a public space.
Review:
Anyone can find ways to publish a web page, a blog or build a website for very little
initial cost. Publishing and maintaining large, professional websites full of attractive, diverse
and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however. Many
individuals and some companies and groups use "web logs" or blogs, which are largely used as
easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to fill them
with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the
expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result.
Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and
have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities
have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and
MySpace currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as social
network services rather than simply as web page hosts. Advertising on popular web pages can
be lucrative, and e-commerce or the sale of products and services directly via the Web
continues to grow.
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More recently, websites are more often created using content management or wiki
software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid
staff, members of a club or other organisation or members of the public, fill underlying
databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view
and read this content in its final HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and
security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available
to the target visitors. Public places to use the Internet include libraries and Internet cafes,
where computers with Internet connections are available. There are also Internet access points
in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops, in some cases just for brief use
while standing.
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. However, if crimes are committed there, especially against
children, I will support law enforcement in stringing up your sorry tuck us - online or not.
What is internet?
What is internet ethics?
What must we realize about internet being a public space?
What is computer ethics?
What are the laws implemented to safeguard privacy in the computer world?
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Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 10: The Laws of Cyberspace
Quote:
"The telecoms are too large, too heterogeneous, too turbulent, too creatively chaotic to
be governed wholesale, from the top down,"
(Huber)
Lesson Expectation:
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, 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 new book lays down the possible parameters for a Law of Cyber-Space, and argues
in favour of starting negotiations with the full participation of the three concerned stake-
holders, namely, the governments, the private sector, and civil society.
Kamal believes that, in many ways, the current situation in cyber-space is similar to the
problems once faced on the open ocean, where the absence of any jurisdiction or consensus
legislation had also created a lawless situation. The international community finally woke up to
the challenge, and started negotiations on the Law of the Sea. Those negotiations went on for
almost a decade before they succeeded and Kamal writes that the world is much better off as a
result. Kamal asserts that in the case of cyber-space the challenge appears to be far greater;
"The speed of change is phenomenal, new shoals and icebergs appear every day, the
dangers affect all countries without exception, yet global responses are sporadic or non-
23
existent. That is why a globally negotiated and comprehensive Law of Cyber-Space is so
essential."
What will be sketched here is a brief summary of the strands that have now come to
make up information ethics. In fact, it can now be seen as a confluence of the ethical concerns
of media, journalism, library and information science, computer ethics (including cyberethics),
management information systems, business and the internet. In the process of showing this
evolution, several bibliographic references will be highlighted, although given the brevity of this
article, the set of references provided is in not intended to be comprehensive.
It offers a fantastically quick access to information and communication by e-mails and is

quite literally at our fingertips. However, it has its downside too-among them are spam, viruses,
identity theft, malicious code, cyber-stalking and intellectual property violations.
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.
What are the laws of cyberspace?
Who is Kellogg Huber?
Who is Kamal?
What are the means of implementing the laws of cyberspace?
What is cybernetics?
24
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 11: Of Black holes and decentralized Law-Making in Cyberspace
Quote:
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:
A three part approach inspired by the Carl Mitcham's philosophy of technology has been
employed. Each section has touched on some ideas whose elucidation are in no way complete
Review:
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. 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.
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
25
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. 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).
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
Why not avoid the moral dilemma by selecting FOSS?
What is the FOS option?
Who is Walter Maner?
Who is James Moor?
Who is Deborah Johnson?
26
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 12: 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:
A proposal that we rate our online speech is no less offensive to the First Amendment
than a proposal that publishers of books and magazines rate each and every article or story, or
a proposal that everyone engaged in a street corner conversation rate his or her comments. But
that is exactly what will happen to books, magazines, and any kind of speech that appears
online under a self-rating scheme.
Review:
The concept began with Bradbury's short story "Bright Phoenix," written in 1947 but
first published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1963. The original short story
was reworked into the novella, The Fireman, and published in the February 1951 issue of
Galaxy Science Fiction. The novel was also serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of
Playboy magazine. Bradbury wrote the entire novel on a pay typewriter in the basement of
UCLA's Powell Library. His original intention in writing Fahrenheit 451 was to show his great
love for books and libraries.
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian speculative fiction novel authored by Ray Bradbury and
first published in 1953.
The novel presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic, and
critical thought through reading is outlawed. The central character, Guy Montag, is employed as
a "fireman" (which, in this future, means "book burner"). The number "451" refers to the
27
temperature (in Fahrenheit) at which the books burn when the "firemen" burn them "for the
good of humanity". Written in the early years of the Cold War, the novel is a critique of what
Bradbury saw as an increasingly dysfunctional American society.
Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about censorship; he states that Fahrenheit
451 is a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which leads to a
perception of knowledge as being composed of "factoids", partial information devoid of
context, e.g., Napoleon's birth date alone, without an indication of who he was.
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.
What are the six reasons why self-rating schemes are wrong for the Internet?
What is self- rating Schemes?
Internet Ratings Systems How Do They Work
Who is Ray Bradbury?
Is cyberspace burning?
28
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 13: 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:
However, that same ease in accessing information is a "double-edged sword" Perhaps

you are now aware how the internet has empowered us to access vast body of information so
easily. “-- it enabled others also to invade our privacy just as easily.
Review:
Filtered Internet - Other so called internet filtering companies say that they will protect
your home. Put our Filtered Internet filtering up against theirs and other companies will be
found lacking... Do not just consider filtering for your home, but for your Church, Work, and
School... Sign up as an affiliate or become a reseller and have our services branded in your
organizations name and offer Filtered Internet.
Content-control software, also known as censor ware or web filtering software, is a term
for software designed and optimized for controlling what content is permitted to a reader,
especially when it is used to restrict material delivered over the Web. Content-control software
determines what content will be available on a particular machine or network; the motive is
often to prevent persons from viewing content which the computer's owner(s) or other
authorities may consider objectionable; when imposed without the consent of the user,
content control can constitute censorship. Common use cases of such software include parents
who wish to limit what sites their children may view from home computers, schools performing
the same function with regard to computers found at school, and employers restricting what
29
content may be viewed by employees while on the job. Some content-control software includes
time control functions that empowers parents to set the amount of time that child may spend
accessing the Internet or playing games or other computer activities. 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. Tracking the
behavior of individuals and groups has been a preoccupation of social scientists, poll takers, the
advertising industry and all companies that have something to sell. However, previous studies
or "ratings" usually just involved a small "statistical sample" of a population. With the coming of
the internet and increasing power of computers in terms of speed, automation and storage
capacity, it is now theoretically possible to monitor the behavior of every individual connected
to the internet.
Lesson Learned:
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.
What is freedom of speech?
Who is Leo Tolstoy?
What is Internet?
What is privacy?
How internets do invades our privacy?
30
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 14: Censorship: The Internet and the Child Pornography Law of 1996: A Critique
Quote:
When the law speaks universally, then, and a case arises on it which is not covered by
the universal statement, then it is right, where the legislator fails us and has erred by over-
simplicity, to correct the omission—to say what the legislator himself would have said had he
been present, and would have put into his law if he had known (Aristotle)
The ‘net gives all of its users a vast expressive power if they choose to take advantage of
it. 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:
Therefore, this effort to protect privacy is a notable free speech issue. Intellectual
property rights are also tantamount to restrictions on free speech. If someone has property
rights to a trademark, others cannot use that form of expression freely. Finally, one way in
which users seek to secure their data is encryption, but encryption in the wrong hands could be
a threat to national security, and therefore, many argue that encryption needs to be subject to
government control.
As a result, the issue of free speech and content control in cyberspace has emerged as
arguably the most contentious moral problem of the nascent Information Age. Human rights
such as free speech have taken a place of special prominence in this century. In some respects,
these basic rights now collide with the state’s inclination to reign in this revolutionary power
enjoyed by Internet users. Although the United States has sought to suppress on line
31
pornography, the target of some European countries, such as France and Germany, has been
hate speech.
In addition, speech is at the root of most other major ethical and public policy problems
in cyberspace, including privacy, intellectual property, and security. These three issues are
discussed in future chapters where the free speech theme continues to have considerable
saliency.
Lesson Learned:
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).
What is Pornography?
Who is Raymond Gastil?
Who is Leo Groarke?
Who is Loren Clark?
What is Communication Decency Act?
32
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 15: 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:
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:
It does not specify how selection software or rating services work, just how they work
together. PICS-compatible software can implement selective blocking in various ways. One
possibility is to build it into the browser on each computer, as announced by Microsoft and
Netscape. A second method-one used in products such as CyberPatrol and SurfWatch-is to
perform this operation as part of each computer's network protocol stack. A third possibility is
to perform the operation somewhere in the network, for example at a proxy server used in
combination with a firewall. Each alternative affects efficiency, ease of use, and security. For
example, a browser could include nice interface features such as graying out blocked links, but
it would be fairly easy for a child to install a 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
33
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.
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:
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.
What is PICS?
What is Metadata?
Who is Paul Resnick?
What is Multiplicity Rating Systems?
What is labeling?
34
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 16: Internet Service Providers and Defamation: New Standard of Liability
Quote:
A computerized database is the functional equivalent of a more traditional news vendor,

and the inconsistent application of a lower standard of liability to the electronic news
distributor such as CompuServe than that which is applied to a public library, book store, or
newsstand would impose an undue burden on thefree flow of information.
Pete Leisure
Lesson Expectation:
Where there is neither actual knowledge of the defamation nor awareness of any facts
or circumstances from which a certain institution could reasonably have been expected to be
aware of the defamation, and the institution has taken reasonable care in relation to
publication of the statement in question, the defense is likely to be available to the institution.
Review:
Provider (ISP) Liability Overview paper considers the extent to which institutions are
responsible for content which is made available on their computer systems.
An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a
company that offers its customer’s access to the Internet. The ISP connects to its customers
using a data transmission technology appropriate for delivering Internet Protocol datagram,
such as dial-up, DSL, cable modem or dedicated high-speed interconnects.
ISPs may provide Internet e-mail accounts to users which allow them to communicate
with one another by sending and receiving electronic messages through their ISPs' servers. (As
part of their e-mail service, ISPs usually offer the user an e-mail client software package,
developed either internally or through an outside contract arrangement.) ISPs may provide
35
other services such as remotely storing data files on behalf of their customers, as well as other
services unique to each particular ISP.
Just as their customers pay them for Internet access, ISPs themselves pay upstream ISPs
for Internet access. An upstream ISP usually has a larger network than the contracting ISP
and/or is able to provide the contracting ISP with access to parts of the Internet the contracting
ISP by itself has no access to.
In the simplest case, a single connection is established to an upstream ISP and is used to
transmit data to or from areas of the Internet beyond the home network; this mode of
interconnection is often cascaded multiple times until reaching a Tier 1 carrier. In reality, the
situation is often more complex. ISPs with more than one point of presence (PoP) may have
separate connections to an upstream ISP at multiple PoPs, or they may be customers of
multiple upstream ISPs and may have connections to each one of them at one or more point of
presence.
Lesson learned:
'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.
What is Internet Services Provider?
What is defamatory publication?
What is libel?
What is pornography?
What is Defamation Act of 1996?
36
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 17: Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Quote:
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:
While working for Elcomsoft in Russia, he developed The Advanced eBook Processor, a
software application allowing users to strip usage restriction information from restricted e-
books, an activity legal in both Russia and the United States. Paradoxically, under the DMCA, it
is not legal in the United States to provide such a tool. Sklyarov was arrested in the United
States after presenting a speech at DEF CON and subsequently spent nearly a month in jail. The
DMCA has also been cited as chilling to legitimate users, such as students of cryptanalysis
(including, in a well-known instance, Professor Edward Felten and students at Princeton), and
security consultants 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. 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.
37
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:
What is DMCA?
What is copyright?
What is cryptography?
What are the provisions of DMCA?
What are the advantages of DMCA?
38
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 18: Note on the DeCSS Trial
Quote:
"Our main goal," said Gross, "is to build a strong, solid record to take to the appeals
court, where civil liberties are taken more seriously."
Eric Corley
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 anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
by posting the offending code for anyone to download from his Website. 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.
Review:
The MPAA has since brought suit against him in his native Norway as well. Johansen
testified on Thursday that he announced the successful reverse engineering of a DVD on the
mailing list of the Linux Video and DVD Project (LiViD), a user resource center for video- and
DVD-related work for Linux. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization based in
San Francisco which supports civil liberties in digital arenas, is providing a legal defense that
cites, among other issues, fair use. After all, the EFF argues, if you buy a DVD, why can't you
play it on any machine you want?
39
Lessons Learned:
By taking his stand, Corley has brought key issues of the digital age to trial. Among them
is the right to experiment and to share knowledge, he said. The case also points to the DMCA's
broad protections, which for the first time not only give copyright to creative work but also to
the software -- or any other technology -- that protects it.
The judge in the case, the honorable Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court in southern
New York, issued a preliminary injunction against posting DeCSS. Corley duly took down the
code, but did not help his defense by defiantly linking to myriad sites which post DeCSS.
Still open is the question of whether the injunction against Corley, or the fight against
DeCSS itself, is not a vain struggle in the face of inevitable change. Judge Kaplan, whom the
defense requested recuse himself based on conflict of interest, said last Thursday to Mikhail
Reider, the MPAA's chief of Internet antipiracy, "You are asking me to issue an injunction
against the guy who unlocked this barn, [telling him] not to unlock it again --- even though
there is no horse in it." "It's good to see that [the judge] is realizing the futile nature of dealing
with these issues this way," said Robin Gross, an EFF attorney and a member of the defense
team. Though the MPAA may not be able to stop DeCSS, there are other issues at stake that are
unrelated to digital piracy. Copyright is not the issue to supporters of the defense in this trial.
What is DeCSS?
What is Trial ?
What is the copyright issue of the defense trial?
Who is the Judge?
What is the plans ?
40
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 19: A Politics of Intellectual Property: Environmentalism for the Net
Quote:
Without that balance, there is a danger of absolutizing the claims to ownership and
control to the detriment of other interested parties, something we have noted in recent
legislative proposals.
Samuelson, 1997
Lesson Expectation:
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:
The ink marks can be translated into regions of magnetic polarization on a computer
disk, and the intellectual property, and whatever claims there are to that property, will be the
same. The owner of a song claims control, not of the CD on which the song is recorded, but of
the song itself, of where when and how it can be performed and recorded. But how can you
build a fence around a song? What does it mean to "own" an idea? Where are the locks that
keep other people from "driving" it? Intellectual property 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.
41
It was only when inexpensive reproductions became feasible that it was seen as
necessary to give authors more control over how their works were used by creating copyrights.
Intellectual property has always been closely tied to technology. Technology arises from
intellectual property in the form of new inventions. But technology also supports intellectual
property by providing new, more powerful and more efficient ways of creating and
disseminating writing, musical composition, visual art, and so on.
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.
What is intellectual property?
What is information?
What is copyright?
What is plagiarism?
What is computer technology?
42
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 20: Intellectual Property, Information, and the Common Good
Quote:
It seems that there must be a balance between the legitimate claims of the developers
of intellectual products and the public's interest in their widest possible availability.
(Samuelson, 1997)
Lesson Expectation:
For example facts that are commonly accessible cannot be owned by a few individuals
just because they record them in a database. As another example, the sharing of design ideas
and knowledge can increase efficiency in the integration and interoperation of different
products, promote healthy competition, and lead to new ideas and greater creativity.
Review:
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 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.
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,
43
Technology arises from intellectual property in the form of new inventions. But
technology also supports intellectual property by providing new, more powerful and more
efficient ways of creating and disseminating writing, musical composition, visual art, and so on.
In fact it was the technology of the printing press that originally gave rise to intellectual
property as a legal and moral issue. Before, when it took almost as much of an effort to
reproduce a document as it took to create it, there was little need to impose limits on copying.
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.
What is politics?
What is environmentalism?
Who is James Boyle?
What is public’s good theory?
44
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 21: Is Copyright Ethical
Quote:
A property right is the relationship between individuals in reference to things. Cohen (1935)
Lesson Expectation:
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? 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?
Review:
Theoretically copyright law in the United States takes the first view, stating that authors
have no natural right in their creation but only the rights that the state has conferred by reason
of policy to encourage the creation of new works (H.R. REP. No. 2222). This approach assumes
that the content of products of mind (not the objects in which they are embedded) belong to
society as a whole, but that society would benefit more if more such products were available,
and that in order to encourage 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. 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?
45
It has become what is often called an equitable rule of reason, which attempts to
balance the rights of authors with the rights of users. It is often not clear whether this balance
is to be obtained by granting rights via law or by recognizing the intrinsic rights of each.
However, if copyright is indeed only a matter of law there should be no rights other than those
granted by the law. What both creators and users then have are expectations, but, as Cohen
(1985) observed, the law finds value in protecting legitimate expectations. Earlier United States
copyright law was better aligned with the encouragement theory and the ethical position that
creative works belonged to society as a whole. Only the exact copying of a work was prohibited,
not new works based on a previous work. Subsequent authors were free to adapt novels to the
stage, abridge scholarly works for the masses, and translate works into other languages without
paying a license fee to the creator or to whom ever the creator had transferred his or her
copyright.
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.
What is property right?

