Book Review Chapter 26

Book: The Digital Divide: A Perspective for the Future

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: ”More correct is, though, to try and fight the reason behind the ‘piratical’ behavior, which necessitates the substantial promotion of balanced approaches to intellectual property rights. The paper will present a series of recommendations to achieve this balance.”

Learning expectation:

I expect to learn what digital divide is

Review:

Simply put, the “digital divide” is the division between those who have access to ICT and are using it effectively, and those who do not. Since information and communications technology is increasingly a foundation of our societies and economies, the digital divide means that the information “have-nots” are denied the option to participate in new ICT-based jobs, e-government, ICT-improved healthcare, and ICT-enhanced education.

More often than not, the information “have-nots” are in developing countries, and in disadvantaged groups within countries. To bridges.org, the digital divide is thus a lost opportunity — the opportunity for the information “have-nots” to use ICT to improve their lives.

Public awareness means attitudes, behaviors, opinions and activities that comprise the relations between the general public or lay society as a whole to a particular matter of wider significance. Public awareness does not have a legal nature and a lawyer is not any more qualified position than another professional to explore public awareness and certainly not more than a professional specialized in for example, public relations and communication. Still, a copyright lawyer should know what copyright is about and moreover, what copyright is for lay people-she should also have an idea of what changes (legal and, secondly, other) are necessary to promote public awareness of copyrights.

We seem to live in a very anti-copyright age, an age where we can speak with relative accuracy about a movement against intellectual property in general, and against intellectual property as a very idea. The scholars who attack intellectual property do not question it only when it comes to the Internet; they explore the fundamental question of the necessity or justice of intellectual property in general. And these scholars are not few, nor are they insignificant, and their arguments, that very often reach deep into constitutional and more specifically, human rights issues, are certainly not to be ignored, at least definitely not when one aims at copyright public awareness. Although some people have become more involved with reading these arguments, or exploring works such as Lessig’s book Code and other Laws of Cyberspace, or become more sensitive to how intellectual property has impacted the public domain, the majority of people who respond, do so because the arguments presented are sometimes powerful and true. If we want lay people to listen to copyright lawyers, there must be a concrete legal response to these arguments.

What I have learned:

I have learned the digital divide is the division between those who have access to ICT and are using it effectively, and those who do not.

Integrative question:

1. What does digital divide mean?
2. What does ICT mean?
3. What does LASCAD mean?
4. What does LINCOS mean?
5. What does KAT mean?

Book Review Chapter 25

Book: The Gender Agenda in Computer Ethics

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “To date, the focus of feminist ethics has tended to be women’s caring roles, especially mothering.5 There are some theoretical problems with this focus, particularly in terms of the emphasis on “ethics of care” that can be seen as problematic as it reinforces women’s traditional self-sacrificing role while, at the same time, emphasizing a level of control over those who are cared for. There have been few attempts to apply feminist ethics to science and technology”

Learning expectation:

To identify the gender agenda in computer ethics

Review:

Back then, women have no rights aside being mothers and I also get it that up to now, it is still a big deal to other parts of the world but hey, wake up guys because if you open your eyes wide enough, you will see how many women showed power and passion to their true beings and demonstrated how it is to truly be brave and to truly treasure a right. I know I seem upset but who would not be upset after reading a history book explaining why women have no rights back then and how they treat women. Now is not the right time to morn about it because it is done. We are finally saved from all those cultural chains that pulled women away from their capabilities and justice as a human being.

Ethics of care, I have to admit, obviously means the heart of women and in a good way. Here is an excerpt from the chapter explaining the relevance of digital divide: What is the relevance, if any, of the digital divide discourse (e.g., Internet access to all) with the fact that data is not information, information is not marketable knowledge, and marketable knowledge is not wisdom? The gaps between these various notions must be identified to call better attention to how our efforts to bridge the various gaps should succeed. For example, we must provide education that enables people to convert data to information, and information to marketable knowledge. To ensure full human flourishing, we want to ensure that bridging the digital divide leads not only to ending life-threatening poverty, but also to full flourishing of human beings, which requires wisdom, aesthetic experience, philosophical self-reflection, and so on.

