• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Ethical Case Study

C

cw42

Diamond Member
I'm trying to come up with ideas to write for an ethical case scenario that has to do with anything related to recent technology, or computers. I've been looking around slashdot, cnn, and havn't found anything good. What I need is something isn't too complex, but is not too easy to discern.

An example of these kind of issues can be something like a network admin finding that employees are using company bandwidth to watch pr0n during work. The admin is faced with the choices,
A) Get them all fired, they lose their jobs, and don't have money to feed their family, or pay the rent.
B) Block all the pr0n websites, but this will likely result in the employees beating the crap out of the network admin haha.
Ok, so that's just some kind of example.

Can I get a hand to think up of any ideas, or anyone know of anything recent in the news? Thanks for reading 🙂
 
Try this situation:

Child Pornography found on a company's workstation

There's plenty of information out there about this, and what a NA should do.
 
I don't know about your ethics course (I am taking one at the moment in CS).

But we do not need to get that specific, like about punishments, although our cases are mostly grey areas that are tough calls and we decide if it is right or wrong.

An example of our case studies (most of ours are real life).
Ebay (think this was a couple years ago) sued some company called QWERTY (I dont remeber what they were called) for ripping data off of Ebay using web crawlers. QWERTY then indexed the data with several other auction houses so users could go to there site and use a search engine to search all auctions.

Basically we are supposed to write a paper and discuss what that problem is, why it is a problem, why it should not be a problem.
The discussion (in point form)
- Is it any different then any other search engine?
- The data is publicly available

Against it, the only argument i can remember
- Said it was a form of trespassing on there servers (think this is how Ebay won)

I did not do the above case, we have to do presentations on them, i just remember listening to it.

I am not sure if you have access to a library with this book, but it is filled with case studies. It might give you a good idea of how to start. I think most (all) in this book are fiction.
Computer Ethics by Deborah G. Johnson
 
If he's the Network Administrator, isn't it his responsibility to oversee the network and what it's being used for?
He'd be in the same position if he found worker bees downloading stolen music or video.

He should report them without regret. If they get fired... so be it.
He didn't direct them to the non-work related sites. They took on that responsibility when they Googled and left clicked.

It's no more of an ethical dilemma than a cop busting someone for stealing some cash to buy food, clothing or pay bills.
Bust them, then let a judge sort out their punishment. :shocked:
 
Here's a recent one:

A group of applicants to harvard's mba program found they could view their admit/reject decision a month earlier than scheduled via the online application system:

see march 2, 2005 and march 4, 2005 entries for details

In response, harvard rejected every applicant who did this, claiming they had hacked harvard's system, and thus they had been unethical:

article from harvard crimson

lots of discussion here, but registration required

i didn't apply to harvard, but i did enjoy the thinking this case provoked. Although the applicants could've waited til the scheduled day to view their decision (which is easy to say in retrospect), the response from harvard doesn't seem to fit the crime. furthermore, i think harvard should've really taken to task the provider of their online-application system, applyyourself.com for failing to secure the decision letters. it is odd the school has remained silent about applyyourself. Is harvard simply shooting the messengers?
 
Here's one that a friend actually encountered where he worked.

Company A processes material inspection reports for Company B. This involves typing up handwritten reports that were created by others. The reports are entered into a program designed for that purpose which ends up feeding a database.

The people who enter the reports are evaluated on the number of reports entered, adjusted for the length (range 3-10 pages). People who get more work done earn more. One employee reported to his boss a few ways that the program could be changed so they could do their work faster, but no one did anything about it.

The employee wrote some programs on his home computer that let him get his work done much faster, and installed the programs on his work computer. He increased his output by about 30% and became by far the top data processor.

The company policy is that no outside software may be installed on work computers, and when other employees complained, they investigated. He admitted he had installed the programs and even showed them the source code and said they could use it on all the computers if they wanted. They fired him for violating the policy, then installed his programs on the other computers.
 
Originally posted by: kranky
Here's one that a friend actually encountered where he worked.

Company A processes material inspection reports for Company B. This involves typing up handwritten reports that were created by others. The reports are entered into a program designed for that purpose which ends up feeding a database.

The people who enter the reports are evaluated on the number of reports entered, adjusted for the length (range 3-10 pages). People who get more work done earn more. One employee reported to his boss a few ways that the program could be changed so they could do their work faster, but no one did anything about it.

The employee wrote some programs on his home computer that let him get his work done much faster, and installed the programs on his work computer. He increased his output by about 30% and became by far the top data processor.

The company policy is that no outside software may be installed on work computers, and when other employees complained, they investigated. He admitted he had installed the programs and even showed them the source code and said they could use it on all the computers if they wanted. They fired him for violating the policy, then installed his programs on the other computers.
Click to expand...



sounds like they stole software to me.
 
Originally posted by: mcveigh
Originally posted by: kranky
Here's one that a friend actually encountered where he worked.

Company A processes material inspection reports for Company B. This involves typing up handwritten reports that were created by others. The reports are entered into a program designed for that purpose which ends up feeding a database.

