1. Computer Ethics

2. Case Study #1 Verizon and the RIAA:
Jan. 2003: The RIAA won a lawsuit against Verizon which forced Verizon to hand over information about which subscribers were sharing much illegally.
Verizon had refused since they felt complying would violate their customers’ privacy.

3. Ethical Issues
Can a private company monitor users’ internet behaviors?
Should exchanging copyright music be illegal?
Does Verizon have an obligation to hand over or protect that data?

4. Case Study #2:
In 1999, Amy Boyer was murdered by a man who had stalked her on the internet.
Used online search engines plus docusearch.com to get all necessary information.
Also maintained two websites: one giving her personal info and the other described his plans to murder her.

5. Ethical issues
Was her privacy violated because of how easy it was to get her personal info?
Did he have a right to set up such a website about her?
Did the ISPs have a responsibility to monitor the websites that he created?
Did web searchers have a moral responsibility to report the websites?

6. Cyber ethics
Not necessarily all new arguments, but the rise of technology has certainly highlighted new issues.
The news has hundreds of examples of new legal and ethical issues with regard to computers.
We’ll examine some examples today.

7. Facebook and privacy
Many articles focus on facebook and how much it should respect privacy.
Issues:
Should facebook be allowed to use cookies to track web browsing?
Should facebook have an obligation to track it’s users’ behavior?
Should employers be checking facebook to get information on potential employees?
Should users have the right to expect their facebook information to stay private?

8. Encryption Who here has ever depending on encryption?
Who did it protect you from?
Who should be able to decrypt your message?
What about government oversight, or company oversight?
Should a protester have the same rights? A criminal? A terrorist?

9. Privacy and the law What is the Patriot Act, and what did it change?
Anyone ever heard of Carnivore, or know what kind of digital tracking is allowed by law?

10. Wifi access
Anyone ever used the wifi at a restaurant or coffee shop without buying an item?
Is this legal or ethical? What about if the agreement you click on specifically says you must purchase something?

11. DRM
Digital Rights Management is software used to “control access to to data and hardware”.
Sony used XCP, but flaws in the code allowed hackers to break into computers with XCP installed.
Should companies be allowed to protect their copyrighted data? Does it matter if it is digital or physical?
Current status: do companies use DRM?

12. SPAM How much of email is spam?
Does spam get the same free speech rights as anything else? Is it different from junk mail?
Spam costs companies more than $22 billion a year. Why?

13. CAN-SPAM act In 2004, Congress took action. All email must have:
Accurate routing information
Subject line that reflects content of message
Opt-out option
Include postal address and advertisement info
Why could this be a free speech problem?

14. SONY and digital rights
Next class, we’ll do a case study discussion.
Topic: SONY and jailbreaking the PS3
Please find at least 2 articles (NOT from Wikipedia), and write a short 1 paragraph summary of the case/issue and bring it to class on Friday. (This will count as a quiz grade.)

15. Questions
Is it permissible for people to jailbreak the PS3? Is SONY allowed to prevent it?
What about so-called “hacktivist” groups like Anonymous, who perform illegal attacks as a social protest?
Individuals: Did the figurehead of this issue have an obligation, once he accepted money, to continue the fight against SONY?