What I have learned:

I have learned of the gender and computer ethics studies, quantitative research method and qualitative research method. I have also further understood ethical behaviour and I also learned of the role of women in computing. Other than these, I have also learned cyberstalking, hacking and about the hacker communities.

Integrative questions:

1. What do you mean by feminist ethics?
2. What is the male-female binary in this chapter?
3. What is cyberstalking?
4. What is the hacker community?
5. What is the concept of Quantitative Versus Qualitative Research Methodologies?

Book Review Chapter 24

Book: Censorship and Access to Expression

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “The benefits we receive from having these interests satisfied (and the harms from not having them satisfied) will not be easily overridden. Second, we have to ask ourselves not what in principle it might be good to censor. We have to ask ourselves what in actual practice would be the consequences of having policies in place that restrict access. It is at this point that “slippery slope” and “chilling effect” arguments might have some force.”

Learning expectation:

To know about censorship

Review:

We usually encounter the word censorship in movies that are opt to be blocked by this rectangular black object desperately trying to cover up body parts that are not supposed to be shown in national television but that is not the case here. Let us first define what censorship is from Wikipedia to truly understand how this chapter connected this to ethical issues. To my surprise, there are different kinds of censorship which “is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful or sensitive, as determined by a censor.” The real reason behind the concept for censorship is not similar for numerous types of data that are censored: Moral censorship, is taking away of materials that censor deems to be obscene or otherwise morally questionable.

Pornography, for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, which is censored in most jurisdictions in the world. In another example, graphic violence resulted in the censorship of the “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” movie entitled Scarface, originally completed in 1932. I never realized that there are types of censorship that we need to consider because we are used to knowing that censorship means that floating black object covering people’s faces and bodies but I guess I was wrong. Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential and away from the enemy. This is used to counter espionage, which is the process of gleaning military information. Very often, militaries will also attempt to suppress politically inconvenient information even if that information has no actual intelligence value. Political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. The logic is to exert control over the populace and prevent free expression that might forment are bel. Religious censorship is the means by which any material objectionable to a certain faith is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on less prevalent ones. Alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their faith.

What I have learned:

By the end of this chapter, I found out what censorship really is and that it has many kinds. Aside from this, I have also learned the types of harm and arguments against censorship. Also, I have learned about inherently harmful access and instrumentally harmful access.

Integrative question:

1. What is censorship?
2. Should censorship be implemented? Give at least two reasons.
3. Why are people interested in accessing other people’s computers?
4. What are the types of harm against censorship?
5. What is inherently harmful access?

Book Review Chapter 23

Book: Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral Challenges of Online File Sharing

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “All the goods of the information age- all of the expressions once contained in books or film strips or newsletters- will exist as thought or something very much like thought: voltage conditions darting around the net at the speed of light, in conditions that one might behold in effect, as glowing pixels or transmitted sounds”

Learning expectation:

To know more about intellectual property

Review:

I am guilty to using online file sharing because first of all, it is free and second of all, it is accessible. Honestly, for me, that is enough reason for anyone to shift from buying a brand new album by an indie band to downloading or listening to the whole album for free. Of course I don’t want you to open your browser just to check out what file sharing is. This is the definition of file sharing in Wikipedia, “File sharing refers to the providing and receiving of digital files over a network, usually following the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users. The first file-sharing programs 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.” Of course I know what these software are because yes, I have committed an unethical approach to technology because back then, five to 7 years back, downloading something from the internet is not illegal because it is just the concept of sharing but now, many complained that P2P software ruin the music and movie industry because of all the files that people can have access to without paying a cent.

What I have learned:

I learned about considering whether a certain action on the Internet is sharing or theft. I have also learned about the concept of secondary liability. The most important thing I have learned in this chapter is moral consideration. I learned that one should consider how the way he uses technology would affect the society and whether it contradicts the moral principles of men or not.

Integrative question:

1. What is intellectual property?
2. What are the legal challenges of online file sharing?
3. Should P2P be against the law? Why or why not?
4. What is secondary liability of file sharing?
5. Who is Grokster?