What is copyright?
Is copyright unethical?
What is Software Publishers’ Association?
46
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 22: 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:
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.
Plagiarism and academic honesty have become controversial and widely debated issues.
Review:
Most people are aware that taking the exact texts or words of another person without
attribution is plagiarism, but they then believe that paraphrasing the original work is
acceptable. Yet taking someone else’s idea and changing the words is like stealing a car and
changing its colour. However, literary works that are stolen differ in many ways from physical
properties that are the targets of ordinary theft. Ideas are less tangible and identifiable than
physical objects. Objects that are stolen remain stolen even if they are taken apart and
recombined, but not for ideas. Building new ideas from old ones, using existing information and
combining them, might be called creativity, not plagiarism. 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
47
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.
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.
What is plagiarism?
What is piracy?
What is copyright?
Which is graver: plagiarism or copyright?
What is cyber-plagiarism?
48
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 23: An Ethical Evaluation of Web Site Linking
Quote:
“It is important to our company that you know our exact process we take for the
education and understanding on how is the ethical evaluation on web site Linking”
This procedure is not a huge factor in our search engine optimization services but we
have found it very functional for the end user getting them where they want to be in a site for
information they may be looking for and possibly get the website owner the sale or lead in that
specific area. In case people do not understand me on this an interior link can be spotted as a
underlined or highlighted keyword on a specific page that moves you to another URL on that
website.
Review:
Scam and Spam search engine optimization companies eat this up because they realize
that some words have no competition to them and can be achieved with very little effort, and if
you're locked into their contract, you will sometimes have to shell out more money because
they claim they have much more to do. Which from an ethical stand point Keyword
Performance has a problem with that especially because they are not looking at your company
with ethical standards just their bottom lines. For the most part we consult with the person or
team of people for that company on the most important keywords they would like to rank high
for. Nine out of ten times we find that the keywords the companies like to see are not their only
main or lateral phrases for keyword placement and top search engine rankings. In fact I have
had keywords come across to me that really have no relevancy to their web sites goals for
success.
49
Lessons Learned:
This will also help to improve traffic by other audiences finding your website through
another site on the World Wide Web. This is a very important factor in driving your website to
the top for your relevant keyword terms. Each category will be built for a unique area targeting
links that compliment the website services as well as other high Google page ranking
directories.
What is ethical evaluation?
What is Web Site Linking?
What is the Strategy of Web Site Linking?
Why Ethical Evaluation is important?
What are the different kinds of Web Site Linking?
50
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 24: The Cathedral and the Bazaar
Quote:
"Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow"
The Cathedral and the Bazaar is an essay by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering
methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his
experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail. It was first presented by the author at
the Linux Kongress on May 27, 1997 and was published as part of a book of the same name in
1999
Review:
It's rather to warn you, the lay reader--this guy may have attained some sort of status in
the open source community which needs such figures, but it doesn't mean that what he has to
say is any good or even true. In his works (including "Cathedral"), Eric makes a very one-sided
analysis of software engineering methodologies. It's a complete ra-ra piece which fails to
seriously address the very many shortcomings of open-source development, including, most
critically, the inability to scale timewise as well as commercial software (while not under the
GNU licence, two years ago Raymond was predicting the success of the open-source Mozilla
browser initiative, which is at this point a complete fiasco). Instead, he talks about obscure
supporting sociological constructs such as that of "gift cultures" that would only convince the
already converted. Raymond's standard talk begins with references to himself as an ordinary
but experienced IT guy of sorts who, without any sort of formal training in sociology,
psychology, marketing, business, or the like, has become the chronicler of the "gnu generation"
(not his quote, just a common one) and predictor of open source things to be. this talk in front
51
of academics. Thankfully, he has little shame, or he'd have dropped dead long ago from the
subtle looks and snickers that inevitably result from his bombast.
Lessons Learned:
What people should be getting out of this book (or a book like this) is a balanced,
informed view of open source vs commercial software, undertaken with sound research on
various cost/effectiveness metrics and some case studies. What we have here is a bible for a
community that desperately needs one, because, as Eric's whole thrust implies, it is largely ego
driven.
What is Cathedral and the Bazaar?
What is the cathedral model?
What is Linux Kernel?
Who is Raymond?
Why is this book worth reading?
52
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 25: Towards a Theory of Privacy for the Information Age
Quote:
“Our revolution will not be in gathering data—don’t look for TV cameras in your bedroom—but
in analyzing the information that is already willingly shared”.
Larry Hunter
Lesson Expectation:
While philosophical theories have long acknowledged the relationship between privacy
and information about persons, and have argued for limits on allowable practices of
information gathering, analyzing, and sharing as a means of protecting privacy, their efforts
have primarily applied to intimate and sensitive information. While not denying the importance
of protecting intimate and sensitive information, this paper insists that theories of privacy
should also recognize the systematic relationship between privacy and information that is
neither intimate nor sensitive and is drawn from public spheres.
Review:
The Information Age, also known commonly as the Computer Age or Information Era, is
an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer
information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have previously have
been difficult or impossible to find. The idea is heavily linked to the concept of a Digital Age or
Digital Revolution, and carries the ramifications of a shift from traditional industry that the
Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based around the
manipulation of information.
The Internet was originally conceived as a distributed, fail-proof network that could
connect computers together and be resistant to any one point of failure; the Internet can't be
totally destroyed in one event, and if large areas are disabled, the information is easily re-
53
routed. It was created mainly by DARPA; its initial software applications were email and
computer file transfer.
It was with the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989 that the Internet really
became a global network. Today the Internet has become the ultimate place to accelerate the
flow of relevant information and the fastest growing form of media.
Nowadays, many people tend to think of the Information Age in terms of cell phones,
digital music, high definition television, digital cameras, email on the Internet, the Web,
computer games, and other relatively new products and services that have come into
widespread use. The pace of change brought on by such technology has been very rapid.
Lesson learned:
Although Hunter, in the passage quoted earlier, may have understated the extent that
the sheer growth in data gathering affects privacy and the extent to which technological means
allows intrusion into and surveillance of even private, enclosed spaces, he accurately predicted
not only that analysis of information will be a major source of privacy invasion, but that
because the information analyzed is willingly shared, people are, in some sense, complicit in the
violation of their own privacy.
Why do students plagiarized?
What are the harmful effects of plagiarism?
How to combat plagiarism?
What are the laws implemented to prevent plagiarism?
What is cyber-plagiarism?
Why do students plagiarise?
54
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 26: 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:
To determine the act that protects personal data information. In addition, to be able to
understand the necessity of having the directives. Furthermore, to be able to assess the
advantage of having the directives.
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 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.
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).
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. 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
55
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. 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.
Lesson Learned:
The new Constitution of 1997 was the first one to guarantee the protection of personal
data in Poland. Its Art. 47 guaranteed citizens the right to privacy and Art. 51 guaranteed each
person the right to the protection of his/her information.
However, international obligations of Poland related to the EU accession resulted in the

need to ensure personal data such protection as the one guaranteed by the EU Member States
on their territories. All European acts were based on or adjusted to the Directive 95/46/EC of
the European Parliament and of the Council.
What is directive 95/46/ec?
What is personal data protection?
What is privacy?
When the directive was was established?
What is the act on personal data protection?
56
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 27: Privacy, Individuality, Control of information, and Privacy –enhancing

Technologies
Quote:
“Privacy” is used frequently in ordinary language as well as in philosophical, political and

legal discussions, yet there is no single definition or analysis or meaning of the term.
Moreover, the concept has historical origins in well known philosophical discussions, most
notably Aristotle's distinction between the public sphere of political activity and the private
sphere associated with family and domestic life. Yet historical use of the term is not uniform,
and there remains confusion over the meaning, value and scope of the concept of privacy.
Review:
Other critiques argue that privacy interests are not distinctive because the personal
interests they protect are economically inefficient (Posner, 1981) or that they are not grounded
in any adequate legal doctrine (Bork, 1990). Finally, there is the feminist critique of privacy, that
granting special status to privacy is detrimental to women and others because it is used as a
shield to dominate and control them, silence them, and cover up abuse (MacKinnon, 1989).
There are several skeptical and critical accounts of privacy. According to one well known
argument there is no right to privacy and there is nothing special about privacy, because any
interest protected as private can be equally well explained and protected by other interests or
rights, most notably rights to property and bodily security (Thomson, 1975).
Other commentators defend privacy as necessary for the development of varied and
meaningful interpersonal relationships (Fried, 1970, Rachels, 1975), or as the value that accords
us the ability to control the access others have to us (Gavison, 1980; Allen, 1988; Moore, 2003),
or as a set of norms necessary not only to control access but also to enhance personal
57
expression and choice (Schoeman, 1992), or some combination of these (DeCew, 1997).
Discussion of the concept is complicated by the fact that privacy appears to be something we
value to provide a sphere within which we can be free from interference by others, and yet it
also appears to function negatively, as the cloak under which one can hide domination,
degradation, or physical harm to women and others.
Lessons Learned:
If distinguishing public and private realms leaves the private domain free from any scrutiny,
then these feminists such as Catharine MacKinnon (1989) are correct that privacy can be
dangerous for women when it is used to cover up repression and physical harm to them by
perpetuating the subjection of women in the domestic sphere and encouraging
nonintervention by the state. Jean Bethke Elshtain (1981, 1995) and others suggest that it
appears feminists such as MacKinnon are for this reason rejecting the public/private split, and
are, moreover, recommending that feminists and others jettison or abandon privacy altogether.
But, Elshtain points out, this alternative seems too extreme.
What is informational privacy?
What is the constitutional right to privacy?
What are the Privacy and Control over Information?
What is the privacy and Intimacy?
Is privacy relative?
58
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 28: 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:
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. 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. The danger of extending control
over too broad a spectrum of information is that privacy may then interfere with other social
and legal values.
According to Fried, the precise content of the class of protected information will be
determined largely by social and cultural convention. Prevailing social order "designates certain
areas, intrinsically no more private that other areas, as symbolic of the whole institution of
privacy, and thus deserving of protection beyond their particular importance". Other
philosophers also have focused on the interdependence between privacy and a personal or
59
intimate realm. Robert Gerstein (1984), for example, contended that "intimacy simply could not
exist unless people had the opportunity for privacy. Privacy's purpose, he wrote, is to insulate
"individual objectives from social scrutiny. Social scrutiny can generally be expected to move
individuals in the direction of the socially useful. Privacy insulates people from this kind of
accountability and thereby protects the realm of the personal". Schoeman, unlike Fried (1984)
however, holds that there are domains of life that are essentially private and not merely
determined to be so by social convention.
Lesson Learned:
The views of Schoeman, Fried, and Gerstein, though differing in detail, rest on a
common core. Each held that properly functioning, psychically healthy individuals need privacy.
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.
Who is Helen Nissembaum?

