Computer Concepts in Action

Introduction:
Learn more about other ethical issues.

Directions:
Read the information below and apply what you learn to answer the questions.
Check your work carefully, and click Submit.

Your Computer or Mine?
It matters a lot who owns the computer on which you do your work. Legally, most work created on a company network or terminal is property of that company. For example, if an employee writes a novel at work using the company computer, a company can claim they own part of the book because they own the equipment it was written on. (This has actually happened.)

Companies or schools also have the right to letters, or any documents, written on their computers. An employee or student cannot assume they have a right to keep their work private if they do their work on a company or school computer. Management and administrators are able to access, monitor, and control the computers they are responsible for.

Legal rules covering employer-employee or school-student relationships about computer use may vary. In general, if you own the computer, you have more rights to the information created on it than on equipment owned by someone else.

Cyber Bullying
Cyber Bullying is a new form of electronic bullying. Instant messaging, text messaging, chat rooms, Web sites, and offensive e-mails are used to harass students. Students are often embarrassed to approach authorities about an online bully, even though bullying can be a crime.

Software developers are beginning to provide solutions to this growing problem. Software can now monitor home users, schools, and even entire ISPs, recording incidents so that they can be reported to school administrators, parents, and even the police.

Computer Property
Some people might feel that because software is not tangible, in the sense of a stapler or ruler, that there it is acceptable to take it for personal use. However, software is almost always protected by a copyright or patent. (A patent is like a government-issued license, given to the inventor of the idea.) Do not steal patented software, distribute it on the Internet, or incorporate it into your work as your own.

Software is also usually purchased and licensed to the user. (Your school probable has purchased and licensed most of the software on its network). Illegally copying software from a company, school, or individual is a crime against the individual or company that owns the right to sell that software.

In the same way, companies, schools, and organizations own what they create. This means that school documents, files, and forms are the intellectual property of the school. Copying files that are not your own without permission is stealing...period.

Snooping
If your moral compass tells you that reading a friend or family member's diary is inappropriate, then the same is true for private computer files and documents. Sometimes a network gives you access to information that you shouldn't see. As with most ethical questions, the Golden Rule applies: Do not do anything to others that you would not want done to you?

1			If you sold a book that you wrote during your lunch hours at the company where you worked, why would that company have a claim to some of your profits?
2			Name three examples of cyber-bullying.
3			When you steal software from your school, against whom are you committing a crime?
4			What is the difference between snooping in a friend's diary and reading their private computer journal?