IT Ethics

IT Ethics : IT Ethics By Robert Pound

Open Source : Open Source Approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software's source code The principles and practices are commonly applied to the peer production development of source code for software that is made available for public collaboration

Open Source History : Open Source History Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) Open Source Initiative (OSI)

Open Source Today : Open Source Today “Software is what the 21st century is made of as steel was what the 20th century economy was made of” -Professor Eben Moglen Society in which all elements of useful human knowledge, all things of beauty, all forms of technical understanding, culture, history, philosophy, literature, arts, maps, timetables, and all pieces of useful information can be made freely available to everyone.

Ethical Perspectives : Ethical Perspectives Utilitarian Approach - deals with consequences; it tries both to increase the good done and to reduce the harm done Rights Approach - best protects and respects the moral rights of those affected . They have a right to be treated as ends and not merely as means to other ends Fairness Approach - ethical actions treat all human beings equally-or if unequally, then fairly based on some standard that is defensible

Ethical Perspectives (cont'd) : Ethical Perspectives (cont'd) Common Good Approach - the relationships of society are the basis of ethical reasoning and that respect for all others, especially the vulnerable, are requirements of such reasoning. This approach also calls attention to the common conditions that are important to the welfare of everyone. Virtue Approach - ethical actions should be consistent with certain ideal virtues that provide for the full development of humanity. Virtue ethics asks of any action, "What kind of person will I become if I do this?" or "Is this action consistent with my acting at my best?"

Utilitarian Perspective : Utilitarian Perspective Is human knowledge advanced by full and free access to all information, allowing engineers and developers to correct and improve on already existing systems? OR Does a lack of strong protection for software discourage innovation by removing the financial incentive for developing it? What is the balance of these potential benefits over these potential harms?

Rights Perspective : Rights Perspective Classically, free speech is understood as a right, but is this a useful way to think about open source software? Is there anything in the nature of software that would give people a right to it in the same way that we have a right to speech?

Fairness Perspective : Fairness Perspective Is it fair to expect software developers to create and distribute their intellectual product without restrictions while we do not expect the same from other inventors or producers?

Common Good Perspective : Common Good Perspective Our public transportation infrastructure has built an economy based around the public utility service of transportation. This socialization of ground transportation through the creation of an immense road network in the United States enabled the growth of the market economy. Is this view applicable to software as well?

Virtue Perspective : Virtue Perspective Will open source foster the virtues of friends or of thieves? “For beings that can think and learn, sharing useful knowledge is a fundamental act of friendship. When these beings use computers, this act of friendship takes the form of sharing software…. This spirit of goodwill—the spirit of helping your neighbor, voluntarily—is society's most important resource. It makes the difference between a livable society and a dog-eat-dog jungle.” - Richard Stallman

Conclusions on Open Source : Conclusions on Open Source We will not all agree on human and civil rights. We may not agree on what constitutes the common good. We may not even agree on what is a good and what is a harm. Ethics is subjective and only by carefully exploring the problem, aided by the insights and different perspectives of others, can a good ethical choice be made.

Conclusions (cont'd) : Conclusions (cont'd) “Ask yourself this: Before the beginning of the 21st century, what percentage of the Einsteins who ever lived learned any physics? My guess is .00001 percent maybe, and that's probably way too high.” - Professor Eben Moglen of Columbia University

Conclusions (cont'd) : Conclusions (cont'd) "Never give anybody the source code to anything." - Craig Mundie of Microsoft

IT Ethics : IT Ethics Open Source By Robert Pound