What is privacy in public?
What is the importance of privacy?
Who is Charles Fried?
What are the laws governing privacy?
60
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 29: KDD, PRIVACY, INDIVIDUALITY, AND FAIRNESS
Quote:
“The rights and requirements make no sense regarding anonymous data and group
profiles.”
Lesson Expectation:
The lesson will identify the importance of privacy to individual. Furthermore, it will also
highlight the significance of KDD and fairness. It also imbues understanding of privacy.
Review:
Persons are judged and treated more and more as members or group, i.e., of the
reference group that makes up the data or information subject, rather than as individuals with
their own characteristics and merits. This consequence of KDD using or producing personal data
in the broad sense may, at first sight, seem rather innocent. It loses, however, much of its
innocent appearance where the information contained in the profile is of a sensitive nature
because it is typically susceptible to prejudice and taboo or because it can be used for
selections in allocation procedures.
So, for instance, information about persons having a certain probability of manifesting
certain diseases, of lifestyles, or of having been involved in crime, etc. may easily give rise to
stigmatization and discrimination. The information may also be used for giving or denying
access to provisions, like insurance, loans, or jobs. Increasing use and production of group
profiles may even result in growing unfairness in social interaction in other ways. This is
poignantly clear in the case of what I will call non-distributive profiles, as opposed to
distributive profiles. Distributive profiles assign certain properties to a group of persons in such
a way that these properties are actually and unconditionally manifested by all the members of
that group.
61
Distributive profiles are put in the form of down-to-earth, matter-of-fact statements.
Non-distributive profiles, however, are framed in terms of probabilities and averages and
medians, or significant deviance from other groups.
Non-distributive profiles are, therefore, significantly different from distributive profiles.

The properties in non-distributive profiles apply to individuals as members of the reference
group, whereas these individuals taken as such need not, in reality, exhibit these properties.
Lesson Learned:
Infringements of categorical privacy cannot be dealt with in ways similar to those in

which individuals are protected against possible infringements of individual informational
privacy. The application of principles and rights of, for instance, rectification and consent to
potential infringements on categorical privacy is, to a large extent, impossible. Even if it were
possible, it would nevertheless be unacceptable for obvious reasons.
What is KDD?
What is privacy?
What is individuality?
What is fairness?
What is a distributive profile?
62
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 30: Data Mining and Privacy
Quote:
Data warehousing is the strategy of ensuring that the data used in an organization is
available and accurate from wherever it is needed.
Ann Cavoukian ,1988
Lesson Expectation:
Recently, issues about information privacy have emerged with the dramatic growth of
data storage, computer processing power, and networks. From the findings, this paper will
investigate how the current U.S. policy of privacy is shaped, and then propose a new guideline
to set up privacy policies to minimize the conflicts between data privacy and data mining.
Review:
Privacy. It’s a loaded issue. In recent years privacy concerns have taken on a more
significant role in American society as merchants, insurance companies, and government
agencies amass warehouses containing personal data. The concerns that people have over the
collection of this data will naturally extend to any analytic capabilities applied to the data. Users
of data mining should start thinking about how their use of this technology will be impacted by
legal issues related to privacy. 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. 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?
Over the next few years we should expect to see an increased level of scrutiny of data
mining in terms of its impact on privacy. The sheer amount of data that is collected about
individuals, coupled with powerful new technologies such as data mining, will generate a great
63
deal of concern by consumers. Unless this concern is effectively addressed, expect to see legal
challenges to the use of data mining technology.
Lesson Learned:
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. 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.
What is data mining?
What is privacy?
What is data mining relation to privacy?
What are the purposes of data mining?
Can data privacy and data mining coexist?
64
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 31: Workplace Surveillance, Privacy and Distributive Justice Amazon
Quote:
“Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible
with a similar liberty for others.”
Once plaintiff communicated the alleged unprofessional comments to a second person

(his supervisor) over an email system which was apparently utilized by the entire company, any
reasonable expectation of privacy was lost” (670). The court held that the employee had no
reasonable expectation of privacy: “unlike urinalysis and personal property searches, we do not
find a reasonable expectation of privacy in email communications voluntarily made by an
employee to his supervisor over the company e-mail systems notwithstanding any assurances
that such communications would not be intercepted by management.
Review:
It has been traditionally accepted that employers have a right to engage in such
activities. At the foundation of this view is a conception of the employment relationship as
involving a voluntary exchange of property. Exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine
include firing someone for serving on jury duty, for reporting violations of certain federal
regulations, or for impermissible race, sex, or age discrimination on the employer’s part.
Accordingly, the terms and conditions of employment are largely up to the parties to decide.
Conceived as a free exchange, the employment relationship, in the absence of some express
contractual duration requirement, can be terminated at will by either party for nearly any
reason.
65
Lessons Learned:
The persons in the original position have no information as to which generation they
belong. In order to carry through the idea of the original position, the parties must not know
the contingencies that set them in opposition.
Rawls argues that fair terms of cooperation are most likely to be chosen from behind a
veil of ignorance, which he describes as follows: “no one knows his place in society, his class
position or social status, nor does any one know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets
and abilities, his intelligence, strength, and the like. Nor again does anyone know his
conception of the good, the particulars of his rational plan of life, or even the special features of
his psychology such as his aversion to risk or liability to optimism or pessimism. More than this,
I assume that the parties do not know the particular circumstances of their own society.
How does this bear on the issue of workplace surveillance?
What’s the point of the veil of ignorance?
How much privacy protection, if any, would these actually provide?
Can you think of a likely situation in these?
What are the principles require employers to refrain from collecting data?
66
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 32: 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".
I expect awareness of informational wrongdoing. It will also define different varieties of

informational wrongdoing. It will also define privacy.
Review:
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. 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. This essential tension emerges in many privacy
discussions, e.g. undercover actions by the police on the internet, use of Closed Circuit
Television in public places, making medical files available for health insurance purposes or
epidemiological research, linking and matching of databases to detect fraud in social security,
soliciting information about on-line behavior of internet users from access providers in criminal
justice cases. Communitarians typically argue that the community benefits significantly from
having knowledge about its members available. According to communitarians modern Western
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
67
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.
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:
The game-theoretical structure and the calculability of community gains make the
arguments in favor of overriding privacy seem clear, straightforward and convincing. 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.
What are the different varieties of informational wrongdoing?
What is informational injustice?
What is informational inequality?
What are panoptic technologies?
Define privacy.
68
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 33: Defining the Boundaries of Computer Crime
Quote:
The U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
has completed in-depth research on computer crime. From 1992 to 1995, DISA attacked their
own DoD computer systems using software available on the Internet.
Convincing victims who have suffered a loss to report the crime to police constitutes
another hurdle facing law enforcement agencies. Surprisingly, many individuals, network
administrators, and corporate managers do not realize that attacks against their networks
constitute a crime. Worse, many victims who understand that a crime has taken place may
deliberately keep these facts from the police.
Review:
Computer crime issues have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding

hacking, copyright infringement through warez, child pornography, and child grooming. There
are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or
otherwise. A common example is when a person starts to steal information from sites, or cause
damage to, a computer or computer network. This can be entirely virtual in that the
information only exists in digital form, and the damage, while real, has no physical consequence
other than the machine ceases to function. In some legal systems, intangible property cannot
be stolen and the damage must be visible, e.g. as resulting from a blow from a hammer. Where
human-centric terminology is used for crimes relying on natural language skills and innate
gullibility, definitions have to be modified to ensure that fraudulent behavior remains criminal
no matter how it is committed.
Even though the computer is not directly used for criminal purposes, it is an excellent
device for record keeping, particularly given the power to encrypt the data. Crime statistics
69
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 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.
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. 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.
What is computer crime?
What are the boundaries of computer crime?
What is a crime in general?
What are the precautions being offered to combat computer crime?
What are the punishments for computer crime?
70
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 34: Terrorism or Civil Disobedience: Toward a Hacktivist Ethic
Quote:
The fact that there are limits on the scope of even a legitimate state’s permission to
coercively enforce the law suggests, rightly, that civil disobedience is sometimes morally
justified. In cases where an otherwise legitimate state has enacted a sufficiently unjust law that
falls outside the scope of its coercive authority, citizens have a qualified moral permission to
disobey it
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.
Review:
Civil disobedience, by its nature, involves disobeying something that has the status of
law. It is one thing to assert that a law is unjust; it is another thing to deliberately and openly
behave in a manner that violates the law; the former is a pure speech act, while the latter is
behavior. Civil disobedience, then, might be expressive conduct, but it is primarily conduct and
secondarily expression. Ordinary views about the moral right to free speech commonly
distinguish between speech acts and expressive behavior. On these views, expressive behavior
is subject to more stringent moral limits than those to which pure speech is subject. One might
71
seek, for example, to make a point about sexual morality by having sex in public, but the moral
right to free speech is implausibly thought of as entailing a right to have sex in public for the
purpose of promoting some view about sexual morality.
The reason for this, of course, has something to do with the effects on other people of
these different kinds of act. Pure speech acts, other things being equal, affect only doxastic
states in any morally significant way. Conduct, however, has the potential to affect not only
doxastic states, but may also have significant effects on other states in which a person has a
strong interest. Someone who seeks to express anger with you by hitting you not only affects
your doxastic states, but also runs the risk of causing you physical and emotional injury
Lesson Learned:
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.
Why might companies who try to privatize the internet be intimidated by hacktivism?
What is the difference between a hacktivist and a cyberterrorist? How can one differentiate the
two?
Should the laws regarding hacktivism be loosened? Explain your answer.
How does M&G's notion of hacktivism fare under the various ethical frameworks we studied?
Define hacking.
72
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 35: Web Security and Privacy: An American Perspective
Quote:
Privacy not only allows us to develop healthy interpersonal relationships, it also seems
to be required for democratic states to function.
(Gavison, 1995; Johnson, 2001)
Lesson Expectation:
For this purpose I will start this section by discussing the concept of ideology. This will
lead to a discussion of ideological issues likely to be involved in debates on privacy and security
as identified by the literature.
Review:
The methodology of critical discourse analysis should be of interest to individuals from a

