Ethical, Professional and Legal Issues

1

• Ethical, Professional and Legal Issues
• In Computing

2
Introduction and Overview

• Professionals are expected to adhere to the
  ethical and moral principles appropriate to their
  sphere of operation. Also they must work within
  whatever legal frameworks apply to their
  discipline and the areas in which they work.
• Ethical, professional and legal issues are
  becoming more and more important in computing.

3
Introduction and Overview

• The State of the Software Industry (mid 1990s)
• 80 to 90 of IT investments do not meet their
  performance objectives, the reasons for this are
  rarely purely technical in origin (Clegg 1996)
•  It is vital that a high proportion of staff
  involved in software related projects are
  professionally qualified and that they place high
  regard to ethics, responsibility and the
  attainment of quality  (Thompson 1996)

4
Introduction and Overview

• Developments
• Since the mid 1990s a significant number of
  publications have appeared that address Ethical,
  Professional and Legal Issues in Computing

5
Introduction and Overview

• Sources of Information BOOKS
• Practical Computer Ethics, Duncan Langford,
  McGraw Hill, 1995
• Professional Awareness in Software Engineering Or
  Should a Software Engineer Wear a Suit?, Edited
  by C. Myers, McGraw Hill, 1995
• Professional Issues In Software Engineering,
  Frank Bott, Allison Coleman, Jack Easton and
  Diane Rowland, 1st Edition, 1995, UCL Press, 3rd
  Edition, 2001, Taylor and Francis

6
Introduction and Overview

• The Case of the Killer Robot, Richard G Epstein,
  John Wiley and Sons, 1997.
•  Also available in abridged form on the Web
• Epstein presents a fictional case study intended
  to raise issues in computer ethics and in
  Software Engineering
• The case of the killer robot consists of seven
  newspaper articles, one journal article and one
  magazine interview.
•  Several of the characters can be seen to have
  acted in a less than ethical manner.

7
Introduction and Overview

• Conferences 
• Proceedings for PASE96, The First Westminster
  Conference on Professional Awareness in Software
  Engineering, February 1996
•  Should find copies in the Resource Centre or
  Library
•  In particular see the paper Can a Software
  Engineer Afford to be Ethical?, Duncan Langford
  pp 160 to 168
• Langfords paper presents a number of real
  scenarios that highlight ethical and professional
  dilemmas. (only identities have been changed)

8
Introduction and Overview

• The papers presented at PASE were later
  reorganised and edited into book form
• The Responsible Software Engineer, Selected
  readings in IT Professionalism, edited by Colin
  Myers, Tracy Hall and Dave Pitt, Springer, 1997

9
Introduction and Overview

• ETHICOMP Conferences 
• The ETHICOMP conference series is operated by the
  Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility
  (CCSR) at De Montfort University in the UK under
  the leadership of Prof. Simon Rogerson.
• The purpose of the series is to provide a
  European forum for discussing the ethical and
  social issues associated with the development and
  application of Information and Communication
  Technologies (ICT).
• Although the conferences are based in Europe the
  papers presented represent a truly international
  dimension.

10
Introduction and Overview

• ETHICOMP Conferences 
• ETHICOMP series
• ETHICOMP 95, Leicester, UK
• ETHICOMP 96, Madrid, Spain
• ETHICOMP 98, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• ETHICOMP 99, Rome, Italy
• ETHICOMP 2001, Gdansk, Poland
• ETHICOMP 2002, Lisbon, Portugal

11
Introduction and Overview

• Library/Resource centre should hold copies of the
  proceedings for
•  ETHICOMP98, Third International Conference on
  Ethical Issues in Information Technology, March
  25 to 27 1998, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The
  Netherlands
•  ETHICOMP2001, Fifth International Conference on
  Ethical Issues in Information Technology, June 18
  to 20 2001, Technical University of Gdansk,
  Poland 
• Also ETHICOMP2002 once published.

12
Introduction and Overview

• The issues that are addressed at ETHICOMP
  conferences illustrate the scope of this area
  within the computing discipline. An analysis of
  these proceedings found papers dealing with each
  of the following topics
• Internet and Computer Culture(s)
• Professional Societies
• Paradigms of Professionalism
• Ethical Challenges within a Networked Society
• Computing and Ethics
• Legal Aspects of a Digital World
• Software Quality, Ethics, and Professionalism.
  Are there Links?
• Ethics of Delivering Incompletely Tested Code
  The Software Conspiracy
• Gender Bias in the IT Industry

13
Introduction and Overview

• Issues continued
• Teaching Computer Ethics and Professional Issues
• Pornography and the Internet
• Social Aspects of Computerisation
• Hackers and Other Miscreants
• The Value of Ethical Codes
• Computer Legislation
• Censorship and Freedom of Information in a
  Digital World
• Professional, Ethical, and Legal Issues in the
  field of Medical Informatics
• Privacy in a Digital World

14
Introduction and Overview

• Issues continued
• Ethical and Stakeholder Issues in Software
  Development
• Ethical Risks and Software Failures
• Risks to Minors in Our Digital World
• Computer Crime
• Law Enforcement and Surveillance in a Networked
  Society

15
Introduction and Overview

• Other Information
•  An excellent resource for information on
  Ethical, Professional and Legal Issues in
  Computing is the web site maintained by the
  Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility
  (CCSR) at De Montfort University.
  (www.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk/)
• You can also find an article concerned with
  Ethical Issues on the web site for this module.
  This provides information on
•      What is meant by ethics and morality
•      The role of ethical committees
•      The type of ethical problems that occur in
  the computing industry

16
Introduction and Overview

• What is current?
• In the field of Software Engineering it is clear
  that professional issues (which encompass ethical
  and legal aspects) have come more and more to the
  fore. Several of these are examined in the paper
• Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back, J. B.
  Thompson, Software Journal, Software Engineering
  Australia, April 2002, 69-72.
• Also available in extended form at
  http//www.seanational.com.au