CyberEthics Essay Outline

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CyberEthics Essay Outline

• (Full) Outline assignment Postponed until next
  Friday Feb 10
• PRE-Outline assigned added
• Graded as PART of the Outline
• Due tomorrow Feb 3
• 3 (body) points (only)
• More to come in a moment

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CyberEthics

• Is it special?

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CyberEthics

• What is Ethics? (What is not Ethics?)
• What is Morality?
• What is CyberEthics?
• Are CyberEthics issues unique?
• Do cyber-technologies introduce new ethical
  issues?
• What is the best case to illustrate that
  cyber-technologies introduce new ethical issues?

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What Is Cyberethics?

• Cyberethics is the study of moral, legal, and
  social issues involving cybertechnology.
• It examines the impact that cybertechnology has
  for our social, legal, and moral systems.
• It also evaluates the social policies and laws
  that have been framed in response to issues
  generated by the development and use of
  cybertechnology.
• Hence, there is a reciprocal relationship here.

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Reciprocal relationship of cyber technology and
social systemCyberEthics
Examines impact
Evaluates social response
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Summary

• Ethics?
• Study of morality
• Branch of Philosophy
• Morality?
• System of Rules
• Rules of conduct

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Why the term cyberethics?

• Cyberethics is a more accurate label than
  computer ethics, which might suggest the study of
  ethical issues limited to computing machines, or
  to computing professionals.
• It is more accurate than Internet ethics, which
  is limited only to ethical issues affecting
  computer networks.

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Question Set 2
Friday Feb. 17

• What is the most novel ethical issue introduced
  by cyber technologies?

Name and describe the most novel (new) ethical
issue that you can think of that has arisen as a
result of computer (cyber) technologies.  Be
sure to explain how it is a new ethical issue,
and how computing or cyber technologies give rise
to it.
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Are Cyberethics Issues Unique?

• Consider the Amy Boyer case of cyberstalking in
  light of issues raised.
• Is there anything new or unique about this case
  from an ethical point of view?
• Boyer was stalked in ways that were not possible
  before cybertechnology.
• But do new ethical issues arise?

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Are Cyberethics Issues Unique?(Continued)

• Two points of view
• Traditionalists argue that nothing is new crime
  is crime, and murder is murder.
• Uniqueness Proponents argue that cybertechnology
  has introduced (at least some) new and unique
  ethical issues that could not have existed before
  computers.

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Are Cyberethics Issues Unique?(Continued)

• Both sides seem correct on some claims, and wrong
  on others.
• Traditionalists
• underestimate the role of scale and scope in
  describing computer technology.
• Cyberstalkers can stalk multiple victims
  simultaneously (scale) and globally (scope).
• Cyberstalkers can operate without ever having to
  leave the comfort of their homes.

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Are Cyberethics Issues Unique?(Continued)

• Uniqueness proponents tend to overstate the
  effect that cybertechnology has on ethics per se.
• Maner (1996) argues that computers are uniquely
  fast, uniquely malleable, etc.
• There may indeed be some unique aspects of
  computer technology.

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Are Cyberethics Issues Unique?(Continued)

• Uniqueness Proponents
• Tend to confuse unique features of technology
  with unique ethical issues.
• Use the following logical fallacy
• Cybertechnology has some unique technological
  features.
• Cybertechnology generates ethical issues.
• ?Therefore, the ethical issues generated by
  cybertechnology must be unique.

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Are Cyberethics Issues Unique?(Continued)

• Traditionalists correctly point out that no new
  ethical issues have been introduced by computers.
• Uniqueness proponents are correct in that
  cybertechnology has complicated our analysis of
  traditional ethical issues.

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Are Cyberethics Issues Unique?(Continued)

• So we must distinguish
• (a) unique technological features, and
• (b) any (alleged) unique ethical issues.
• Two scenarios
• (a) Computer professionals designing and coding a
  controversial computer system
• (b) Software piracy

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Alternative Strategy for Analyzing the Uniqueness
Issue

• James Moor (1985) argues that computer technology
  generates new possibilities for human action
  because computers are logically malleable.
• Logical malleability, in turn, introduces policy
  vacuums.
• Policy vacuums often arise because of conceptual
  muddles.

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Case Illustration of a Policy Vacuum Duplicating
Software

• In the early 1980s, there were no clear laws
  regarding the duplication of software programs,
  which was made easy because of personal
  computers.
• A policy vacuum arose.
• Before the policy vacuum could be filled, we had
  to clear up a conceptual muddle What exactly is
  software?

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Is this true?

• What exactly is the policy vacuum?
• How to govern software duplication?
• Software is a product (good) that requires
  capital to engineer, manufacture, market, etc.
• But there are laws governing other products
• Why is software different?

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What is software?

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Machine Instructions and Media

• Existed BEFORE computers
• Could be copied and distributed (?)
• What is really different about software?

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Machine Instructions (as software)

• Became a commodity (in and of themselves)
• They became the valued and marketed item apart
  from the product (of the machine).
• prior to computers, machines were the harder part
• Instructions were the know how and coupled
  tightly to the machines to which they applied
• Different than print media? Intellectual Property?

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Cyber-Ethics Assignment PRE-OUTLINE

• This assignment is designed to help you prepare
  to write a well-formed, OUTLINE  for a
  5-paragraph (intro, 3 body points, conclusion)
  essay.List THREE (3) arguing points for the
  claim below.  Write in complete sentences, and be
  sure to state three substantial and convincing
  points that you can develop for the outline and
  essay assignments that follow.Claim 
  Cyberethics does NOT introduce new ethical
  issues.In the next assignment (due next
  Friday), you will develop these three (3) points
  into a full and complete  OUTLINE  for a
  5-paragraph (intro, 3 body points, conclusion)
  essay that argues the claimFor this
  assignment, the outline, and the essay, be sure
  to recognize the following understandingComputin
  g introduces new conceptual puzzles and dilemmas
  related to ethics (cyber-ethics) that Tavani
  refers to as "conceptual muddles". These can lead
  to "policy vacuums". We can distinguish between
  unique technological features and unique ethical
  issues. New technologies and their capabilities
  can introduce "conceptual muddles" and/or "policy
  vacuum", but we should be careful to distinguish
  "policy vacuums" and "unique ethical issues".