technical background because it facilitates the generation of insights that is different from most
technical research. Critique of the practices and rhetoric of large commercial software vendors
is not novel per se. This paper is nevertheless a valuable contribution because it uses a different
theory and methodology and therefore provides new arguments for separating the ethical and
commercial uses of the concepts of privacy and security. Privacy and Security are concepts that
have a strong moral connotation. We value privacy as well as security because they represent
moral values which can be defended using ethical arguments. This paper suggests that the
moral bases of privacy and security render them open to misuse for the promotion of particular
interests and ideologies. In order to support this argument, the paper discusses the ethical
underpinnings of privacy and security. It will then introduce the critical approach to information
systems research and explain the role of ideology in critical research. Based on this
understanding of the centrality of ideology, the paper will discuss the methodology of critical
discourse analysis which allows the identification of instances of ideology. This will then lead to
the discussion of an ideology critique based on Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative
73
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. Concerning privacy laws of the United States, privacy is not guaranteed
per se by the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States has
found that other guarantees have "penumbras" that implicitly grant a right to privacy against
government intrusion, for example in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). In the United States, the
right of freedom of speech granted in the First Amendment has limited the effects of lawsuits
for breach of privacy.
Lesson Learned:
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. In this paper I have argued that privacy and security are
concepts with important moral connotations.
What is the difference between security and privacy?
Why secure information is not necessarily private?
What are the goals of security?
What aspects of security can both be protecting and limiting privacy at the same time?
What are the tools used to provide security?
74
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 36: The Meaning of Anonymity in an Information Age
Quote:
But public understanding is not, in my opinion, enough. Knowing where landmines are buried
can help people avoid them, but clearing the landmines is a more robust and lasting solution.
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. My purpose here is not to suggest that anonymity in an
information age is impossible. I am mainly arguing that achieving it is a more demanding
business than merely allowing people to withhold their names.
Review:
I am mainly arguing that achieving it is a more demanding business than merely allowing
people to withhold their names. Although I do not mean to imply that contemporary networks
of information, and the compromise of opaque identifiers, are the result of insidious conspiracy
and subterfuge, I recognize, at the same time, that all interests are not equally served by
promoting a sufficient public understanding. 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.
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.
Anonymity is often used to protect the privacy of people, for example when reporting results of
a scientific study, when describing individual cases. Many countries even have laws which
protect anonymity in certain circumstances. Examples: A person may, in many countries,
75
consult a priest, doctor or lawyer and reveal personal information which is protected. In some
cases, for example confession in catholic churches, the confession booth is specially designed to
allow people to consult a priest, without seeing him face to face. The anonymity in confessional
situations is however not always 100 %. If a person tells a lawyer that he plans a serious crime,
some countries allow or even require that the lawyer tell the police.
Lesson Learned:
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. Anonymity may also provide
respite to adults from commercial and other solicitations.
What is anonymity?
What is pseudonym?
What is anonymity in a computerized world?
How is the concept different from that prior to the computerization of the society?
What's the difference between anonymity and pseudonimity?
76
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 37: Double Encryption of Anonym zed Electronic Data Interchange
Quote:
“Collecting medical data electronically requires, according to our moral belief, also some
kind of encryption.”
Even the number of the patient in the doctor’s database will be replaced, because once
the doctor may be a researcher using the central database who recognizes one of the patients
based on the number. Both the patient identification in the data and the doctor identification in
the data must be anonymized. We skip the name and address; only the sex and the month-year
of birth will be sent from the doctor to the central database.
Review:
The receiver must decrypt that message first with his own secret key and second with
the public key of the sender according to the header. When the message is readable after this
double decryption, one can be sure that the message was meant to be received by the
decrypting receiver and the message was really sent by the sender named in the header of the
message. Thus: double encryption needs the sender identification in order to decrypt the
message with the senders public key. The problem with an anonymized electronic message is
that the senders identification was anonymized by the virtual postbox. 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.
Lessons Learned:
77
This procedure requires the availability of a list with only public keys at the virtual
postbox, as well as a program to intervene the electronic communication. Unfortunately, so far
none of the network providers is willing or has been able to implement it. We are building it
ourselves first, to convince the technical feasibility. Meanwhile it is a nice example of ethical
constraints demanding new technology, instead of the opposite. To use double encryption for
anonym zed electronic communication, new requirements must be specified. In this paper we
suggest additional features that network providers must incorporate in the functionality of
electronic message handlers. In fact we propose to add some 'intelligence' to the virtual
postbox: instead of automatically forwarding, the postbox must now be able to read the sender
from the header, select the appropriate public key from that sender, decrypt the message with
that public key, replace the senders identification and encrypt the message with its own public
key.
What is Double Encryption of Anonym zed Electronic Data Interchange?
What do the authors mean by "double encryption used twice"?
Is it a robust setup?
What is the problem the authors are trying to solve?
Why is double encryption necessary in this case?
78
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 38: Written on the Body: Biometrics Identity
Quote:
When a biometric is translated into its digital representation or code it could theoretically be
copied, changed, etc. with the ease that only computers offer.
If someone were to tell you today that your biometrics are going to be one of the
biggest ID theft problems of the future, what would you say? Would you laugh and think that
person was crazy? You might not want to repeat the past so you should be more careful and
listen this time.
Review:
Authentication happens when you use one biometric for comparison with an already
identified biometric in hopes of an exact match thereby authenticating an individual. When
biometrics are combined with powerful computer information systems they can be used in
ways which were previously impossible. Although the strengths of biometrics are increased, the
weaknesses may also be increased.
Biometrics refers to methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more
intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In information technology, in particular, biometrics is used
as a form of identity access management and access control. It is also used to identify
individuals in groups that are under surveillance.
The main operations a system can perform are enrollment and test. During the
enrollment, biometric information from an individual is stored. During the test, biometric
information is detected and compared with the stored information. Note that it is crucial that
storage and retrieval of such systems themselves be secure if the biometric system is to be
robust. The first block (sensor) is the interface between the real world and our system; it has to
79
acquire all the necessary data. Most of the times it is an image acquisition system, but it can
change according to the characteristics desired. The second block performs all the necessary
pre-processing: it has to remove artifacts from the sensor, to enhance the input (e.g. removing
background noise), to use some kind of normalization, etc. In the third block features needed
are extracted. This step is an important step as the correct features need to be extracted and
the optimal way. A vector of numbers or an image with particular properties is used to create a
template.
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.
What is the entry-point paradox as defined by Roger Clarke?
In what ways are name, code, knowledge, and token-based identification schemes deficient?
What factors have led to the emergence of a consortium-based specification for a global
standard for biometric technologies?
In the context of identity determination and verification, what are the distinctions between a
'one to many' and 'one to one' match?
In what ways are verification and identification procedures inter-dependent?
80
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 39: Ethical Considerations for the Information Professions
Quote:
‘A Physician’s Guide To Medical Writing’, an ideal medical write up framed along ethical
considerations,”
The efficiency flowing into this professional stream, promises a brighter and strategically
stable future for this industry. But the emergence of certain negative trends in the practice of
this profession poses a threat to its ability to deliver quality contents with reliable information.
Review:
Ethical issues are the concerns that address subjects like, content reliability, data collection
techniques and presentation tactics, marketing strategy and the relevance of research and
development. They play a vital role in relieving the writers of regulatory pressures involved in
the process. Properly includes technical exposition on any subject related to medical science,
such as biochemistry, pharmacologic studies, sanitation and psychoanalysis”. It is the
responsibility of the writer to include necessary technical details under regulatory limitations to
establish a level of understanding among the readers. Such ethical responsibilities have to be
shared by the writer as well as the client.
The client or the researcher should generate complete information on the academic
background of the writer before allotting the assignment. This helps a client to understand the
performance level that could be extracted from a writer.
• Regular communication with the writer is an essential condition for the correct
formulation of the content.
81
• It is pivotal for a client to allow proper validation of the content written for him before
mass circulation.
Lessons Learned:
Ethical and legal considerations enhance the quality and reliability of the content. It is
true that the technical aspects in the profession of medical writing demand constant attention
and need to be presented with clarity. In absence of such considerations it will be impossible
for the clients to bridge the communication gaps between them and the target audience. It is
widely accepted by many researchers that legal and ethical issues can play the role of obstacles
in the progress of marketing a research as they impose certain limitations on the utilization of
research products.
What are ethical considerations?
What is the information profession?
What are the activities of ethical?
Define ethical considerations?
Find the legal and ethical issues?
82
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 40: Software Engineering Code of Ethics: Approved!
Quote:
Codes instruct practitioners about the standards that society expects them to meet, and
what their peers strive for and expect of each other. Codes are not meant to encourage
litigation, and they are not legislation; but they do offer practical advice about issues that
matter to professionals and their clients and they do inform policy makers.
Lesson Expectation:
To know the approved software engineering code of ethics. To be able to differentiate

the full version from the short one; and, to be able to understand the approved software
engineering code of ethics.
Review:
The composition of the task force is multinational in both citizenship and in membership
in professional computing organizations. There were two ethical approaches of by members of
the task force to this project, but there was an achievement of consensus between them.
Several of the ethical discussions about the Code are related to the relative position of
rights/obligations based ethics versus virtue based ethics. This is reflected, for example, in
different values placed on privacy. This difference between rights and virtue based ethics as a
primary assumption was reflected in differing views on the actual and acceptable roles of
governments in the software development process and reflected in different values or
obligations related to the roles of government and individuals in protecting data integrity. The
lessons learned from developing of the Software Engineering Code of Ethics (www-
cs.etsu.edu/seeri) and relating these approaches to ethics provide indications on how to
improve the ethics education of computer professionals.
The observations in this paper were made during my tenure as chair of the task force
developing this Code of Ethics. The generalizations in this paper, like all generalizations are
83
subject to exceptions. With this cautionary word, I will now venture to blatantly categorize
ethical approaches. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software
engineering to the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the software and systems
that make computers or anything containing software, such as chips work. 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:
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.
Addressing computer ethics issues for the professional and in the classroom needs to include
both of these approaches.
What does IEEE-CS stands for?
What does ACM stands for?
Why did they develop a joint force ethical approach for software engineering?
Enumerate and explain the short version of the software engineering ethics.
What is Virtue Ethics?
84
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 41: No, Papa,: Why incomplete Codes of Ethics Are Worse Than None at All”
Quote:
“Computer and information ethics”, in the broadest sense of this phrase, can be
understood as that branch of applied ethics which studies and analyzes such social and ethical
impacts”
Some career counselors suggest a student also focus on "people skills" and business
skills rather than purely technical skills because such "soft skills" are allegedly more difficult to
offshore.It is the quasi-management aspects of software engineering that appear to be what
has kept it from being impacted by globalization.
Review:
“Computer ethics” also has been used to refer to a kind of professional ethics in which
computer professionals apply codes of ethics and standards of good practice within their
profession. In addition, other more specific names, like “cyber ethics” and “Internet ethics”,
have been used to refer to aspects of computer ethics associated with the Internet.
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.
Lessons Learned:
The same considerations are highly likely to apply to any moral code that is developed
(whether in computing or elsewhere). Authors of incomplete moral codes risk encouraging
others to act in immoral ways with the author's apparent sanction.
85
Related, broader, questions are considered, and it is advocated that there should always
be acknowledgment of the existence of 'external', potentially more important, moral issues.
The problem is that by focusing on these four areas of concern, attention may be taken away
from other, potentially more important, moral issues. Not all important moral issues in
information technology can be put under those headings.
What is codes of ethics
What are the worse than none at all in ethics
What are the kinds of computer ethics?
Define codes of ethics?
How does codes of ethics existence?
86
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 42: Subsumption Ethics
Quote:
“A key factor is whether the subsumptionist can prevent a conscious victim from calling
for help, and whether or not the subsumptionist enjoys toying with a victim who is aware of the
process. “
The attacker takes all of the victim's memories, cognitive structures, and available
computronium, and incorporates them into emself. Usually this results in the death of the
victim, but in some cases the attacker retains an inactive backup copy, or keeps the victim as a
much-reduced emulation in a simulated environment.
Subsumption is a form of violent assault, carried out by one AI or virtual against

another. It has been compared, inadequately, to such perversions as rape, cannibalism, and
bodyjacking. Of these, cannibalism is the closest equivalent.
Review:
As may be guessed, the motivations for doing so are rarely benign, and the experiences
of the survivor are not usually pleasant. The very rare restored survivors of such treatment have
compared it to such ancient human practices as lobotomy, emasculation, or blinding,
sometimes followed by various forms of torture.
Usually a subsumptionist simply causes a series of unexplained disappearances and then

moves on before eir activities are noticed. However, a particularly skilled subsumptionist, who
has can retained all of the victim's traits and memories intact, may conceal the crime from
outsiders for an indefinite period of time. The public "outward" aspect of the victim's
personality is retained as a kind of mask, and the subsumptionist acts from within this shell.
87
Lessons Learned:
Whether this is because such events are actually rarer among transapients or whether
this is because they are difficult for SI<1 observers to detect is unknown. On the other hand, it
is not at all uncommon for lesser entities to be destroyed and/or incorporated when a
transapient ascends to a higher toposophic level. This is regarded as subsumption (and also as a
perverse transcend) in "civilized" parts of the Terragen sphere if the participants are unwilling.
It is considered a kind of voluntary amalgamation if they volunteer.
Most examples of subsumption have been carried out by sapient-grade entities, or even
by specialized sub-sapient (sentient-level) AIs. The number of subsumption events known to
have occurred between beings of higher toposophic levels is relatively small (the destruction of
numerous lesser sapient and transapient beings by the Archosaurian Entity in 9400 a.t. is a
recent exception).
What is Subsumption?
What is the use of transapient?
How many numbers in subsumption?
Define subsumption?
What are the human practices?
88
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 43: Ethical Issues in business computing
Quote:
“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.”
The internet has revolutionized business by fundamentally changing the means by which
businesses operate and enlarging the opportunities available to them to reach and service
customers. However, in doing so, the development and practice of e-business also raises a host
of ethical issues, such as those pertaining to information security, privacy, data mining, and
intellectual property.
Review:
Therefore, as e-business continues to grow in significance and scope, it is important to

understand and respond to the unique ethical issues associated with e-business. As e-business
models become more common in the world of business, there must be an effort to integrate 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
89
Lessons Learned:
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. This book will aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the most
important ethical issues associated with the expanding world of e-business. Grounded solidly in
the most recent scholarship in business ethics, the book will apply the most relevant theoretical
frameworks to ethical issues in all significant areas of e-business.
What is the importance of ethics for e-business?

What are the new paradigm of business on the internet and its ethical implications?
Identifying and responding to stakeholders in e-business?
How to Applying ethical principles to e-business?
What is Ethical issues in e-marketing?
90
Book: Cyber Ethics
Chapter 44: The Practitioner from Within: Revisiting the Virtues
Quote:
‘Flourishing’ by means of what is variously presented as the formation of virtuous

‘habits’ or a virtuous ‘character’.
In this paper, I want to take a different approach that emphasises individual human
flourishing – although moral values and behaviours will also be discussed in the context of this
approach. I want to investigate to what extent virtue ethics can ground a conception of the
good life and, correspondingly, the good society, in relation to uses of information technology
and new media. Although virtue ethics has received attention in computer and information
ethics before (e.g., Grodzinsky 1999), the emphasis in previous discussion has been on virtue
ethics as a means to instil moral values and behaviours in computer professionals and
computer users through character formation.
Review:
Originally revived and re-introduced into moral philosophy by Elisabeth Anscombe

