Privacy

So, before my reading of this chapter, I had a bit of a higher view of the American government. One thing that really stuck out about how stupid (and controlling) our government has been in the past about privacy was during the section on encryption. The government invented a cool encryption scheme called Clipper. Then proceeded to tell everyone else they had to use it (because the government could decrypt it whenever they wanted). And by everyone I mean even other governments. Why in the world would any government want any other government to have access to their encryption schemes?

Doesn't make much sense to me.

Anyway, privacy is a big issue. Personally, I haven't been affected by anything like identity theft, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened to me, because I'm not taking and extra special measures to prevent it.

Data is so prevalent in our world that I hardly think twice about what I post on facebook or whatnot.

There also seems to be this nice trend of the government trying to gain more and more control of the information that is out there, with all the fun acts they are creating.

I realize that some of this is necessary for security and whatever, but there also seems a to be a lot of information concealing and revealing that is for self-preservation only.

Intellectual Property

Well, in my opinion, IP and copyright issues are some of the most pronounced issues with technology today. Probably because I try and follow some of the issues that arise in this area.

The book defines four different kinds of IP:

Trade Secrets: Companies register these, but it is their job to keep them secret, and they last forever.

Trademarks and Service Marks: Literally marks that help a business identify products.

Patents: Prevents others from creating and selling a person's invention.

Copyright: Provides artists with rights in regards to their original works.

The book then talks about some court cases that have dealt with IP, and then discusses fair use, which is where things start to get interesting. Who can use what? Especially in regards to digital media. Mostly, the book talks about what terms such as DRM and the DMCA mean and do. I'm more interested in what is actually happening with electronic piracy, and what authorities are trying to do about it. (Which is a lot, but not much is working).

Then the book goes on to talk more specifically about software and how IP laws apply to something like software. All in all, an interesting chapter, and I am looking forward to the discussion that will happen in class.

-Pieces

Post 2: Networking

This chapter begins with a quick summary of all the uses of the Internet, and then it quickly goes on to describe the many moral issues that rise up when so many people are connected to each other.

First, the book looks at email and spam. Spam is a huge problem on the Internet. In 2003, 40% of all email traffic was unsolicited spam. This begs the question: is Spam moral? and, do governments or ISPs have the right to block spammers? The book then evaluates spam with the four workable ethical theories: Kantianism (spam is wrong), Act Utilitarianism (spam is wrong), Rule Utilitarianism (spam is wrong), and Social Contract (spam is wrong) (I sense a pattern here). It gets a little more complicated when you talk about blocking spam though. Personally, I think people should be more responsible with their email addresses, and deal with spam themselves, instead of the government or ISPs.

Secondly, the book looks at content control on the Internet. Is it moral (or possible) for governments to control what is put on the Web? I personally don't think it is possible. So, morality doesn't really come into question about something that is impossible anyway.

Thirdly, the book quickly skims through the issues of phishing, online predators, and internet addictions. All of these issues show how complicated the morality of anything can be, especially something dealing with so many people.

-Pieces

Post 1, Chapter 2: Schools of Ethical Thought

This, the second chapter of Ethics for the Information Age, is an explanation of several popular schools of ethical thought, including Subjective Relativism, Cultural Relativism, Divine Command Theory, Kantianism, Act Utilitarianism, Rule Utilitarianism and Social Contract Theory. For each of the schools of thought, the chapter goes through several arguments for and against, and for the latter schools, gives some examples of how they are used.

The chapter goes on to define an acceptable theory as one that "make it possible for a person to present a persuasive, logical argument to a diverse audience of skeptical, yet open-minded people." Because of this definition of an acceptable theory, Subjective Relativism, Cultural Relativism and Divine Command Theory are rejected. Only the latter four are considered "workable".