Ethics and Organizations
By Brent Adam
Foreword
This presentation will be heavily discussion oriented. I would like to structure this web page a little bit differently than you might expect. Overhead slide material will be bolded, questions posed to the class will be in italics, and my commentary will be normal text. This section is the first section of the presentation.
Ethics and Liability on the Internet
Brent Adam o Corinne Eckel o Terence Russell o Wendy Nikiforuk
Our presentation today is focused on Ethics and Liability on the Internet. Presenting with me are Corinne Eckel, Terence Russell, and Wendy Nikiforuk. We are intending this to be a discussion oriented presentation, so please comment as we go along. I will begin the discussion by asking you...
What is your definition of ethics and ethical behavior?
WWW Webster Definition for "ethic"
- 1: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation
- 2a: a set of moral principles or values
- 2b: a theory or system of moral values
- 2c: the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group
Ethics is concerned with questions of value. Judgments about what human behavior is "good" or "bad". Here is four basic views that I found interesting.
- Idealism: reality is basically ideas and ethics therefore involves conforming to ideals.
- Realism: reality is basically nature and ethics therefore involves acting according to what is natural
- Pragmatism: reality is not fixed but is in process and ethics therefore is practical (what will produce socially-desired results)
- Existentialism: reality is self-defined and ethics therefore is individual (concerned only with one's own conscience)
What are you? An idealist, realist, pragmatist, or existentialist?
Lets move into the area of computer science, and in particular, to the principles of conduct governing computer scientists.
Existing Codes of Ethics
- ACM (Association of Computing machinery) Code of Professional Conduct
- A.S.I.S. American Society for Information Science Code of Ethics
- CIPS (Canadian Information Processing Society)
Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct
- Australian Computer Society Code of Ethics
- People Repulic of China Computer Security Rules
- Ethical Guidelines issued by the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI)
- British Computer Society Code of Conduct
- Computer Society of India (C.S.I.) Code of Ethics
- Associazione Italiana per l'Informatica ed il Calcolo Automatico
- Japan Information Service Industry Association
Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
- VRI (Nederlandse Vereniging Van Registerinformatici) Code of Ethics
- New Zealand Computer Society Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
- Computer Society of South Africa Code of Conduct
- Singapore Computer Society Professional Code of Conduct
- Swedish Ethical Rules for Computer Professionals
Codes of ethics endeavor to raise the status of the profession in the society. Also, in tough situations, you don't want to be guided by emotional responses, but you want a decision making process that could possible be backed up by law.
For most societies, all they can do if you violate these codes is revoke your membership. These codes are prescriptive and are concerned with what people ought to do.
Considering all these codes of ethics from different countries, let me ask you, is it possible to come up with an international ethical code?
The Global Ethic Project is attempting to do just that. It is an Internet project of the 1993 Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. They are establishing a foundation for a global interreligious community. They have produced a Declaration Towards a Global Ethic, and they are advancing the project through online technology with a web site and a list server discussion group.
There are many other organizations that are visible on the internet that are concerned with ethics.
Organizations on the Internet
- Internet Activities Board (IAB)
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
Code of Fair Information Practices
- Computer Ethics Institute - Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
- British Government Superhighways Ethics Project
- UC Berkeley Conference - Ethics on the Internet
- The WWW Ethics Center for Engineering & Science
The Internet Activities Board characterizes as unethical and unacceptable any activity which purposely:
- seeks to gain unauthorized access to the resources of the Internet,
- disrupts the intended use of the Internet,
- wastes resources (people, capacity, computer) through such actions.
- destroys the integrity of computer-based information, and/or
- compromises the privacy of users.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit civil liberties organization working in the public interest to protect privacy, free expression, and access to online resources and information. They are heavily involved in the recent free speech on-line campaign against the 1996 U.S. Telecommunications Bill and the Communications Decency Act.
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is a public-interest alliance of computer professionals and others interested in the impact of technology upon society.
The CPSR has a Computer Ethics Institute which put out the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
- Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
- Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
- Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.
- Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
- Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
- Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid.
- Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.
- Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
- Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are writing or the system you are designing.
- Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that insure consideration and respect for your fellow humans.
My ethical theory of netiquette is one of "maximum happiness". It is a utilitarianist theory which states that "an action is good if it raises internet happiness". With that thought, we will move onto our next topic which is netiquette.
My webgrid on ethics and liability
To the next topic
Back to the Ethics and Liability page
References
Websters Dictionary
On-line Dictionary of Computing - Computer Ethics
Ethics on the World Wide Web
World Codes of Conduct