around 1958, Virtue Ethics is currently a central element in the work of, for instance,
Nussbaum, Sen, Foot, and Solomon. Where it does not form a fundamental part of inquiry it is
nevertheless receiving critical attention (e.g. Baron et. al 1997). What is more – and as the
paper will argue and endeavour to show – there are some complimentarities between Virtue
Ethics and the other dominant methods of ethics, particularly some versions and elements of
Kantianism. Two specific reasons present themselves at inception in support of positing Virtue
Ethics as a particular object of inquiry in the context of this paper. First, Virtue Ethics has
recently experienced a novel degree of academic and policy-related attention in contemporary
and ongoing work in the fields of political philosophy, freedom and development studies, media
91
and culture research, and economics. Second, Virtue Ethics has one unique feature which lacks
in the other major ethical methods and which renders it particularly interesting to the present
inquiry. This feature is its central concern with an areatically and ontologically conceived ethical
subject and her ‘flourishing’ by means of what is variously presented as the formation of
virtuous ‘habits’ or a virtuous ‘character’. By critiquing deontological approaches and strictly
universal rules-based accounts of ethics, Virtue Ethics is particularly agent-focused and agent-
based. This arguably means that a Kantian moral dilemma in which an ethical subject must
choose between two first-order moral rules and necessarily, therefore, violate one of them can
at least be conceptually addressed by Virtue Ethics in that attention is paid to the mechanisms
and the underlying moral virtues.
Lessons Learned:
Ethical subjects have histories and futures; they are engaged in development, identity-
and value-formation and self-reflection. And it is here that the recent work which relates to
Virtue Ethics is beginning to have some impact in a number of disciplines. It will be useful to
extend these applications to new media and information technology. Nevertheless, Virtue
Ethics does afford the moral theorist the perhaps only contemporaneous ethical account that
might address the crucial questions over the ways and processes in which an ethical subject
might come to be ethical. In other words, it is important to ask in relation to all major ethical
traditions how and why an agent might variously choose to enter into a given social and moral
contract, or embrace universal rule-based moral systems, or indeed become virtuous.
What is The Practitioner from Within: Revisiting the Virtues?
How virtuous is the virtual?
Does Virtue Ethics does afford the moral?
What is the policy of ethics virtue?
92
What are the methods of virtues?
93
The HaNDBooK oF
iNFoRMaTioN
aND CoMPuTeR
eTHiCS
94
Book: Handbook of Computer Ethics
Chapter 1: Foundations of Information Ethics
Quote:
Information technology affects fundamental rights involving copyright protection,
intellectual freedom, accountability, and security.
Learning Expectations
It provides a critical framework for considering moral issues concerning informational
privacy, moral agency (e.g. whether artificial agents may be moral), new environmental issues
(especially how agents should one behave in the infosphere), problems arising from the life-
cycle (creation, collection, recording, distribution, processing, etc.) of information (especially
ownership and copyright, digital divide). Information Ethics is related to the fields of computer
ethics and the philosophy of information.
Review
Information are becoming increasingly important in a society that is defined as "the
information society". Information transmission and literacy are essential concerns in
establishing an ethical foundation that promotes fair, equitable, and responsible practices.
Information ethics broadly examines issues related to ownership, access, privacy, security, and
community.
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.
95
Lessons Learned
A basis for making ethical decisions and applying ethical solutions to situations involving
information provision and use which reflect an organization’s commitment to responsible
information service. Evolving information formats and needs require continual reconsideration
of ethical principles and how these codes are applied. Considerations regarding information
ethics influence “personal decisions, professional practice, and policy .
Integrative Questions
1. What is foundation of information ethics?
2. What are the information ethics?
3. What are the codes of information ethics?
4. What is literacy?
5. How these codes are applied?
96
Chapter 2: Milestones in the History of Information and Computer Ethics
Quote:
The founder of this new philosophical field was the American scholar Norbert Wiener, a
professor of mathematics and engineering at MIT
Learning Expectations:
To learn the Developments in science and philosophy led to the creation of a new
branch of ethics that would later be called “computer ethics” or “information ethics”. The
founder of this new philosophical field was the American scholar Norbert Wiener, a professor
of mathematics and engineering at MIT.
Review:
Everything in the world is a mixture of both of these, and thinking, according to Wiener,
is actually a kind of information processing. Consequently, the braindoes not secrete thought
“as the liver does bile”, as the earlier materialists claimed, nor does it put it out in the form of
energy, as the muscle puts out its activity. Information is information, not matter or energy. No
materialism which does not admit this can survive at the present day. (Wiener 1948, p. 155)
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,
Using the language of today's “information age” we would say that, according to
Wiener, human beings are “information objects”; and their intellectual capacities, as well as
their personal identities, are dependent upon persisting patterns of information and
information processing within the body, rather than on specific bits of matter-energy.
97
Lessons Learned
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.
1. What is the Milestones in the History of Information and Computer Ethics?
2. What is the history of computer?
3. What are the opportunities of computer??
4. what is milestone?
5. What are the strategy of information of computer?
98
Chapter 3: Moral Methodology and Information Technology
Quote:
Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of

America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management
of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer
hardware.
Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of
computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information
technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety
of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and
information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data
management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as
well as the management and administration of entire systems.
Review:
The term Information Technology (IT) is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim
Domsic of Michigan in November 1981.[citation needed]
Domsic, who worked as a computer
manager for an automotive related industry, is supposed to have created the term to
modernize the outdated phrase "data processing".
Lessons Learned
The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining information technology as "the

branch of technology concerned with the dissemination, processing, and storage of
information, esp. by means of computers" provides an illustrative quote from the year 1958
99
(Leavitt & Whisler in Harvard Business Rev. XXXVI. 41/1 "The new technology does not yet have
a single established name.
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?
100
Chapter 4: Value Sensitive Design and Information System
Quote:
Value-Sensitive Design is primarily concerned with values that center on human well
being, human dignity, justice, welfare, and human rights. Value-Sensitive Design connects the
people who design systems and interfaces with the people who think about and understand the
values of the stakeholders who are affected by the systems.
Above all design for values is design of technology in its social, economic, and political
context. An understanding of design for values begins with the major strands of theoretical
work and must include methodological approaches. on the interactions of technological
development and social values.
Review:
The evaluation of past designs with a critical eye on the initial design, improvement of
specific designs, and the development of guidelines for designs. There is a specific design focus
distinct from those methods that are focused on critique rather than design. As opposed to
traditional technical approaches to socially responsible design, there is a focus on iteration and
the use of legal and social scholarship to refine or correct designs that builds upon computer
supported cooperative work.
Design is fundamental to all human activity. At the nexus of values, attitudes, needs and
actions, designers have the potential to act as a transdisciplinary integrators and facilitators.
The map of value systems and perspectives described by Beck and Cowan as ‘Spiral Dynamics’,
can serve as a tool in the facilitation of ‘transdisciplinary design dialogue’.
101
Lessons Learned
Esbjörn-Hargens and Brown describe the application of this framework to solving

complex problems of local and global relevance and to sustainable development. When applied
to design this kind of framework can help us to conceptualize how different value systems and
different onto-epistemological assumptions change our experience of reality and therefore
intentionality behind design.
Why we design things and processes?
In turn, affects what and how we design?
What are the nexus of values, attitudes, needs and actions, designers?
Is there is a specific design?
What are the different kinds of design?
102
Chapter 5: Personality-Based, Rule-Utilitarian, and Lockean Justificatons of Intellectual
Property
Quote:
"The obvious line for justification is that each person is in possession of himself, if not by choice
or conscious act, then by a kind of natural necessity."
The labor theory is called upon to aid the theory that possession is the root of title; yet it
depends for its own success upon the proposition that the possession of self is the root of title
to self.
Review:
It is unclear why Epstein should reach this conclusion. Locke never mentions one's
possession of one's body as the basis for one's property in one's body; he begins simply by
asserting one's body is one's property. Yet Epstein connects property to possession by saying, "
Epstein directly, albeit unknowingly, points out a critical difference: we are not in possession of
any particular external objects by a kind of natural necessity. If we were, the need for property
laws would be greatly diminished. Each person, like a tree, would be rooted to his own parcel of
external objects; this would be "of natural necessity," and no one would try to displace another
from his natural and necessary attachments.
Lessons Learned
His theory is largely a justification by negation: under his two conditions there are no
good reasons for not granting property rights in possessions. This has led scholars such as
Richard Epstein to a possession-based interpretation of Locke. Epstein argues that "first
103
possession" forms the basis for legal title and believes that this is the heart of Locke's position.
For Epstein, the talk of labor is a smokescreen hiding the fundamental premise of Locke's
argument that a person possesses his own body:
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?
104
Chapter 6: Informational Privacy: Concepts, Theories, and Controversies
Quote:
From a practical point of view, it might seem fruitful to approach privacy-related issues
and concerns simply from the vantage point of various stipulated interests.
Some authors suggest that it is more useful to view privacy as either a presumed or
stipulated interest that individuals have with respect to protecting personal information,
personal property, or personal space than to think about privacy as a moral or legal right.
Review:
In terms of an economic interest and that information about individuals might be
thought of in terms of personal property that could be bought and sold in the commercial
sphere. Clarke (1999) has recently suggested that privacy can be thought of as an "interest
individuals have in sustaining personal space free from interference by other people and
organizations." From a practical point of view, it might seem fruitful to approach privacy-related
issues and concerns simply from the vantage point of various stipulated interests. Many
Western European nations have preferred to approach issues related to individual privacy as
issues of "data protection" for individuals -- i.e., as an interest in protecting personal
information -- rather than in terms of a normative concept that needs philosophical analysis.
Lessons Learned
Some of the philosophical and legal foundations of privacy will not only provide us with
a rich perspective on privacy itself, but will also be particularly useful in helping us to
understand what privacy is, why it is valued, and how it is currently threatened by certain
activities on the Internet. Such an examination will also help us to differentiate between some
subtle, yet significant, aspects of personal privacy. For example, it will enable us to differentiate
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between the condition of privacy (what is required to have privacy) and a right to privacy, and
between a loss of privacy and a violation or invasion of privacy.
What is perspective privacy?
Ho to determine privacy?
Is privacy is ought to be right?
Is there a moral, legal or otherwise?
Is privacy helping us to understand?
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Chapter 7: Online Anonymity
Quote:
More strictly, and in reference to an arbitrary within a well-defined set (called the
"anonymity set"), "anonymity" of that element refers to the property of that element of not
being identifiable within this set. If it is not identifiable, then the element is said to be
"anonymous".
However, in other contexts what matters is that both anonymity and pseudonymity are
concepts that are, among other things, concerned with hiding a person's legal identity. In such
contexts people may not distinguish between anonymity and pseudonymity.
The problem of determining whether or not the identity of a communication partner is the
same as one previously encountered is the problem of authentication.
Lessons Learned
Electronic conversational media can provide physical isolation, in addition to anonymity.

This prevents physical retaliation for remarks, and prevents negative or taboo behavior or
discussion from tarnishing the reputation of the speaker. This can be beneficial when discussing
very private matters, or taboo subjects or expressing views or revealing facts which may put
someone in physical, financial, or legal danger (such as illegal activity, or unpopular or outlawed
political views).
With few perceived negative consequences, anonymous or semi-anonymous forums

often provide a soapbox for disruptive conversational behavior.
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What is Anonymity in charity?
What is the referring to the anonymous?
What are the Anonymity and the press?
Define the Anonymity on the Internet?
Why Anonymity and politics involve?
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Chapter 8: Ethical Issues Involving Computer Security: Hacking,Hactivism, and Counter
hacking
Quote:
The objective of computer security can include protection of information from theft or
corruption, or the preservation of availability, as defined in the security policy.
Computer security provides a technical strategy to convert negative requirements to

positive enforceable rules. For this reason, computer security is often more technical and
mathematical than some computer science fields.
Review:
Systems designed with such methodology represent the state of the art of computer
security although products using such security are not widely known. In sharp contrast to most
kinds of software, they meet specifications with verifiable certainty comparable to
specifications for size, weight and power. Secure operating systems designed this way are used
primarily to protect national security information, military secrets, and the data of international
financial institutions.
Lessons Learned
In USA parlance, the term High Assurance usually suggests the system has the right
security functions that are implemented robustly enough to protect DoD and DoE classified
information. Medium assurance suggests it can protect less valuable information, such as
income tax information. Secure operating systems designed to meet medium robustness levels
of security functionality and assurance have seen wider use within both government and
commercial markets.
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Why computer hacking?
What are the code of computer security?
Why computer needs security code?
What are the effects of computer hacking?
Define computer security?
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Chapter 9: Information Ethics and the Library Profession
Quote:
In addition to its holdings of relevant books and leading periodicals, the library contains
a comprehensive collection of codes of ethics, many now available online, and an extensive
collection of materials on other centers.
The library has enhanced its computer resources in order to interact with other libraries,
as well as to conduct online searches. Staffed by a professional research librarian, the library
provides bibliographic assistance to researchers anywhere in the world and assists visiting
scholars and practitioners.
Review:
The American Library Association has a special concern for the free flow of information
and ideas. Its views have been set forth in such policy statements as the Library Bill of Rights
and the Freedom to Read Statement where it has said clearly that in addition to the generally
accepted legal and ethical principles and the respect for intellectual freedom which should
guide the action of every citizen, membership in the library profession carries with it special
obligations and responsibilities.
Special collections librarians share fundamental values with the entire library profession.
They should be thoroughly familiar with the ALA Code of Ethics and must adhere to the
principles of fairness, freedom, professional excellence, and respect for individual rights
expressed therein. Furthermore, special collections librarians have extraordinary
responsibilities and opportunities associated with the care of cultural property, the
preservation of original artifacts, and the support of scholarship based on primary research
materials. At times their commitment to free access to information may conflict with their
mission to protect and preserve the objects in their care. When values come into conflict,
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librarians must bring their experience and judgment to bear on each case in order to arrive at
the best solution, always bearing in mind that the constituency for special collections includes
future generations.
Lessons Learned
Librarians have a special concern for the free flow of information and ideas. The
American Library Association has set forth its views in such policy statements as the Library Bill
of Rights and the Freedom to Read Statement where it is clearly stated that in addition to the
generally accepted legal and ethical principles and the respect for intellectual freedom which
should guide the action of every citizen, membership in the library profession carries with it
special obligations and responsibilities. The statement which follows sets forth certain ethical
norms which are basic to librarianship.
Has a special responsibility to maintain the principles of the Library Bill of Right?.
Should learn and faithfully execute the policies of the institution of which one is a part and
should endeavor to change those which conflict with the spirit of the Library Bill of Rights.?
Must protect the essential confidential relationship which exists between a library user and the
library?
Must avoid any possibility of personal financial gain at the expense of the employing
institution?
Has an obligation to insure equality of opportunity and fair judgment of competence in actions
dealing with staff appointments, retentions, and promotions. ?
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Chapter 10: Ethical Interest in Free and Open Source Software
Quote:
Software that cannot be modified and redistributed without further limitation, but
whose source code is visible (e.g., “source viewable” or “open box” software, including “shared
source” and “community” licenses), is not considered here since such software doesn’t meet
the definition of OSS/FS. OSS/FS is not “freeware”; freeware is usually defined as proprietary
software given away without cost, and does not provide the basic OSS/FS rights to examine,
modify, and redistribute the program’s source code.
Instead, this paper emphasizes quantitative measures (such as experiments and market
studies) to justify why using OSS/FS products is in many circumstances a reasonable or even
superior approach. I should note that while I find much to like about OSS/FS, I’m not a rabid
advocate; I use both proprietary and OSS/FS products myself. Vendors of proprietary products
often work hard to find numbers to support their claims; this page provides a useful antidote of
hard figures to aid in comparing proprietary products to OSS/FS.
Review:
Many proprietary software product licenses include clauses that forbid public criticism
of the product without the vendor’s permission. Obviously, there’s no reason that such
permission would be granted if a review is negative -- such vendors can ensure that any
negative comments are reduced and that harsh critiques, regardless of their truth, are never
published. This significantly reduces the amount of information available for unbiased
comparisons. Reviewers may choose to change their report so it can be published (omitting
important negative information), or not report at all -- in fact, they might not even start the
evaluation. Some laws, such as UCITA (a law in Maryland and Virginia), specifically enforce
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these clauses forbidding free speech, and in many other locations the law is unclear -- making
researchers bear substantial legal risk that these clauses might be enforced.
Lessons Learned
Other alternative terms for OSS/FS, besides either of those terms alone, include “libre
software” (where libre means free as in freedom), “livre software” (same thing), free-libre /
open-source software (FLOS software or FLOSS), open source / Free Software (OS/FS), free /
open source software (FOSS or F/OSS), open-source software (indeed, “open-source” is often
used as a general adjective), “freed software,” and even “public service software” (since often
these software projects are designed to serve the public at large). I recommend the term
“FLOSS” because it is easy to say and directly counters the problem that “free” is often
misunderstood as “no cost”. However, since I began writing this document before the term
“FLOSS” was coined, I have continued to use OSS/FS here.
Is there no Discrimination against Fields of Endeavor?
What is the Distribution of License?
How License Must Not Be Specific to a Product?
Why License Must Not Restrict Other Software
Is there no provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of
interface?
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Chapter 11: Internet Research ethics: The Field and Its Critical Issues
Quote:
Research is a broad term. Here, it is used to mean "looking something up (on the Web)".
It includes any activity where a topic is identified, and an effort is made to actively gather
information for the purpose of furthering understanding.
Common applications of Internet research include personal research on a particular

