5 Cases

Five Cases

Case 1

The motivations for Roger to design the program may include Roger’s desire to put his skills into practice. Having advantage over the enemy may give him personal pleasure. Making things easier is a general way to satisfy oneself.

His being social and rational may also be behind his action. As part of a collective opposing an enemy, he wants to alleviate the collective from the harm by the enemy. He put aside his self-interests instead of pursuing program design for exclusive use.


Case 2

Perla may be motivated by the pleasure of praise of the alma mater for her actions. It may also be the case that she wants her alma mater to have the competitive advantage instead of other schools.

On the side of ethical altruism, Perla may have just wanted to help her alma mater. It may also be that if she helps her alma mater to be more capable of helping others, then she indirectly helps those that her alma mater helps.


Case 3

Again personal satisfaction may play a big part of motivating Marjo to create the virus for laptop operations. He may gain a lot of pleasure imagining that he can topple the obstacle of determining programmatically if a particular operation is a laptop operation or not, which may be a Herculean task.

Marjo, on the other hand may think that laptop operations are for the elite and not for the masses, he may just be thinking of the general welfare of the common people in which may be the “collective” that he is part of. He may just view that his action may be part of maintaining the society by suppressing the rights of some.

On another angle, Marjo’s desire may not be in tune with the principles of ethical altruism because he may harm the collective with what he wants to do. He may not be respecting the rights and freedoms of the collective to enjoy laptop operations devoid of the nuances of viruses.


Case 4

Having access to a very secure system could boost the ego enormously. Many also believe that revenge is sweet, and it could be something very self-fulfilling.

It could be the case that Baba is part of the collective that the NBI takes the freedoms and interests of for granted. NBI may not be in tune with the well being of the society thus validating the plans of Baba for the collective.

However, sabotage of the NBI may not also be in tune with the welfare of the society since the sabotage of the NBI is also wasting the taxes of the people.


Case 5

There are various aspects of the case that could lead to satisfaction of personal desires in the case of Tikya and John-John. It could include the satisfaction gained by working for the country, or just simply earning money.

Or it could be that they are putting aside their personal interests so that they could work for the government for even just P 1 million and as government consultants; in the process, they may be serving the country with their skills.

Moral Issues in Computing

Moral Issues in Computing

My classification of the moral issues in computing is based on the ethical absolutism of Christian principles.


Software Piracy

MB. Software piracy is stealing and is a breach of agreement not to reproduce software without the owner’s permission.


Pornography on the Net

MB. Various things motivate pornography on the Net and these may include the desire to earn money at the cost of other people’s righteousness. It is a provocation for others to sin. The people who are in the pornographic materials are not dressing responsibly.


Creation of Worms and Computer Viruses

MB. These software get into the proper function of computer and computer-related systems causing problems to thy neighbor.


Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (of Computer Programmers)

MB. Intellectual property is of course someone’s property and infringing on it is taking what does not belong to you. It is stealing.


Violation of Privacy (in Communications via Internet)

MB. This moral issue is somewhat related to the case of King David violating the privacy of Bathsheba.


Plagiarism

MB. This is another case of stealing.


Spamming

MB. This is related to the creation of computer worms and viruses. Spamming makes improper use of people’s mail inboxes.


Hacking

MB. As initiated by Anuerin Diaz, it is cracking which is the maliciously intended activity. It is assumed that ‘Hacking’ in this context actually refers to cracking. Cracking involves various malicious activities such as causing failures in people’s systems and stealing data.


Computer Abuse

MB. Any form of abuse means wrong use. Alcohol intake is not bad in itself; alcohol was involved in the Last Supper. It is the excessive intake of alcohol that is frowned upon. Any form of abuse is MB, and this includes computer abuse.


Computer Crimes in General

MB. In general, computer crimes are not in the best interests of loving thy neighbor and loving God above all.

Two Laws Governing Computer Use

Two Laws Governing Computer Use

List down two laws governing computer use and explain what types of non-jural law seem to underpin these two laws.