Book Review Chapter 22

Book: The Matter of Plagiarism: What, Why, and If

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “The emphasis on impropriety is important. There are a wide variety of situations where it seems acceptable to repeat prior expressions while ignoring a possible attribution and making no attempt to seek permission from a putative source. We commonly repeat jokes and report established dates for historical events without citing sources, and we do so without qualms about plagiarism. An expression is only plagiarism if it is unacceptable on some established value.”

Learning expectation:

To know what plagiarism really is

Review:

It was just discussed to us that plagiarism is not infringement of copyright. For those who thought plagiarism is some disease found only in South East part of the world, 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. 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. See, even Wikipedia can prove why both terms may seem similar but totally different in definition.

What I have learned:

I learned about lack of authorization and lack of accreditation.

Integrative questions:

1. What is the concept of plagiarism?
2. How can plagiarism be avoided?
3. How can plagiarism be extinguished?
4. What is the literature view?
5. What is lack of accreditation?

Book Review Chapter 21

Book: Email Spam

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “A fundamental problem with any philosophical discussion of email spam is definitional. Exactly what constitutes spam? Published definitions by some major players differ dramatically on which emails should be identified as spam. Some emphasize the importance of “consent”; others require the emails to be commercial in nature before they are called spam; still others focus on thenumber of identical messages that are sent as spam. At least oneWeb site (Spam Defined, 2007) is soliciting signatories to settle on the definition of spam.”

Learning expectation:

To distinguish what an email spam is

Review:

All of you who have email addresses would probably know what a spam is. Well actually, not all because we may have spam mails but we don’t really know how it got sent to us and why is it sent to us. The definition of spam emails in Wikipedia is that it is also known as junk e-mail, and is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail. A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE). Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk “UCE” refers specifically to unsolicited commercial e-mail. The total volume of spam (over 100 billion emails per day as of April 2008) has leveled off slightly in recent years, and is no longer growing exponentially.

The amount received by most e-mail users has decreased, mostly because of better filtering. 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. Laws against spam have been sporadically implemented, with some being opt-out and others requiring opt in e-mail. About 80% of all spam is sent by fewer than 200 spammers. Botnets, networks of virus-infected computers, are used to send about 80% of spam. Since the cost of the spam is borne mostly by the recipient, it is effectively postage due advertising. E-mail addresses are collected from chatrooms, websites, newsgroups, and viruses which harvest users’ address books, and are sold to other spammers. Much of spam is sent to invalid e-mail addresses. ISPs have attempted to recover the cost of spam through lawsuits against spammers, although they have been mostly unsuccessful in collecting damages despite winning in court.

Now you know what spam emails are and thanks to google and wiki for the definition. Anyway, spam emails are not something we want but it is a method of some websites to endorse their investors to other people.

What I have learned:

In this chapter I have learned about unsolicited commercial bulk emails (UCBE), the ethics of reducing the number of spam emails read after sent and the ethics of suggestions to reduce the number of emails sent.

Integrative questions:

1. What is spam?
2. Why is it called spam?
3. Where is spam qualified to?
4. What the intent of the sender of spam email?
5. What are the consequences of the receiver once a spam is received?

Book Review Chapter 20

Book: Information Overload

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “For a variety of reasons—some economic, some social, and some spiritual11—our society’s sense of progress and achievement is tied to the accelerated production of material and information goods. Some of these information goods are end-products (films an video games and newspapers), while others are agents of control (advertisement and e-mail messages) that help to manage the accelerating processes of production and consumption.”

Learning expectation:

To be on familiar terms with what an information overload is

Review:

Have you experienced headaches in the middle of your class, thinking what might be its cause and realizing that your professors have taught you a lot of lessons that your mind cannot absorb them anymore? Then my friend, you might be experiencing information overload. This commonly occurs when the mind is trying to grasp so much information that it end up to a point that it cannot understand anything anymore. Information overload is said to be the side effect of our advancing technology. This result from the too much availability of information generated through internet and other channels of communication.