subject (something mentioned on the news, a health problem, etc), students doing research for
academic projects and papers, and journalists and other writers researching stories. It should be
distinguished from scientific research - research following a defined and rigorous process -
carried out on the Internet; from straightforward finding of specific info, like locating a name or
phone number; and from research about the Internet.
Review:
First of all, online existence involves a bodily abstraction which implies abstraction from
bodily identity and individuality. Secondly, online existence also entails abstraction from our
situational orientation - an orientation which includes sharing time and space with others.
Thirdly, online existence is presence- as well as globally-oriented. Given the bodily abstraction
of online existence, we can also say that digital being-with-others tends to be ghostly-oriented.
These characteristics of online existence thus help sharpen the point: ethical dilemmas of
Internet research arise from the tension between the proper object of research, i.e. online
existence, and bodily existence. The borderline between these two phenomena is interface
communication itself.
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Lessons Learned
The body is the primordial medium of our being-in-the-world. We can take a distance
from it only in a derivative way and make it an object within, for instance, the digital casting.
The digital casting concerns our existence, i.e., the way we share the world with others as well
as, more fundamentally, the way we cast Being itself. (There is a difference between digital
ontology and digital metaphysics. From a metaphysical point of view, the real is the digital and
vice versa. To put it in Berkeley's formula: To be, is to be digital or Esse est computari (Capurro
1999, Berkeley 1965, 62).)
Digital ontology concerns our understanding of Being. We believe that we understand

something in its being when we are able to re-make digitally. Within the digital casting of Being
we look at humans as they are online instead of embracing the digital within the "life-world"
(Husserl). The online casting pervades our lives, including our lives as researchers.
What are the characteristics of online existence?

What are the including whole societies as weakest members or non-members of the online
world.
Why researchers online should be aware of their own gender biases within their own culture?
What are the cultures that are the object of their research?
Is there an ethics of care and less by utilitarian and/or deontological premises that may lead
either to a purely instrumental or moralist view.?
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Chapter 12: Health Information Technology: Challenges in Ethics, Science and Uncertainly
Quote:
Health IT will help consumers gather all of their health information in one place so they
can thoroughly understand it and share it securely with their health care providers so they get
the care that best fits their individual needs.
Electronic health information exchange promises an array of potential benefits for

individuals and the U.S. health care system through improved clinical care and reduced cost. At
the same time,
Review:
This environment also poses new challenges and opportunities for protecting
individually identifiable health information. In health care, accurate and complete information
about individuals is critical to providing high quality, coordinated care. If individuals and other
participants in a network lack trust in electronic exchange of information due to perceived or
actual risks to individually identifiable health information or the accuracy and completeness of
such information, it may affect their willingness to disclose necessary health information and
could have life-threatening consequences.
Lessons Learned
Coordinated attention at the Federal and State levels is needed both to develop and
implement appropriate privacy and security policies. Only by engaging all stakeholders,
particularly consumers, can health information be protected and electronically exchanged in a
manner that respects variations in individuals’ views on privacy and access.
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What are the Early detection of infectious disease outbreaks around the country?
Is there an improved tracking of chronic disease management?
What are the Evaluation of health care based on value?
What are the enabled by the collection of de-identified price and quality information that can
be compared?
Why Reduce health care costs?
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Chapter 13: Ethical Issues of Information and Business
Quote:
Business ethics is one of the forms of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and
moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment.
In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand

for more ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism) is increasing.
Simultaneously, pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics through new public
initiatives and laws (e.g. higher UK road tax for higher-emission vehicles).
Review:
Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate

practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia, descriptive
approaches are also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree
to which business is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. Historically,
interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within
major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporate websites
lay emphasis on commitment to promoting non-economic social values under a variety of
headings (e.g. ethics codes, social responsibility charters). In some cases, corporations have re-
branded their core values in the light of business ethical considerations (e.g. BP's "beyond
petroleum" environmental tilt).
The term CSR came in to common use in the early 1970s although it was seldom
abbreviated. The term stakeholder, meaning those impacted by an organization's activities, was
used to describe corporate owners beyond shareholders as a result of an influential book by R
Freeman in 1984.
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Whilst there is no recognized standard for CSR, public sector organizations (the United
Nations for example) adhere to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). It is widely accepted that CSR
adheres to similar principals but with no formal act of legislation.
Lessons Learned
Managing risk is a central part of many corporate strategies. Reputations that take
decades to build up can be ruined in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or
environmental accidents. These events can also draw unwanted attention from regulators,
courts, governments and media. Building a genuine culture of 'doing the right thing' within a
corporation can offset these risks
What are the Corporate social responsibility ?
Find the Issues regarding the moral rights and duties between a company and its shareholders:
fiduciary responsibility, stakeholder concept v. shareholder concept.?
What is Ethical issues concerning relations between different companies?
Who are the Leadership issues: corporate governance. ?
Is there a Political contributions made by corporations?
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Chapter 14: Responsibilities for Information on the Internet
Quote:
The same connection allows that computer to send information to servers on the
network; that information is in turn accessed and potentially modified by a variety of other
interconnected computers.
Using and citing information found on the Internet is a little like swimming on the beach
without a lifeguard. How can you tell whether or not an Internet resource is appropriate for a
research project? A researcher should evaluate Internet pages to make sure that they are
appropriate information sources for a particular assignment.
Review:
When referring to a database, it could refer to the content being broken up into specific
fields that have been indexed to maximize search capability. Design is a criterion that surfaces
frequently with regard to web pages and web sites. The pages should be properly linked
externally and internally to facilitate navigation. There should not be any broken links. The
design should be appropriate to the content, and maximize utility. Files and graphics should be
of a size that allows them to be loaded quickly. the design should be based upon an easily-
grasped hierarchy or logic. The use of frames in the web site should not result in the user
becoming lost, or take up valuable screen area. The users' primary method of accessing the site
should be considered. If the site is designed for network access primarily, then the greater
bandwidth of that medium can be employed. If dialup modem is the primary means of access,
then the site should conform to those standards. Although multimedia hardware such as
graphics accelerators, better graphics cards, and sound cards are now more commonplace, site
hardware requirements should be clearly identified and conform to generally-used standards.
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Lessons Learned
The importance of accuracy cannot be overstated. When possible, information should

be cross-checked to verify its accuracy. The source should not only be reliable, but error-free.
Obvious inaccuracies, misspellings, and poor grammar often (but not always) indicate a lack of
careful authorship. With respect to web pages, links from the source should be relevant and
appropriate. The subject should be covered comprehensively within the intended scope (i.e.,
completely). There should be no question as to whether the information presented is factual,
opinion, or interpretation of facts.
How reliable and free from error is the information?
Who is the author or developer of the material?
Who is the publisher or producer of the site?
Are there footnotes and/or a bibliography?
is there an attempt to sway the opinion of the audience?
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Chapter 15: Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation
Quote:
This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality.
Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of "true" reality; participants are never
in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be
hard or impossible to distinguish from "true" reality.
However, such messages have not been made public if they have been found, and the
argument relies on the messages being truthful. As usual, other hypotheses could explain the
same evidence. In any case, if such constants are in fact infinite, then at some point an
apparently meaningful message will appear in them (this is known as the infinite monkey
theorem), not necessarily because it was placed there.
Review:
In a virtual-people simulation, every inhabitant is a native of the simulated world. They

do not have a "real" body in the external reality. Rather, each is a fully simulated entity,
possessing an appropriate level of consciousness that is implemented using the simulation's
own logic (i.e. using its own physics). As such, they could be downloaded from one simulation
to another, or even archived and resurrected at a later date. It is also possible that a simulated
entity could be moved out of the simulation entirely by means of mind transfer into a synthetic
body. Another way of getting an inhabitant of the virtual reality out of its simulation would be
to "clone" the entity, by taking a sample of its virtual DNA and create a real-world counterpart
from that model. The result would not bring the "mind" of the entity out of its simulation, but
its body would be born in the real world.
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Lessons Learned
Taken one step further, the "fine grained" elements of our world could themselves be
simulated since we never see the sub-atomic particles due to our inherent physical limitations.
In order to see such particles we rely on other instruments which appear to magnify or
translate that information into a format our limited senses are able to view: computer print
out, lens of a microscope, etc. Therefore, we essentially take on faith that they're an accurate
portrayal of the fine grained world which appears to exist in a realm beyond our natural senses.
Assuming the sub-atomic could also be simulated then the processing power required to
generate a realistic world would be greatly reduced.
Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
Is there any difference between a simulated reality and a "real" one?
How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?
What is virtual simulation?
Define simulation?
124
Chapter 16: Genetic Information: Epistemological and Ethical Issues
Quote:
Philosophy has remained an intellectual enterprise, which deals with ideas or concepts
by way of creating, criticizing and justifying it.
To begin with, there is no doubt that personal experiences are socially and theoretically
constructed, and that it is in this manner that knowledge is produced. The implication is that
knowledge is a product of personal, social and theoretical experience. It is equally true, that
such socially bound problems especially the ethics related issues and phenomenon stem from
epistemological experiences. The claim to be advanced in this paper is that there are no
genuine ethical problems; that ethical problems are not necessarily religious problems as they
are often concerned, and most of all, that what we call ethical problems are some sort of
epistemological problems moralized.
Review:
From the very on-set, it is necessary to differentiate between ethics and morality. Until
such distinction is made, it might appear too difficult to ascertain whether ethical problems are
epistemological problems or not. There is no claim here that, the two concepts – ethics and
morality may not or cannot in certain circumstances be used interchangeably. Scholars often
correctly use the two terms as though they are the same. J.A. Aigbodioh for instance refers to
ethics as one of the moral disciplines. Jacques Maritain says ethics or morals are the practical
science which aims at procuring man are unqualified good.
Properly understood however, while ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with the
study of the fundamental principles of morality and human conduct, morality on the other hand
is connected with the rightness of action or behaviour of individuals, class, group or society at
large. i The difference lies on the point that while morality concerns itself with the set of rules
and principles involved in the assessment of actions of individuals or groups. The morality of a
125
class or group has to do with the right beliefs or behaviours recommended and approved for
the class or group in question. Ethics on the other hand is a step further from morality. It is an
intellectual reflection on those approved norms and principles of morality with the intent of
proffering answers to question that are raised on the moral principles and norms of morality.
Lessons Learned
The consequence of this is that, ethical problems are systematic or intellectual problems
requiring conceptual analysis, clarification and deeper reflection. Ethics therefore does not
aim at describing how individuals, group or people behave, neither does it only try to identify
the pattern, norm or principles of conduct of an individuals or people ought to behave, as well
as why such principles or norms should be considered good or bad, appropriates or otherwise.
Is there any such thing as objectivity in moral action or choice?
Can we justify our moral claims and judgments?
are there such things as facts or truth about morality?
Are our actions actually guided by moral considerations?
Define Genetic Information?
126
Chapter 17: The Ethics of Cyber Conflict
Quote:
Cyberethics, also referred to as internet ethics, is a branch of ethics that studies the
ethical dilemmas brought on by the emergence of digital technologies. With the advent of the
internet conflicts over privacy, property, security, accuracy, accessibility, censorship and
filtering have arose.
Since then, controversy over who or what should be responsible for governing and
maintaining ethical conventions in cyberspace have been heatedly debated, ruled upon and
amended. Despite being a universal topic, cyberethics may change from country to country,
where cultural and societal ethics may differ and therefore are reflected in the debates over the
ethics of cyberspace. With the speed at which the internet changes, cyberethics evolves as
Review:
Accessibility, censorship and filtering bring up many ethical issues that have several
branches in cyberethics. Many questions have arisen which continue to challenge our
understanding of privacy, security and our participation in society. Throughout the centuries
mechanisms have been constructed in the name of protection and security. Today the
applications are in the form of software that filters domains and content so that they may not
be easily accessed or obtained without elaborate circumvention or on a personal and business
level through free or content-control software. Internet censorship and filtering are used to
control or suppress the publishing or accessing of information.
Lessons Learned
The legal issues are similar to offline censorship and filtering. The same arguments that
apply to offline censorship and filtering apply to online censorship and filtering; whether people
127
are better off with free access to information or should be protected from what is considered
by a governing body as harmful, indecent or illicit. The fear of access by minors drives much of
the concern and many online advocate groups have sprung up to raise awareness and of
controlling the accessibility of minors to the internet.
What are the data record-keeping systems whose very existence is secret?
Find out what information about the person is in a record and how it is used?
Is there a a way for a person to prevent information about the person that was obtained for
one purpose from being used or made available for other purposes without the person's
consent.
Is there a way for a person to correct or amend a record of identifiable information about the
person?
Any organization creating, maintaining, using, or disseminating records of identifiable personal