E-Commerce Law of the Philippines (RA 8792) and Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (RA 8293)

Natural Law, which Plato distinguished from legal statutes such as the two RAs, cannot be the category for the RAs if we will follow Plato. It is ironic because even though the RAs are just institutionalized by men, the RAs are meant to uphold the principles of natural law as enumerated by Plato. What is also ironic is that people like Plato interprets the so-called Natural Law according to their liking, wherein conflicting ideas arise making Natural Law’s universality questionable, which in a way is an “institutionalization” by men. The module states that the principles of legal statutes are derived from natural law and the RAs are examples of these statutes.

Moral Law “is a system of unwritten ordering principles based on good and virtuous conduct that governs human actions.” Being unwritten, Moral Law cannot accept the compliance to it by the RAs. However, the module stated some examples that can be derived from the RAs that the modules states as compliant with Moral Law. They are

1. Respect for the rights of owners of intellectual property
2. Compliance with computer [norms and] laws
3. Condemnation of computer crimes and abuses

Imposition of Physical Law is irrelevant because natural occurrences comply with it. Therefore it doesn’t need enforcement by men. Physical Law is not a direct source of legal statutes but is instrumental in the verification of man’s compliance with legal statutes such as the RAs and other legal activities that require objectivity regarding natural phenomena.

Relevance of the Study of Law

Relevance of the Study of Law

What relevance, if any, does the study of the concept of the law, in general, have in computing and your study of computer ethics?

The concept of law includes reference to order of sequence, and more prominently explains behaviors of computing elements such as electronic circuits, automata, logic, etc. Physical law is the kind of non-jural law that is most prevalent in the governing of the behavior of computing elements. Constancy and regularity of physical occurrences have been instrumental in the development of computing devices and processes. Without physical regularity and constancy, everything would be chaotic and the evolution of computing might not take place. Law and ethics are instruments that guide human actions by imposing approved actions and disapproving of some actions that are deemed wrong.

The Case of Melinda

Case of Melinda

Divine Law

If the Divine Law is universal and absolute, and if it were against software piracy, then Melinda would be violating Divine Law. If Melinda has her own religious faith and if her faith is against software piracy then she violated her own faith’s Divine Law. There could be various faiths claiming that they are the correct faith. If it so happens that some faiths are correct and others are wrong then the Divine Laws of the correct faith must be consulted regarding the case of Melinda.


Natural Law

Natural Law governs nature as a rational harmony and orderly pattern of things without which everything would be reduced to chaos and disarray. Software piracy may or may not be in accord with this natural law because of the problematic character of Natural Law. It is not that established whether software piracy could lead to chaos or order.

If Natural Law is a discipline that everyone must adhere to, and if software piracy does not lead to the common good, Melinda did not adhere to Natural Law because of software piracy. But it is not that established what common good is. The theorists’ suggestions of precepts of natural law are questionable. Equity is the simplest of the precepts to apply to Melinda’s case but it still does not state whether software piracy is wrong. We could argue that if other people have software can’t others have too. Or if others bought software for a huge price others should get the software for a huge price also. Righteousness, justice, and fairness are precepts that are not too firm and do not classify actions accurately as acceptable or not unless specified in detail.

Natural Law also refers to the inherent nature of men and this brings conflicts because there are various opinions on the nature of man. The notion depicted in the module is that by Epictetus, in which man by nature is good. Again, the nature of “good” is not firmly established. Man has the capacity for goodness and such, but could we deny that man has the capacity for the opposite of these precepts? Others also state that man by nature is bad, etc. Whatever the nature of man is, we could state that man’s action is in accord with Natural Law if his actions are in accord with his nature. If software piracy is not in accord with man’s nature then it violates Natural Law.


Moral Law

Since the problem states that Melinda bought from Cyberzone (which is presumed to be a Cyberzone in the Philippines) the moral laws of the Philippine community should apply which has high tolerance for software piracy. Most people are aware that software piracy is illegal but still tolerate it, thus the case of Melinda is faced with different judgments instead of just one: whether it is accepted or not.


Physical Law

If there is a law of nature about software piracy then it is inevitable that software will be pirated. Melinda did just the inevitable. But physical laws still does not give meaning to software piracy as wrong or right.