Many forms of self-regulation among users are characteristic of the online world today – some a more integrated element of our online identities, some still being negotiated explicitly in our respective online communities. Often self-regulation among users is defined by a set of shared values and ideas among the users of a particular internet community – not formalized, but based on silent agreements. One implicit form of self-regulation is our increasing awareness of the public nature of our online identities. In Denmark, the internet was introduced into the average Danes’ home in the mid 90s and thus gradually the public sphere has become an integrated element of our private spheres. At first, we were perhaps not so cautious of our online activities arguably resulting in the “private” tone of the “personal diary”, the weblog, for example. However, many of us have gradually become accustomed to cultivating and designing the online persona that shows up on a Google Search for example. This is one form of user self- regulation. As Professor Joshua Meyrowitz recently put it at the seminar ‘Media and Mobility’ in Copenhagen: “the idea that the whole world is watching leads to a sense of caution”. Other forms of self-regulation are defined by cultural norms within the respective online community in which we participate, but are more explicitly being negotiated by the users of the communities. This is for example often seen in the user comments to Youtube videos where a user with a ‘misplaced’ comment is put in his place by other users. The implicit debate is here: ‘What is the most socially appropriate way of interacting on this community site?’ Attempts to create more formalised “social codes of conduct” for online interaction have been made. But most often these are met with great resistance from internet users that intensely shield the free and independent nature of the internet. We saw it when Jimmy Wales, the man behind Wikipedia, and Tim O’Reilly, father of the term “Web2.0”, earlier this year, argued for establishing a formal “Bloggers Code of Conduct” causing a fierce debate in the blogging environment – a debate that is still at this very moment taking place online.

What I have learned:

I have learned that overload is something that happened in every one of us in everyday life.

Integrative questions:

1. What is information overload?
2. How did the chapter define information?
3. What is the difference of perception and reality?
4. What is the history of information overload?
5. What are the given consequences of information overload?

Book Review: Chapter 19

Book: Regulation and Governance of the Internet

Library Reference: None

Amazon References: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “Most online communities used by children and young people today are usually characterised by a combination of centralised control by the service provider as well as decentralised cultures of self-regulation among the users themselves sustained by tools provided by the provider.”

Learning expectation:

To know the regulation and governance of the internet

Review:

Inappropriate content ‘flagged’ by users, news items ranked by users, online sellers rated by users, online lexica articles written by users and silent agreements among users on socially acceptable behaviour in online communities. In the age of Web2.0, self-regulation among the users as well as user governance has become an integrated element of our participation in the online world. And growing up online requires a set of complex personal competences. Participation in online communities is an integrated element of many children and young people’s everyday lives today.

Here it is of key importance to command the ability to interpret and perform different social and cultural norms of a given community as well as using and understanding the self-regulatory tools available on the different community sites. For organisations working with child protection in the age of the social internet where user empowerment is fundamental, many questions appear. Among those worth singling out are: How can we support an ethical culture among young internet users and with which tools can we provide them to sustain already existing cultures of self-regulation?
Many forms of self-regulation among users are characteristic of the online world today – some a more integrated element of our online identities, some still being negotiated explicitly in our respective online communities. Often self-regulation among users is defined by a set of shared values and ideas among the users of a particular internet community – not formalized, but based on silent agreements.

What I have learned:

I have learned that one implicit form of self-regulation is our increasing awareness of the public nature of our online identities. In Denmark, the internet was introduced into the average Danes’ home in the mid 90s and thus gradually the public sphere has become an integrated element of our private spheres.

Integrative question:

1. What is content regulation?
2. Why is content regulation necessary?
3. What are the technical issues surrounding effective regulation of content?
4. What is censorship?
5. What are the mentioned normative issues in internet regulation?

Book Review: Chapter 18

Book: A Practical Mechanism for Ethical Risk Assessment- A SoDis Inspection

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “The availability of high-quality software is critical for the effective use of information technology in organizations.”

Learning expectation:

To conclude practical mechanism for ethical risk assessment

Review:

Management, investors, and the public at large have become increasingly interested in evaluating companies for ethical performance and risk in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley, the NYSE standards, the updated U.S. sentencing guidelines, and the Department of Justice principles of prosecution.