data ?
128
Chapter 18: A Practical Mechanism for Ethical Risk
Quote:
In the risk sciences, it is common to distinguish between “objective risk” and “subjective
risk”.
Problems of risk have seldom been treated systematically in moral philosophy. A

possible defence of this limitation is that moral philosophy can leave it to decision theory to
analyse the complexities that indeterminism and lack of knowledge give rise to in real life.
Review:
Issues of risk have given rise to heated debates on what levels of scientific evidence are
needed for policy decisions. The proof standards of science are apt to cause difficulties
whenever science is applied to practical problems that require standards of proof or evidence
other than those of science.
Two major types of errors are possible in a decision whether or not to accept a scientific
hypothesis. The first of these consists in concluding that there is a phenomenon or an effect
when in fact there is none. This is called an error of type I (false positive). The second consists in
missing an existing phenomenon or effect. This is called an error of type II (false negative). In
the internal dealings of science, errors of type I are in general regarded as more problematic
than those of type II. The common scientific standards of statistical significance substantially
reduce the risk of type I errors but do not protect against type II errors.
Lessons Learned
According to the conventional division of labour between the two disciplines, moral
philosophy provides assessments of human behaviour in well-determined situations. Decision
theory takes assessments of these cases for given, adds the available probabilistic information,
129
and derives assessments for rational behavior in an uncertain and indeterministic world. On this
view, no additional input of moral values is needed to deal with indeterminism or lack of
knowledge, since decision theory operates exclusively with criteria of rationality.
What is the Ethical Risk?

What is the practical Mechanism?
Find the risk?
Is there a moral on ethical risk?
What are the causes of risk?
130
Chapter 19: Regulation and Governance of the Internet
Quote:
It is upon this layer that the other two layers (logical and content) are built, and
governance of the infrastructure layer is therefore critical to maintaining the seamlessness and
viability of the entire network.
Moreover, as we shall discuss further later, the lack of adequate competition policies
and inadequately developed national markets also play a significant role in raising access costs
for end-users. Increasing connectivity within regions has reduced some of the concerns for the
costs of connection to major backbones, as has absolute cost of undersea optical cable services.
Review:
This situation is particularly problematic for developing countries, which generally lack
ownership of Tier 1 infrastructure and are often in a poor position to negotiate favourable
access rates. By some accounts, ISPs in the Asia-Pacific region paid companies in the United
States US$ 5 billion in “reverse subsidies” in 2000; in 2002, it was estimated that African ISPs
were paying US$ 500 million a year. One commentator, writing on access in Africa, argues that
“the existence of these reverse subsidies is the single largest factor contributing to high
bandwidth costs”. 16
It should be noted that not everyone would agree with that statement, and that high
international access costs are not by any means the only reason for high local access costs. A
related – indeed, in a sense, the underlying – problem is the general lack of good local content
in many developing countries. It is this shortage of local content, stored on local servers, that
leads to high international connectivity costs as users are forced to access sites and information
stored outside the country.
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Lessons Learned
Most importantly, this section attempts to make clear the real importance of Internet
governance by drawing links between apparently technical decisions and their social, economic
or political ramifications. Indeed, an important principle (and difficulty) of Internet governance
is that the line between technical and policy decision-making is often blurred. Understanding
the “real world” significance of even the most arcane technical decision is essential to
understanding that decision and its processes, and to thinking of new ways to structure
Internet governance.
How to define “universal”?
Find the Universal access is frequently taken to mean access across geographic areas?
What are the digital divide, to refer to the need for equitable access?
Find the rich and poor between countries.?
Should universal access include support services?
Why does plagiarism matter?
132
Chapter 20: Information Overload
Quote:
People nowadays are logging in to the net not only to surf or browse but to donate or
share a piece of information. According to Sohora Jha, journalists are using the web to conduct
their research, getting information regarding interviewing sources and press releases, updating
news online, and thus it shows the gradual shifts in attitudes because of the rapid increase in
the Internet.[
Many academics, corporate decision-makers, and federal policy-makers recognize the

magnitude and growing impact of this phenomenon. In June 2008 a group of interested
researchers from a diverse set of corporations, smaller companies, academic institutions and
consultancies created the Information Overload Research Group (IORG), a non-profit interest
group dedicated to raising awareness, sharing research results and promoting the creation of
solutions around Information Overload.
Review:
Recent research suggests that an "attention economy" of sorts will naturally emerge
from information overload, allowing Internet users greater control over their online experience
with particular regard to communication mediums such as e-mail and instant messaging. This
could involve some sort of cost being attached to e-mail messages. For example, managers
charging a small fee for every e-mail received - e.g. $5.00 - which the sender must pay from
their budget. The aim of such charging is to force the sender to consider the necessity of the
interruption.
According to Steve Beller, “I’m defining information overload as a state of having more
information available that one can readily assimilate, that is, people have difficulty absorbing
133
the information into their base of knowledge. This hinders decision-making and judgment by
causing stress and cognitive impediments such as confusion, uncertainty and distraction” [
-“A symptom of the high-tech age, which is too much for one human being to absorb in
an expanding world of people and technology. It comes from all sources including TV,
newspapers, magazines as well as wanted and unwanted regular e-mail and faxes. It has been
exacerbated enormously because of the formidable number of results obtained from web search
engines.”
Lessons Learned
Media like the internet are conducting research to promote awareness of information
overload. In , Kyunghye Kim, Mia Liza A. Lustria, Darrell Burke, and Nahyun Kwon conducted a
study regarding people who have encountered information overload while searching for health
information about cancer and what the impact on them was. The conclusion drawn from the
research discusses how health information should be distributed and that information
campaigns should be held to prevent irrelevant or incorrect information being circulated on the
internet.
What are the Contradictions and inaccuracies ?
Is there an available information ?
Find the low signal-to-noise ratio ?
Is there a lack of a method for comparing and processing?
What are the different kinds of information ?
134
Chapter 21 : Email Spam
Quote:
E-mail spam has steadily, even exponentially grown since the early 1990s to several
billion messages a day. Spam has frustrated, confused, and annoyed e-mail users.
Often, image spam contains nonsensical, computer-generated text which simply annoys
the reader. However, new technology in some programs try to read the images by attempting
to find text in these images. They are not very accurate, and sometimes filter out innocent
images of products like a box that has words on it.
A newer technique, however, is to use an animated GIF image that does not contain
clear text in its initial frame, or to contort the shapes of letters in the image (as in CAPTCHA) to
avoid detection by OCR tools.
Review:
Spam is legally permissible according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 provided it follows
certain criteria: a truthful subject line; no false information in the technical headers or sender
address; "conspicuous" display of the postal address of the sender; and other minor
requirements. If the spam fails to comply with any of these requirements, then it is illegal.
Aggravated or accelerated penalties apply if the spammer harvested the email addresses using
methods described earlier.
A review of the effectiveness of CAN-SPAM in 2005 showed that the amount of sexually
explicit spam had significantly decreased since 2003 and the total volume had begun to level
off. Senator Conrad Burns, a principal sponsor, noted that "Enforcement is key regarding the
CAN-SPAM legislation." In 2004 less than 1% of spam complied with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
135
Several countries have passed laws that specifically target spam, notably Australia and all the
countries of the European Union.
Article 13 of the European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications

(2002/58/EC) provides that the EU member states shall take appropriate measures to ensure that
unsolicited communications for the purposes of direct marketing are not allowed either without
the consent of the subscribers concerned or in respect of subscribers who do not wish to receive
these communications, the choice between these options to be determined by national legislation.
Lessons Learned
In order to send spam, spammers need to obtain the e-mail addresses of the intended
recipients. To this end, both spammers themselves and list merchants gather huge lists of
potential e-mail addresses. Since spam is, by definition, unsolicited, this address harvesting is
done without the consent (and sometimes against the expressed will) of the address owners. As
a consequence, spammers' address lists are inaccurate. A single spam run may target tens of
millions of possible addresses — many of which are invalid, malformed, or undeliverable.
What is gathering addresses?
How to Delivering spam messages
Find the Using Webmail services
Why other people's computers
How to open relays
136
Chapter 22: The Matter of Plagiarism: What, Why, and If
Likewise, professors need to trust their students. They have to have confidence in the
truthfulness of students' statements in class, the honesty of their efforts to learn, and their
trustworthiness in the papers and projects they submit for grading
Review:
Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and
representation of them as one's own original work.
Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic

dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including
expulsion. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught
plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination. Some
individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they plagiarized
unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or give the appropriate citation. While plagiarism in
scholarship and journalism has a centuries-old history, the development of the Internet, where articles
appear as electronic text, has made the physical act of copying the work of others much easier, simply
by copying and pasting text from one web page to another.
Plagiarism is not copyright infringement. While both terms may apply to a particular act, they
are different transgressions. Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a copyright holder,
when material protected by copyright is used without consent. On the other hand, plagiarism is
concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author's reputation that is achieved through
false claims of authorship.
Lessons Learned
Generally, although plagiarism is often loosely referred to as theft or stealing, it has not been set
as a criminal matter in the courts.[10] Likewise, plagiarism has no standing as a criminal offense in the
137
common law. Instead, claims of plagiarism are a civil law matter, which an aggrieved person can resolve
by launching a lawsuit. Acts that may constitute plagiarism are in some instances treated as copyright
infringement, unfair competition, or a violation of the doctrine of moral rights. The increased availability
of intellectual property due to a rise in technology has furthered the debate as to whether copyright
offences are criminal.
What is the deepen their commitments, and to develop their capacities for service."
is it realistic to expect that he or she won't do so later?
Why does plagiarism matter?
Is anyone really hurt by it?
138
Chapter 23: Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral Challenges of Online File Sharing
Quote:
File sharing can be implemented in a variety of storage and distribution models. Current
common models are the centralized server-based approach and the distributed peer-to-peer (P2P)
networks.
Recently, Facebook opened its API to 3rd party developers which has allowed for a new type of
file-sharing service to emerge. Box.net and FreeDrive.com[1] are two examples of companies that have
specific Facebook applications that allow file sharing to be easily accomplished between friends.
Review:
The first generation of peer-to-peer file sharing networks over the Internet had a centralized
server system. This system controls traffic amongst the users. The servers store directories of the shared
files of the users and are updated when a user logs on. In the centralized peer-to-peer model, a user
would send a search to the centralized server of what they were looking for. The server then sends back
a list of peers that have the data and facilitates the connection and download. The server-client system
is efficient because the central directory is constantly being updated and all users had to be registered
to use the program. However, there is only a single point of entry, which could result in a collapse of the
network. In addition, it is possible to have out-of-date information or broken links if the server is not
refreshed.[3]
The first file-sharing programs on the Internet marked themselves by inquiries to a server, either
the data to the download held ready or in appropriate different Peers and so-called Nodes further-
obtained, so that one could download there. Two examples were Napster (today using a pay system)
and eDonkey2000 in the server version (today, likewise with Overnet and KAD - network decentralized).
Another notable instance of peer to peer file sharing, which still has a free version, is Limewire.
139
Lessons Learned
The Internet existed prior to WWIVnet, but it was only available to academic institutions,
governments and large corporations. FidoNet was a hierarchical (server/client) based network thus not
peer-to-peer. WWIVnet was the first widely available distributed network model that you could bring to
your home. That all being said, it did not have the capability to share files built in. It was not until the
introduction of Linker34 by Jayson Cowan did we see the first P2P application over a distributed end
user network.[2] Requests for file lists and specific files where handled by the peer much in the same way
as second generation peer-to-peer file sharing and no central server was used for this process.
Why file-sharing enables people to share files?