The people who enter the reports are evaluated on the number of reports entered, adjusted for the length (range 3-10 pages). People who get more work done earn more. One employee reported to his boss a few ways that the program could be changed so they could do their work faster, but no one did anything about it.

The employee wrote some programs on his home computer that let him get his work done much faster, and installed the programs on his work computer. He increased his output by about 30% and became by far the top data processor.

The company policy is that no outside software may be installed on work computers, and when other employees complained, they investigated. He admitted he had installed the programs and even showed them the source code and said they could use it on all the computers if they wanted. They fired him for violating the policy, then installed his programs on the other computers.
Click to expand...



sounds like they stole software to me.
Click to expand...

Yes
 
Well, I didn't post that story to debate it in the thread, but when we talked about it there were a number of ethical issues we looked at.

- Was it justified to fire the guy on a technical violation of policy, even though it benefited the company? Or was it justified since the guy used the software for his own benefit (to make more money)?
- Are there times when violating a policy is justified, if no harm is done? Or does it have to be a hard line?
- Since the guy told them they could use the software on all the computers if they wanted, was it still stealing? Or should they have not used it once the guy was fired?
- If the guy had given the program to everyone before he got "caught", the company would have benefited greatly due to higher production. Would that have been worse than just using it himself?
 
Originally posted by: AFB
Originally posted by: mcveigh
Originally posted by: kranky
Here's one that a friend actually encountered where he worked.

Company A processes material inspection reports for Company B. This involves typing up handwritten reports that were created by others. The reports are entered into a program designed for that purpose which ends up feeding a database.

The people who enter the reports are evaluated on the number of reports entered, adjusted for the length (range 3-10 pages). People who get more work done earn more. One employee reported to his boss a few ways that the program could be changed so they could do their work faster, but no one did anything about it.

The employee wrote some programs on his home computer that let him get his work done much faster, and installed the programs on his work computer. He increased his output by about 30% and became by far the top data processor.

The company policy is that no outside software may be installed on work computers, and when other employees complained, they investigated. He admitted he had installed the programs and even showed them the source code and said they could use it on all the computers if they wanted. They fired him for violating the policy, then installed his programs on the other computers.
Click to expand...



sounds like they stole software to me.
Click to expand...

Yes
Click to expand...
No they didn't :laugh:

 
Originally posted by: kranky
Here's one that a friend actually encountered where he worked.

Company A processes material inspection reports for Company B. This involves typing up handwritten reports that were created by others. The reports are entered into a program designed for that purpose which ends up feeding a database.

The people who enter the reports are evaluated on the number of reports entered, adjusted for the length (range 3-10 pages). People who get more work done earn more. One employee reported to his boss a few ways that the program could be changed so they could do their work faster, but no one did anything about it.

The employee wrote some programs on his home computer that let him get his work done much faster, and installed the programs on his work computer. He increased his output by about 30% and became by far the top data processor.

The company policy is that no outside software may be installed on work computers, and when other employees complained, they investigated. He admitted he had installed the programs and even showed them the source code and said they could use it on all the computers if they wanted. They fired him for violating the policy, then installed his programs on the other computers.
Click to expand...

Dear Christ, can you say "lawsuit"?
No no, thats not right...
Dear Christ, can you say "Really fvckin BIG lawsuit"!
Thats a bit better.
 
Originally posted by: Specop 007
Originally posted by: kranky
Here's one that a friend actually encountered where he worked.

Company A processes material inspection reports for Company B. This involves typing up handwritten reports that were created by others. The reports are entered into a program designed for that purpose which ends up feeding a database.

The people who enter the reports are evaluated on the number of reports entered, adjusted for the length (range 3-10 pages). People who get more work done earn more. One employee reported to his boss a few ways that the program could be changed so they could do their work faster, but no one did anything about it.

The employee wrote some programs on his home computer that let him get his work done much faster, and installed the programs on his work computer. He increased his output by about 30% and became by far the top data processor.

The company policy is that no outside software may be installed on work computers, and when other employees complained, they investigated. He admitted he had installed the programs and even showed them the source code and said they could use it on all the computers if they wanted. They fired him for violating the policy, then installed his programs on the other computers.
Click to expand...

Dear Christ, can you say "lawsuit"?
No no, thats not right...
Dear Christ, can you say "Really fvckin BIG lawsuit"!
Thats a bit better.
Click to expand...
I can say "lawsuit", but in this case why?

 
I can't remember the name of the book, but one of my former coworkers drove me up the wall for about a week because he kept reading theoretical cases, and possible actions... the book took a bunch of theoretical cases, and possible actions, and compared them on a liberal/conservative basis. It did provoke thought a little bit, but I quickly started ignoring said coworker because he was continually applying it to my job and found ways to declare fault in everything I do, using the book as justification to himself....

If I can remember the name of the book, I actually wouldn't mind reading it 🙂
 
What about downloading illegal (free) movies and music over someone elses internet connection via unsecured wireless networks?
 
This happened for real, I think I heard here in fact.

Sysadmin suspected his supervisor of not doing his job at the computer. He installed a keylogger (or something) to monitor his boss' activities. He then presents his evidence to the management. He's the one who got fired, not his boss.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top