To address this need in the industry, Berman and Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, presented a preliminary draft of the ethics assessment tool they are developing, dubbed the Santa Clara Alternative. They unveiled their work in progress at the June 13, 2006, meeting of the Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership. The tool builds on a presentation Hanson gave at an earlier BOEP meeting entitled “Crisis-Prone or Crisis-Prepared.”

The first part of the tool asks a series of questions designed to analyze where ethical risk may arise from the industry itself. How intense is the competition? The more the competition, the more risk for ethical lapses. How important are a few large customers? The more important, the higher the risk. Some of the other questions look at product differentiation, overcapacity in the industry, and trade regulations.
Attendees had several suggestions for this section, such as addressing the track record of the particular industry, the placement of the industry on the supply chain (the closer to the end-user, the more likely it is to face scrutiny), how global the industry is, and the special set of risks inherent in dealing with government contracts. Although the need for high quality software is obvious to all and despite efforts to achieve such quality, information systems are frequently plagued by problems. [Ravichandran 2000]. These continued problems occur in spite of a considerable amount of attention to the development and applications of certain forms of risk assessment (which will be discussed in Section II). The narrow form of risk analysis and its limited understanding of the scope of a software project and information systems has contributed to significant software failures.

What I have learned:

I have learned that the section of the Santa Clara Alternative dealing with the company itself focuses on three separate aspects: structure or strategy; the ethics system, and the culture.

Under structure or strategy, questions delve into how hierarchical the company is (the more hierarchical, the greater the risk), how flexible it is in adjusting goals to changing conditions, and how much the company deals with “problematic” countries, industries, suppliers, and business partners (the more dealings, the higher the risk).

Integrative questions:

1. What is SoDIS?
2. What is the SODIS audit process?
3. What is the concept of risk identification?
4. What is risk assessment?
5. Is risk assessment necessary?

Book Review Chapter 17

Book: The Ethics of Cyber Conflict

Library Reference: None

Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239782484&sr=8-1

Quote: “There are several areas of cyber conflict that the paper does not address. Besides cyber attacks conducted for pleasure or personal gain, the paper does not consider revenge attacks by insiders—all of which are generally regarded as unethical.”

Learning expectation:

To know more about the ethics of cyber conflict and what the conflicts are

Review:

Not all countries have a sophisticated legal system, they are immersed in local regional conflict, or poverty, or other issues that preclude them devoting time to making or developing laws that concern the use of the internet in state or country.
Not every country looks at anything the same way as any other country. Take the age of consent, it varies between ages of 10 in Malaysia, to 16 in Britain to 18 in America, and all points in between. Trying to ride herd over internet content is going to default to the person who sells the most tools to the most countries. The Internet may end up being controlled by defacto American corporations that are the ones most responsible for Internet Censorship and legal implementation of laws, based on American laws, as applied to a country that may not have such issues, laws or viewpoints.

WIPO – World Intellectual Property Organization has spent over 32 years trying to get a unified law on how to protect intellectual property, and it will take a lot longer to do this. If you follow their time line, there have been actions in this area since 1873, or well over 100 years. Hacking is a crime in some countries, is not a crime in others generally. There are also exceptions; the famous Chinese American hacking events when the P3 was shot down over China in 2001, China won that conflict by almost 2000 attributable systems to Chinese hacking groups. Both governments turned a blind eye, and no one will ever be prosecuted for the 10’s of thousands of systems that were brought down, defaced, or otherwise compromised.

The Chinese government has unofficially used hacking activity to assert political agenda, such as when the Japanese government in 2005 rewrote parts of their official history books to down play the events in Manchuria during world war two. Japan suffered under weeks of heavy DDOS attack from China via compromised PHPbb bulletin boards and other springboards.

What I have learned:

I have learned the Law of War, where the contents are:
• Distinction of Combatants from Noncombatants
• Military Necessity
• Proportionality
• Indiscriminate Weapons
• Superfluous Injury
• Perfidy
• Neutrality

Integrative question:

1. What is cyber conflict?
2. What are the cyber conflicts mentioned in this chapter?
3. What is Jus in Bello?
4. What is Jus ad Bellum?
5. What are the ethical frameworks of Hacktivism?