What feature allows you to access and share files?
Is there a private sharing files ?
What is Peer to Peer file sharing?
What are the technologies to use in file sharing?
140
Chapter 24: Censorship and Access to Expression
Quote:
"Censorship through consensus" is also a real possibility. There are countries where the
adherence to a shared social, though not religious, code is a fact of life. Understanding that entails
discerning where the boundaries of expression are, and where they might be interfered with in a
consensus situation.
To understand censorship, and the impulse to censor, it is necessary to strip away the shock
epithet value that is attached to the word at first utterance.
Review:
Censorship -- the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society -- has been a
hallmark of dictatorships throughout history. In the 20th Century, censorship was achieved through the
examination of books, plays, films, television and radio programs, news reports, and other forms of
communication for the purpose of altering or suppressing ideas found to be objectionable or offensive.
The rationales for censorship have varied, with some censors targeting material deemed to be indecent
or obscene; heretical or blasphemous; or seditious or treasonous. Thus, ideas have been suppressed
under the guise of protecting three basic social institutions: the family, the church, and the state.
One must recognize that censorship and the ideology supporting it go back to ancient times, and
that every society has had customs, taboos, or laws by which speech, dress, religious observance, and
sexual expression were regulated. In Athens, where democracy first emerged, censorship was well
known as a means of enforcing the prevailing orthodoxy. Indeed, Plato was the first recorded thinker to
formulate a rationale for intellectual, religious, and artistic censorship. In his ideal state outlined in The
Republic, official censors would prohibit mothers and nurses from relating tales deemed bad or evil.
Plato also proposed that unorthodox notions about God or the hereafter be treated as crimes and that
formal procedures be established to suppress heresy. Freedom of speech in Ancient Rome was reserved
141
for those in positions of authority. The poets Ovid and Juvenal were both banished, and authors of
seditious writings were punished severely. The emperor Nero deported his critics and burned their
books.
Lessons Learned
Not all censorship is equal, nor does all arise from government or external force. People self-
censor all the time; such restraint can be part of the price of rational dialogue. The artist Ben Shahn's
poster illustration reads: "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." Silence can
indicate a forced assent, or conversely, it can be contemplative, a necessary part of dialogue that rises
above the din of quotidian life.
What are the Moral censorship?
is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise morally questionable.?
What is Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics?
Find the Political censorship ?
What is Religious censorship is the means by which any material objectionable to a certain faith is
removed?
142
THe BoTToM
oF THe
PYRaMiD
143
Book: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Chapter 1: The Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Quote:
“Trust is difficult to build after 50 years of suspicion and prejudice based on little
evidence and strong stereotyping”.
I also expected that the writer may teach use about the potentials of those in the
bottom of the pyramid for market development.
Review:
Mr. Prahalad says that this market remains untapped because of the dominant logic
held by companies. Companies held that the poor are not a viable market, pricely because they
do not have money to buy nor they can afford their products and services; that the poor do not
have use for their produces; that only developed countries appreciate and can pay for
technological innovations; that BOP market is not critical for long-term growth; and that it is
difficult to recruit managers for BOP markets. But the writer contradicts these assumptions
saying that people comprising the BOP market represent 70% of the population of developing
world with purchasing power parity of about $3 trillion; the poor are getting connected and
networked as they readily accept advanced technology. What is left for the firms is to convert
the poor into consumers . The market development can make services and products
144
affordable, accessible and available to the poor. This means the involvement of the private
sector in the market: resulting to a harmonious relationship between the poor and the private
sector replacing mistrust into trust. And companies through persistent effort and the provision
of world-class quality, mutual trust and responsibility between them and BOP consumers. The
needs of the poor are many and the growth opportunity in this market can only be tapped if
companies learn to innovate.
Lessons Learned
The chapter provides insight about the new approach in poverty alleviation. It involves
focusing on the poor who are at the bottom of the pyramid. The approach calls for a
collaboration and partnership between the poor and companies, civil society and private and
public sector.
1. What is meant by bottom of the pyramid?
2. What are features of BOP market
3. What is the dominant logic concerning BOP market held by companies and private sector?
4. What is required to meet success in the BOP market?
5. How can people at the BOP be developed into a consuming public?
145
Chapter 2: Products and Services for BOP
Quote :
“I believe that more innovative, sustainable solutions will increasingly emerge from
serving the BOP markets than from the developed markets ”- C.K. Prahalad
Learning Expectations
I also wish to understand the principles of innovation that are develop for companies
intending to make business in these markets.
Review:
As he writes, the market development calls for significant forgetting curve in the
organization, this is an ability to discard traditional approaches. He believes that this market
represents an opportunity to create economic value in a fundamentally new way. What is also
interesting to note from the chapter is that the needs of the consumer might not be even
obvious to them nor to the companies. Companies through their managers need to invest in
research to understand the needs of this market. They are gigantic which might surprise them.
In summed, the writer says that companies need a new philosophy of innovation and product
and service delivery to the BOP markets. But companies need to start with zero-based view of
innovations and begin to rethink and re-examine their assumptions. The BOP markets,
according to the writer can serve as catalysts for new burst of creativity.
146
Lessons Learned
There are many lessons that I learned from this chapter. I begin to understand why the
BOP markets are attractive for companies. From the writer we learned that BOP markets
challenge companies to innovate.
1. What challenges are offered by BOP markets to companies?
2. What is the new philosophy of innovation all about?
3. What are principles of innovations developed for companies?
4. What can companies do to have zero-based view?
5. What are the basic economics at the BOP markets?
147
Chapter 3: A Global Opportunity
Quote:
“ What we see here is the convergence of the traditional roles of the firm and the
consumer and the distributor and the consumer ”- C.K. Prahalad
I expected that I may learn about the needed approach in engaging the BOP.
Review
Shortage and the cost of capital force firms in BOP markets to be very focused on the
efficiency of capital use. In operating in BOP markets, the companies’ boundaries expand
beyond its legal parameters and begin to engage and empower the large and economically
isolated segment or the informal sectors. Besides working at the BOP enable companies to
learn rapidly that they have to learn to live with a wide variety of relationships with a large
number of institutions. As such the firm had to learn to cope with the differing priorities time
scales, decision cycles and perspectives of both the causes of the problem and the nature and
efficacy of the solution. In the end, these companies learn how to transform their ideals of
good corporate citizenship and social responsibility into their core business of delivering value
on a day-to-day business basis. Private sector involvement in development can be a win for
both the BOP consumers and the private sector. They all learn and flow of ideas, knowledge
148
and innovation will become a two-way street from the developed countries to the developing
countries as well and vice versa. Companies can help BOP markets to develop, and also learn
from BOP markets.
Lessons Learned:
From this chapter I learned about the role of BOP markets in the global economy. As
pointed out in the chapter, the writer helps me learned the sources of opportunites for
companies catering to BOP markets
1. What global opportunity are present in the BOP markets?
2. What are the sources of opportunities at BOP markets?
3. What is the concept of the new approach in engaging at BOP markets?
4. What is price performance means?
5. What are the gains of companies in engaging in BOP markets?
149
Book: “ The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”
Chapter 4: The Ecosystem for Wealth Creation
Quote:
“Ultimately the goal in development is to bring as many people as possible to enjoy the
benefits of an inclusive market”-C.K. Prahalad.
In reading this chapter, I expect to understand the ecosystem for wealth creation.
Review
Market-based ecosystem is defined as a framework that allows private sector and social
actors with different traditions and motivations, varying in sizes and areas of influence to act
together and create wealth in a symbiotic relationship. In the symbiotic relationship each
constituent has a role to play and is dependent of each other. The system adapts and r\evolves
and can be resilient and flexible. While there could be distortions at the margin, the system is
always oriented toward a dynamic equilibrium. The market-based ecosystem provides social
collateral of open and honest entrepreneurship. It provides the tools for the poor and the
disadvantaged to be connected seamlessly with the rest of the world in a mutually beneficial
and non-exploitative way. The ecosystem provides them with skills and opportunity that are
often denied to them. A nodal firm in the ecosystem is that which facilitates the entire
150
functioning of the network. It provides expertise and establishes technical standards for a wide
variety of private-sector enterprises from supplier factors to individual entrepreneurs in remote
villages. The impact of the market-based ecosystem and that of the nodal firm is very important
in developing the disciplines of the market that includes: respect for contracts, understanding
mutuality of benefits, being local and at the same time getting the benefits of being national
and global. But most important of all both parties recognized the benefits of transparency in
relationship.There are steps in creating a transaction governance capacity based on the
marketing ecosystem: help the poor understand that there is a win-win situation for them and
the firm by respecting contracts. Respect for the contract must transcends to people everyday.
Market-based ecosystems can be a source of educating the poor of the benefits of transparency
in transactions. Individuals are taught to respect contracts, be they implicit or explicit with the
company. The private sector can reduce the asymmetries in information, choice, ability to
enforce contracts and social standing like using information technology to build a network can
create a powerful motivation to be part of the system; understanding the rationales for the
contracting system: the hows and the whys- reduce the cost of capital and increases access to
capital.
151
Lessons Learned
In reading this chapter, I learned about market-based ecosystem. From this knowledge I
learned to understand the symbiotic relationship within the ecosystem.
1. What is a market-oriented ecosystem?
2. How does symbiotic relationship works in the ecosystem?
3. How can the market-based ecosystem help the poor?
4. What is the role of market-oriented ecosystem in wealth creation in the BOP
markets?
5. What are the steps in creating transaction governance?
152
Chapter 5: Reducing Corruption: Transaction Governance Capacity
Quote:
“Corruption is about providing privileged access to resources and recognizing the time
value of money”- C.K. Prahalad.
I am expecting to learn about transaction governance capacity (TGC). In learning about
TGC I also expect to learn the different degrees of TGC among countries.
Review:
Transparency results from widely understood and clearly enforced rules. It is the
responsibility of the government to guarantee transparency in the process of economic
transactions and the ability to enforce commercial contracts. Specifications for TGC are
fourfold. There is a system of laws that allows for ownership and transfer of property; a clear
process for changing the laws governing property rights; a system of regulations that
accommodates complex transactions; and have institutions that allow the laws to be
implemented fairly, in timely and with transparency. Countries have varying degree of TGC.
There are countries that are arbitrary and authoritarian where laws do not exist; and if exist
are not enforced; countries where laws and institutions of a market economy exist and yet the
country does not reach its potential; and countries with well-developed laws, regulations,
153
institutions and enforcement systems. Access to information and transparency for all
transactions; clear process so that selective interpretation by bureaucrats is reduced if not
eliminated; speed with which the processes can be completed and trust in the system are the
criteria for working TGC.The specifications for TGC are fourfold: First there should be a system
of laws that allows for ownership and transfer of property; there should be a process for
changing the laws governing property rights that is clear and unambiguous. There should be a
system of regulations that accommodates complex transactions when societies become more
complex. The last requirement is for having institutions that allow the laws to be implemented
fairly, in a timely fashion and with transparency.
Lessons Learned
From this chapter I learned about the importance for governments for transaction
governance capacity for the developing the market economy for BOP. I learned that TGC of
nation means curbing corruption.
1. What is transaction governance capacity?
2. What is necessary in the evolution of market economy at BOP?
3. How is transparency in transaction possible?
4. What are the specification for transaction governance capacity?
5. What are the different spectrum of TGC?
6. What are the outcome and lessons from Andhra Pradesh?
154
Chapter 6: Development as Social Transformation
Quote:
“ For the BOP consumers, gaining access to modern technology and good products
designed with their needs in mind enables them to take a huge step in improving their lives”-
C.K. Prahalad.
I expect to learn how these developments impact on the lives of people at the bottom
of the pyramid. In addition it is important what is the ultimate goal of this development in BOP
markets.
Review
In looking at the BOP as a viable and profitable growth market, the writer is positive
about the transformation that will happen with the collaboration between the market and the
private sectors and other players including companies. The development allows the people get
an opportunity to participate in and benefit from the choices of products and services through
market mechanism. Rapid transformation follows because BOP consumers are very
entrepreneurial and can easily imagine ways in which they can use their newly found access to
information, choice and infrastructure. As sign of transformation BOP consumers constantly
upgrade themselves. Having access to information, the consumers from the bottom will always
155
look to something better that fits their needs. In transforming BOP into consumer market, the
poor can have an identity. They will have legal identity. This is very important in order to
access the services they need like credit. In the past there has been very little attention given to
women particularly in leading development process
Lessons Learned
I learned from this chapter the impact of development of market at the BOP. The
transformation of consumers at BOP is rapid because as I have learned they are very
entrepreneurial.
1. What is the reason for expecting rapid transformation for people at BOP consumers?
2. What is the role of women in the market economy at BOP?
3. What is the impact of gaining legal identity for people at BOP?
4. What does diamond symbolizes at the scheme of market development at BOP?
5. What is the ultimate goal of development at the BOP markets?
156

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It contains three different books:

The Cyber Ethics, The Handbook of Information and

Computer Ethics And The Bottom of the Pyramid

Cyber Ethics …….. 4 – 93

The Handbook of Information and

The Bottom of the Pyramid …….. 143

Chapter 1: ETHICS AND THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION

First, there is the problem of establishing penalties of computer crime. Typically,

What is Cyber ethics?

How do you understand the concepts of ethics in the cyberspace?

How is information being distributed to interested parties?

What is the important of cyber ethics?

Chapter 2: ETHICS ON-LINE

On-line communications do not only encompass communicating along with other

The answers to many ethical questions depend on answers to questions in metaphysics

What is on-line ethics?

How on-line ethics is describes?

What are the crimes being committed when on-line?

How this on-line ethics controlled by the law?

What are the laws that govern on-line activities?

Chapter 3: REASON, RELATIVITY, AND RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPUTER ETHICS

Who is Terry Bynum?

Chapter 4: DISCLOSIVE COMPUTER ETHICS

Ethics is always and already the 'other' side of politics.

We can also see it as an ongoing operation of 'closing'--where the possibility for

What is disclosive computer ethics?

How is computer ethics affects the politics?

Who is Phillip Brey?

What is the rule of disclosive ethics in our society?

Chapter 5: GENDER AND COMPUTER ETHICS

How pornography affects the internet in as social life?

How women were harassed on-line?

What are the laws governing pornography?

What are the effects of pornography to mankind?

Chapter 6: IS THE GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE A DEMOCRATIC TECHNOLOGY?

Furthermore, to be able to identify the uses of information infrastructure. In addition, to

What is global information infrastructure?

What is the effect of global information infrastructure to democracy?

What are the uses of global information infrastructure?

Are all nations benefited by global information infrastructure?

How is global information infrastructure being distributed?

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

What is moral ethics?

Who is Norbert Wiener?

What is information revolution?

Who is the author of God and Golem, Inc.?

Chapter 8: JUST CONSEQUENTIALISM AND COMPUTING

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

It is even plausible to think of communities of intelligent agents, inhabiting cyberspace,

The simplest form of consequentialism is classical (or hedonistic) utilitarianism, which

Who is Deborah Johnson?

Who is James Moor?

What is computer ethics?

Why are computers malleable according to Moor?

What are the uses of computer?

It is furthermore important to consider privacy in the computer context as a delicate

What is internet ethics?